Mario stared at her for a moment then slowly shook his head. “You truly have no idea what you did.”
“Why don’t you tell me, Mario? You’re just itching to, aren’t you?”
He dragged his feet closer and rested his arms on his knees. “You weren’t there when Laughlin first had me infiltrate the Murillo cartel, were you? No…you came…what? A year later? Two?”
“What difference does it make?”
He scoffed and turned away from her, the light from the torch making his face appear even more evil in shadow. “Si, I had a job to do. And I was prepared to do whatever it took to bring them down.” He inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “And then I met…her.”
“Her, who?”
He glanced at Sparrow, then looked at the rocks strewn around them. “Teresa.” He shook his head and fought the urge to cry. “She was Don Murillo’s hermana. His baby sister. She was only twenty-six when we first met.”
Lisa watched him carefully but her bullshit-o-meter refused to peg. Whatever he was telling her, he believed it to be true. She feared that she knew where this story was headed. “Go on.”
Mario lowered his face and spat dirt from his mouth. “She and I…we hit it off. We were like two peas in a pod.” He glanced at her. “It didn’t take long and we knew…it was love.” He sighed and wiped at his eyes. “She knew what her brother did. She chose to ignore it.” A sad smile formed as he spoke. “She didn’t hold it against me, either.”
“Because you worked for Murillo.” It was a statement, not a question.
He nodded. “Si. I worked for Don Murillo.” He shot her a knowing look. “Except I didn’t really, right? I worked for the fucking CIA.” He spat the words as he spoke. “Fucking ‘dual task force’ with DEA. Remove the scourge of cocaine from American shores. Hit them at the source.”
“That was the job, Mario.”
He nodded. “Si. That was the job.” He turned and gave her a menacing glare. “Tell me, Sparrow. Have you ever loved somebody? Hmm? I mean, really loved someone? More than yourself?” He shifted his position and turned towards her. “Loved them enough that you were willing to risk everything that you held dear, just to be with them?”
She stared at him, unable to answer. “Go on.”
“Well…I did. Teresa was my soulmate.” He scoffed again and waved his hand at her. “Oh, I know. Those are words from romance novels, right? Except…she truly was. I couldn’t breathe without her.”
“And she convinced you to change sides?”
He shook his head. “No. I knew that the only way it could end well for the two of us was if I went to Don Murillo and admitted everything.”
It was her turn to scoff. “He’d have killed you dead.”
Mario chuckled and smiled at her. “And he did, didn’t he? Right in front of Bravo team.”
“Except here you are…the head of the cartel now.” She shot him a hateful glare. “That don’t sound dead to me.”
He nodded and lowered his gaze. “Don Murillo was not happy. He held a gun to my head, and Teresa begged him not to kill me.” He sniffed a tear away as the memories flooded him again. “I promised him…that I would do ANYTHING to keep her safe. I promised him that I would love her until the day I died. That I would protect her.”
“And he let you live. That’s why you turned on us.”
Mario nodded. “That was the deal I offered him.” He turned and stared at her stoically. “I fed Laughlin false information, directed him to other targets. I fed him tiny pieces of our operation…just enough that he could think that Murillo was slowly being choked out by the other cartels.” He huffed and leaned back, softly beating the back of his head to the stone wall. “It was all going well, too. Murillo, he began to trust me. He eventually made me his right hand man.” He turned and stared at her incredulously. “Can you believe that? He knew that I had been working for the agency, and he still let me in.”
“Because of her. His sister.”
“Si. Because of Teresa.” Mario felt his voice about to crack. “We were to be married. The very weekend after Bravo team blew up the bridge that she was on.” He jerked from his seated position and stood over her. “I BEGGED Laughlin not to attack. I TOLD HIM…Murillo was not in that convoy. He was still in Bolivia. I told him!” He pounded his fist into the stone wall and his entire body shook with rage.
Lisa had to look away. “So did we.” She swallowed hard and fought the urge to cough on the grit still in the air. “Our spotter noted that the cars were full of women and children…” She felt the hot tears run down her face. “We told him to abort. He said it wasn’t his call.”
“The hell it wasn’t!” He pounded the wall again and small bits of rock rained down on her prone form. “He knew!” His voice cracked and he turned away.
Lisa took a deep breath and decided to try to keep him talking. “So why did you wait all these years?”
He scoffed and began to pace a slow circle. “I prayed. Every night I prayed to God to keep her alive.” He spun and pointed at her. “And He did! With the help of machines and the best doctors that money could buy…her body lived.” He stopped and he felt his shoulders jerk as he choked back sobs. “I should have prayed that she would recover.”
His legs went out from under him and he collapsed to the ground. “She was an angel. And I loved her so much…I couldn’t let her go.”
“She didn’t recover.”
He shook his head. “The doctors, the nurses, the physical therapists…they kept her body here for almost
