Perfect Enemies

2

My sister was safely back home, but my parents didn’t share details about anything else they might have known. We’d only recently learned my father was in the mafia, so I certainly wasn’t privy to information about his secret life. “He was making plans to go back for my uncle’s funeral.” She shook her head back and forth adamantly. “I can’t go back there, Valentina. I can’t go back to Mexico. If I do, I’ll never be free of him.” “When you turn eighteen in May, you’ll be an adult. Then you can live wherever you want.” “No, you don’t understand. He’ll never let me leave. The only reason I was allowed to come with him to New York was you. I’m just a pawn to him. Something to use for his gain. He’ll have me marry one of his associates to secure a business alliance. My life will never be my own.” What was it about men that made them think they could own people? The actions of the male s*x made me wish I wasn’t attracted to them. Life would be so much simpler without testosterone-fueled egomaniacal power trips. Men could be so damn annoying. And the worst thing we could do as women was to let them get away with that s**t. Not me. I believed in holding people accountable. I believed in standing up for myself and for those around me. Whether it was feminism or just plain old human decency, I didn’t know and didn’t care. I wasn’t the type of girl to give someone else control over me or my friends and family just because that person was born with a d**k between their legs. Not only that, but I was hella persistent. Reyna’s dad might have given her his DNA, but that didn’t give him the right to dictate the rest of her life. Nor did it give him the right to lay hands on her.

My conviction to help my friend grew deep roots and stiffened my spine, preparing for the battle ahead. Saving Reyna from her father wouldn’t be easy, but she was worth the fight. She was my best friend. An attack on her was an attack on me, and I was the type of girl who fought back. “Juan Carlos Vargas may be your father, and he may be powerful, but he’s not God. He has weaknesses, and he can definitely be outsmarted.” A man like him with an ego bursting at the seams would easily underestimate the abilities of a teenage girl. “If you can convince him to let you stay until graduation, I’ll find a way to keep you here for good.” Reyna flung her arms around me. “Thank you, Val. You’re the one good thing my father’s ever done for me. Even if none of this works, your friendship alone has been a gift I’ll always cherish.” I would have burst into tears if my mind wasn’t already half occupied with brainstorming ways to give Reyna a fresh start. I had an impressive history of success when I set my mind to a goal, and freeing Reyna was now my top priority. I refused to let her down. Christmas break lasted an eternity. Now that I knew who Reyna’s father was, I was extra careful not to mention her to my parents. There were no holiday sleepovers, and we kept all text conversations superficial. Reyna had already limited our time together away from school in an attempt to protect me, so my parents had only heard me mention her a few times in passing. I’d never been to her house, and she’d always refused my invitations to mine. Now, it was even more crucial we kept both our fathers in the dark for any chance of success planning Reyna’s escape. That meant I had to keep her identity a secret from my family, and she had to keep our conversations mundane since her father monitored her phone. I debated whether it would be more prudent to tell one of my sisters about Reyna or to keep her a complete secret. It would be helpful if I wasn’t totally on my own, but bringing anyone else into the loop would increase the risk of my father finding out. Giada would be the one most likely to take a risk on my behalf but was also the biggest threat of leaking information. Get a glass of wine in her, and she had no filter at all. Giada was entirely too risky, and Camilla was a world-class Goody Two-shoes. I highly doubted she’d agree to help Reyna. The small chance I was wrong wasn’t worth the risk of asking. I was close to my cousins, but none of them was suited as a confidant. Maria, the eldest, lived and breathed the mafia, so she’d never help anyone from the cartel. Alessia worried about everything. Her anxiety would lead her to rat me out, even if I wasn’t in any direct danger. There was no way she could be trusted. My youngest cousin, Sofia, was my best bet. She had kept a surprising number of secrets that had recently come to light, so she could be trusted to keep quiet. However, she had just gone through a hellish situation of her own, so I hated to drag her into more drama. I would keep her in mind if time wore on and I had no other option, but for now, I would see if I could manage on my own. I had faith in my abilities, and now that Reyna had successfully convinced her father to let her stay here with her mom, we had some time to work on a solution. His acquiescence was an enormous relief. Doubtless, his concession was rooted in a selfish desire to have her spy on me, but I didn’t care about his reasons. All that mattered was she got to stay. No amount of planning would have helped if her father had snatched her back to Mexico over the break. We had five months to find Reyna a way out—and by we, I meant me. No pressure. The first day back at school, I searched for her the second I was dropped off on that cold January morning. Hurrying through the front doors, I made a beeline straight to the library. Rey liked to get out of her house as early as possible, so she had her driver take her an hour before the first bell when the assistant principal first unlocked the school. While the building was still dark and footsteps echoed off the locker-lined hallways, she slinked to the library and hid until I arrived. She wasn’t necessarily afraid of the other kids; she just liked to be alone. It seemed lonely to me, but she swore she enjoyed the solace. I guess if I’d had a drunk mother and a tyrannical father, I would have preferred to be alone too. Regardless, my arrival each morning signaled the end of her reprieve. “Aren’t you looking lovely this morning,” I greeted her as I plopped down in the chair next to hers.