Sheltered by the Syndicate Soldier

Selena Ocampo works nights at a Hialeah hospital, which is how she ends up saving a rival crew's shooter under a fake name. The threat arrives the next evening. So does Teo Balcázar, who introduces himself as a cousin, moves into her apartment without asking, and sleeps on the couch with his gun under a cushion. Three weeks of nights, cafecito, and a camera by the door. He was a paramedic before he was a soldier — she figures that out before she figures out why he stays. When the crew finally finds her, he gets her out through the hospital loading dock and drives to Tampa, where he tells her the family has offered him a way out and he doesn't know how to take it. She knows exactly how. She files the paperwork herself, and then she waits eighteen months for him to catch up.