Marisol shifted uneasily in the leather chair while Victoria was making her some tea while Cobra sat across from her silently reading a book. She wanted to come to hang out with her today since everything was going smoothly with the town. Since her sisters are busy and her brother dealing with his own problems, she decided she could talk with Victoria for a bit.
She came back with two steaming mugs handing one to her son a one to Marisol. Victoria then sat beside Cobra giving Marisol a sweet smile.
"I saw your daughter a couple of days ago, she's grown into a beautiful joven mujer."
Marisol smirked, "You know when she was younger I prayed she'd never turn out like me when she became a teenager."
"Matéo was my youngest and I was scared for my life when he grew up."
"Now, I don't even want her dating because of my past mistakes with Lucas."
Victoria rolled her eyes, "Please, I let Matéo date and you saw how that turned out."
"Ya know, I'm actually scared that our kids might get together."
She raised a brow, "Why?"
"Well, no offense, Tori, he's kinda unstable since he came back here, most of the town is afraid of him."
"Sí, I know," she sighed, "I should've been there to protect him, not you or Cobra. I was just... so weak."
"And none of it was your fault," Marisol reassured her touching her hand, "I owed you for taking care of Violet when you could."
"Marisol, you don't owe me anything, I loved that girl like she was my own."
"I really didn't wanna send her away, Lucas just looked up this boarding school we could send her to because he thought something was wrong with her."
"Nothing was wrong with her," Victoria growled, "you of all people should have seen that."
"I know, but when I saw her that day just staring at the TV like nothing was wrong and Betsy's chest being blown out, I thought something was really wrong with her."
"I wish you would've let me talk to her, my Matéo wouldn't speak for months. She was his only friend..."
"She seems better now, she was really pissed at me when she saw me again," Marisol looked down in guilt, "She had every right to be, I never even forgave myself for what happened to her and Storm."
"Storm's abduction wasn't your fault."
"No, it is, I shouldn't let the bastard take him anywhere, I tried really hard to stop him but I was still in so much pain after giving birth to Violet."
"That drunken fool," Victoria grimaced, "heard he's going into surgery today."
"Yep," Marisol took a sip of her tea, "damn karma for all the fuckin' drinkin' he's been doin'."
"Marisol, you have a very bad habit of holding grudges," she pointed out, "Your ex-husband, your brother, and even your mamá. I know how horrible they were to you, it's very unhealthy to just hold anger towards them."
She sighed, "I don't know, Tori, I can never forget what they did to me. I won't even let Lucas near Violet."
"I get that you're still mad at him, but you should at least let him see her again, she's his daughter too."
"I know, I know, I could tell that he really does love her, he just rarely showed it."
Victoria looked down, "I just wish that my children's Papi would've changed his ways so he could stay."
Cobra scoffed, "We were better off without him anyway."
"He never meant to hurt you, mijo, at least he wasn't in your brother's life."
"That's good, he didn't have to face the same heartbreak we did when he left us," he grumbled, "he never loved us."
"He did!" Victoria rebuttal defensively, "In his... um... own way."
He scoffed, "You're too forgiving even after what he did to you."
"Cobra's right, don't you remember what he did to Augustus?"
"Unfortunately, I do," she remembered sadly, "I know how close you two were."
"It wasn't easy taking his position after his death."
Victoria smiled, "I think he made the right decision choosing as his second-in-command."
Marisol pursed her lips, "I just don't know who's gonna be my next deputy, I don't wanna give it to Cat she's already head of our defense force and supply runners, Ema's just lazy, and Rockie hates attention."
"Hmm, what about Storm?"
"Storm?"
"Yeah, she seems very responsible and she's your daughter, so, you don't have to waste your time finding someone you can trust."
"You have a point, but I doubt she wants that position."
"I could do it again if you want me to," Cobra insisted, "I can get around just fine."
Marisol shook her head, "I couldn't let you, if something ever happened to me, enemies would surely find you as a weak target."
He shrugged, "Worth a shot."
"Where's Sapphire?" Victoria asked curiously.
"With Rockie, she wanted to go help her out with her garden today."
"Such a sweet angel, too bad I'm at the age of not having any more children."
"You still look great for your age," Marisol pointed out, "you still look like you're in your twenties while I have to worry about getting any more wrinkles."
Victoria chuckled, "You're still a beautiful woman, Marisol."
"Thanks, I guess," she smiled, "you always have something nice to say."
"I try."
"I really don't know, Cat, I really don't know."
"Hey, you two made her together."
Marisol rolled her eyes, "After he did so much to her, I just don't want her getting hurt."
"Normally I would agree with you because I hate that asshole's guts, but he is her father and if he wants to see her he can see her."
"That's the same thing Victoria said."
Catalina got up from her chair stretching her arms and grabbing her rifle, "Welp, I can stay here too long, I got a couple of trainees to deal with today."
Marisol sighed heavily, "I have nothing to do today, everything's in order, our territory's clear from corpses, no one's in trouble, and there's not any news about any enemies."
Catalina winced a little, "Hey I forgot to tell you, I... I... um... I saw... I saw dad on patrol this morning."
"You saw papá?" she gasped.
"Yeah, I had to put him down so he wouldn't cause a ruckus," she squeezed her sister's shoulder and smiled, "Hey, we could give him another burial tomorrow with just the four of us."
Marisol grinned back, "That'll be good, thanks Cat."
"No problem," she leaned down kissing her forehead, "I'll see you and Sapphire tonight, take it easy today for me, alright?"
"10-4."
Later on, Marisol was busy organizing things around her home. Cleaning was only thing that kept her occupied when there nothing to do. She barely do it when she was with Lucas because she was working so much.
After dusting around the picture frames, someone on her walkie talkie started to call her name. She quickly grabbed and began to speak.
"This is Marisol, over."
"This is Cash, over."
She groaned, "What is it now?"
"Mary, ma'am, there are some people outside the gates wanting to see you."
She was caught off guard by that, "Wait, what? Who are they?"
"Um, they said something about the 'Broken Backbone' or something."
Marisol almost dropped her walkie talkie breathing heavily. The Broken Backbone, their greatest enemy here at their doorstep...
"Hello, ma'am, are you there?" Cash's voice interrupted her thoughts, "should I let em in?"
"No!" she barked unintentionally, "do not let anyone in until I arrive, got it, Cash? No one!"
"10-4, ma'am."
Look liked she did have plans today after all.
When she arrived at the gates with two of her guards, she looked up and saw Cash had the most anxious expression on his face.
"Open the gates," she called.
He nodded hesitantly doing as she said. The metal gates opened to about ten soldiers in the back of her worst nightmare. The man who started a war, the man who tortured and killed innocent lives, the man who killed their leader...
Miguel stood in front of men with two women beside him with one wearing the smug look while the other one looked down to her feet. He too grinned widely showing his many gold, crooked teeth.
"Hello Marisol, it's been a while hasn't it?"
She started glare daggers at the man, "Not long enough."
Back at the city hall, Miguel sat across from her still wearing the same expression not taking his eyes off of her.
"Why are you here, Miguel?" she spoke harshly, "didn't I make it clear I don't want you back here?"
He chuckled, "Relax, Marisol, I just wanted to make a... negotiation."
She raised her brow making sure she heard this right, "A what?"
"You heard me."
"Of what?"
He clicked his tongue, "Here's the deal, one of my men was killed days ago."
"So?"
"His head was completely sliced off, cut cleaned."
"What does this have to do with us?" she asked impatiently.
He stood up in his seat his face more serious, "I know it was Matéo."
She widened her eyes, "Wh-what?"
"I know he's pretty damn good with the machete, you know it too and I know he can be a bit... psychotic."
She did know it, he was one of the most skilled fighters here. But why would he need to cut a man's head off? And why so off the territory?
Unless...
"What hell you want me to do about it...?"
His smile returned, "Here's the real kicker, Marisol. I want him."
"Hell no!!" she exclaimed angrily, "you can't take him!"
He sighed, "I thought you might say that, so I moved to... drastic measures."
At a snap of his fingers, two of the men opened the door for some of his other men holding a badly beaten Catalina by her arms. They threw her on the ground as Marisol began to rush to help her before one of his men blocked her.
"What did you do to her?!!" she tried desperately to reach her sister.
"Relax, this is just minor compared to what we plan on doing if you don't negotiate."
"What are you talking about?!"
"At this very moment, I have my troops surrounding your pathetic town, and by the looks of it, you guys don't seem pretty prepared for another war."
Marisol started to breathe heavily, "Don't do this, Miguel, let her go and leave, I figure out another way to repay you."
"Not without that boy!!" he roared starting to lose his temper.
He marched over to Catalina grabbing her by the neck, pulled out his pistol holding it to her neck. She saw Catalina was too weak to fight because of her condition, she was usually a fighter.
"We can make this interesting," he started to have this insane spark in his eyes that always haunted Marisol, "hand over the boy or I will order my men to shoot everyone on sight and I'll blow your sister's fucking brains out."
"He's not here, I swear!" she cried, tears streaming down her eyes, "please, please! I'll do anything, just let her go!"
His face slowly softened a little, "Hmm... I guess I'll have to improvise."
"What do you mean?"
"How about until he returns, we'll just have to... take Charlottesville brave leader to make sure she doesn't try anything stupid."
"What?" Marisol rasped as her sister began to struggle.
"Don't do it, Mary!!" Catalina spat making Miguel tightened his grip around her neck.
"It's either her or you until Matéo is in my grasp. It's a pretty great deal if you ask me."
She looked away sighing heavily. She didn't want to put hundreds of lives in danger, not again. And her sister was barely hanging on to life. She knew what she had to do...
"I'll go," she said quietly.
"No!!!"
Miguel smiled, "Smart choice, doll."
He let go of Catalina as she fell to the ground. Marisol rushed towards her kneeling to her level staring into her sister's desperate eyes.
"Don't do this, please Mary," she pleaded, "you're going to die!"
"It's what a good leader would do, and... you would do the same for me," she touched her cheek pressing her forehead against hers, "I'll be fine, just tell my daughters that I love 'em and take care of Sapphire for me, okay?"
Catalina could do nothing but sob into her arms as Marisol rubbed her back comforting her as much as she could.
"Don't die on me, okay?" she sniffled, "Promise me, please?"
"I promise."
Before they could say anything else, Marisol was snatched away from her battered sister as Miguel's men tied her wrists up and holding her close.
"This was fun, ladies," Miguel chirped amused by Catalina's pleads and cries for her little sister, "but I'm afraid I can't stay long, oh! And Cat, you can get your sister back when I have that boy so don't be too sad."
"Fuck you, you son of a bitch," she growled lowly making Miguel giggle.
"We'll see around, kitty Cat, I look forward to doing this again."
As Catalina watched her sister being pulled away from her right before her eyes, Marisol looked back at her with a sorrowful look mouthing the words "I love you" before all of them cleared out the building.
Catalina began to sob heavily on her knees. She knew she had to take Marisol's role as a leader and take care of little Sapphire. But she wasn't going to let Miguel get away that easily, no. She didn't care if he wanted Moo, he was still a member of this community no matter how unstable he is. She'll be prepared this time, her army, her trainees, even the whole town.
They'll rise once again. And she'll make sure that Miguel's gone once in for all.