CHAPTER 21: SUNRISE AND BURNING BRIDGES

 Xitllali 

When I woke up, the room was filled with the soft gray light of early morning.

For a moment, I didn't remember where I was.

I stared at the dark wooden beams across the ceiling, listening to the soft sound of mist against the window.

The room smelled like cedar and the faint scent of ointment.

Then I felt the warmth beside me.

I slowly turned my head. Guillermo was still asleep on his back, his long body filling his side of the bed.

The blanket had slipped down to his waist, revealing his bare chest and the dark trousers he'd slept in. His face looked calmer than it had in days, and the tension around his eyes was almost gone.

I stayed still for a moment, listening to his deep, steady breathing.

Slowly, I moved one hand from beneath the blanket. I leaned across the space between us and hesitated before pressing the back of my fingers against his temple. His skin was warm, but the fever was gone.

I quietly breathed out in relief. Before I could pull my hand away, his eyes slowly opened. He didn't flinch. His eyes simply found mine in the pale light.

"Your fever broke," I whispered.

"Yeah," he murmured, his voice deep and raspy with sleep. He stayed still, letting my fingers rest against his skin for a few seconds longer.

"Did you sleep?"

"I did," I admitted, pulling my hand back to my chest. "I actually slept well."

A small, genuine smile touched the corner of his mouth. "Good."

He slowly pushed himself up with his right arm, his face tightening when pain shot through his injured shoulder.

As he moved, the soft morning light fell across his chest. I knew all the scars on his body from the two years I spent with him in Guadalajara, but seeing him now still made me hold my breath.

Among the old scars I remembered, there was a thick, uneven scar across his right side. It looked painful and newer than the others.

“That scar,” I whispered, barely breaking the silence. I didn’t realize I was reaching for it until my fingertips stopped just an inch above the damaged skin on his ribs. “That wasn’t there two years ago.”

He looked down at my shaking hand, then back at me. He didn’t move away.

"I got that one in Michoacán," he said quietly, his hazel eyes locking onto mine. "Eight months after you left."

"Who gave it to you?" I asked, my chest tightening.

"One of the men who threatened your father," he replied, his voice completely flat and without regret. "He thought he could bleed me out in a warehouse. He was wrong."

My heart pounded in my chest. The reality of what he had done for me, and what those two years had cost him as he tried to keep my family safe, hit me hard.

He hadn’t just stayed indoors and given orders. He had been out there in the mud and blood, getting hurt and risking his own life to remove the people who wanted to hurt me.

Before I could deal with the sudden emotion I was feeling, three sharp knocks hit the front door.

Knock. Knock-knock.

Guillermo changed in a second. The quiet husband was gone, and the dangerous man I knew returned. He stood up without a word, grabbed his dark shirt from the chair, and his right hand instinctively moved to his waist, where his weapon usually rested.

"Stay here," he ordered quietly.

I pulled on my boots and followed him down the hallway anyway. He stood with his back pressed against the wall beside the heavy front door.

"Valdo?" Guillermo called out.

"It's me, Boss," Valdo's voice came through the thick wood. "Hector is on the secure satellite line."

Guillermo opened the door and let him in. Valdo stepped inside holding a satellite phone.

"Boss," Valdo said quickly. "Hector locked down the estate in Guadalajara. He went through the phone records and offshore transfers from the night you left."

Guillermo’s jaw tightened. "Did he find the rat?"

"Yes, Boss," Valdo said. "He found three encrypted calls coming from the outer guardhouse two hours after your sedan crossed the state border. The guard on duty was Sancho. Hector questioned him an hour ago, and he confessed that Severo's men paid him fifty thousand dollars to leak your route."

Guillermo took a slow breath. "Is it handled?"

"Sancho is dead, Boss," Valdo replied quietly. "He confessed before he died."

Silence filled the room. I stood near the hallway, a chill running down my spine.

Something didn't feel right to me. Sancho was only a low-level guard. How had he known which route Guillermo would take before he even left the house?

"Good. Tell Hector to keep the estate locked down until we return."

He picked up the satellite phone, but before he could press a button, Valdo's radio crackled loudly.

"Boss!" Mateo called from the window, his voice tense. "Severo's main scout truck just stopped at the upper ridge junction! They're setting up a roadblock. They don't know the safehouse is down here yet, but they're searching the valley."

Guillermo looked at Valdo immediately, his eyes turning cold.

"We're not going to sit here and wait for them to find my wife," he said, his voice firm.

"Valdo, Mateo, grab your gear. We take the upper ridge trail and stop them before they ever reach this gate."