by Ambere Sabo
Placing a hand out in front of me to stop him from coming closer. I look to the floor, whipping them away with the palm of my other hand. “Nothing, it’s nothing,” I whisper.
“This is not nothing,” he growls. “Who has made you cry? Tell me which one of these men needs to die?” he threatens looking around the room at his Soldados.
“Just go away, Enterrador,” I snap. How dare he accuse anyone else of the pain I’m in. Everything I’m going through today is his fault. Every emotion, every tear, are those of his making. And this mother fucker has the nerve to accuse the men who he has had keeping me captive here?
“Not until someone explains to me why you are crying. And why the hell you’re outside when you’ve been ordered to stay inside,” he says throwing his hands in the air.
“I can’t fucking do this,” I scream at him. “I need some air, damnit.”
“Air could get you killed, Mythic,” he snaps. Crowding my space, he blocks my body from sight. He lowers his tone to a growl, “If what you say is true do you really think he’ll just let you live?”
“I don’t care anymore, asshole,” I seethe. “Let him fucking come for me. Anything is better than the hell you have me living.” Pushing past him I walk back into the room that has become my prison. Why the fuck did I think I could do this. I knew this day would come. It does every year and being this close to him while he still breathes, and she does not, hurts my soul.
“Hell? This is hell?! I’ve given you every fucking thing you’ve asked for Mythic. Every. Fucking. Thing. You bitch and moan that you can’t get what you need here. As if it's my fault you burned whatever bridge you had with the Sons’ hacker. I’m doing everything I can to keep you safe and well cared for. What else do you want from me?”
“I want you to pay for the life you took from me,” I scream reaching down to pull the gun I keep hidden in the cushion of my couch.
His men are at the ready in a flash. Guns drawn prepared to end this torture once and for all.
“Stop,” he commands them, throwing a hand up. “I know living in this suite isn’t the life you envisioned, but I highly doubt it’s worse than living in that damn clubhouse with all of those bikers. This seriously cannot be about that damn club.”
“This,” I grit out tilting the gun to the side, “Is about what you took from me twelve years ago, Enterrador. Have you fallen so far that you can’t even remember the day your wife and daughter died? The day you became this monster. The day you took the life of my little girl?”
His eyes can only be described as slits as he looks at me with nothing but hate. Good, let the bastard hate me.
“Leave us,” he bellows to his men still holding their guns. They don’t even question his orders as they turn and leave the room. Evaristo nods at me as he shuts the door behind him.
“My men are not idiots Mythic, you cannot talk about the night I took out the Armijos. Eventually one of them will put two and two together, and you will be looked at as nothing more than a traitor to our father. A traitor to this life.”
I can’t help the laugh that comes next, it can only be described as a cackle. Tears start to leak out of the side of my lids when I finally compose myself enough to ask him, “Do you think I give a damn what those fuckers think of me? What you, think of me? The opinion of criminals and murderers is not something I waste my time on.”
“Shoot me if you want, little sister. But know you too have become a criminal. And that biker you’re so in love with? His club’s hands are only a little cleaner than mine. Remember that.”
He turns to leave the room, giving me the perfect opportunity to shoot him in the back. He deserves no better. But I can’t find it in me to pull the trigger. I’m not the little girl I used to be. And many would classify me as a criminal. I’m nowhere in the league of Enterrador and the cartel but do I have the right to throw stones? Is my house more glass than I realized?
Lost in thought, I don’t even realize he’s stopped with his hand on the handle of the door. Looking up from the floor I see a glimpse of the brother I once loved as tears stream down his face.
“I want you to know, I will regret that night for the rest of my life. If I could give back what I took from you, I would. I can’t ever expect your forgiveness for what I did but do not ever assume that I do not grieve for Alex and our daughter. They are the first thing I think about when I open my eyes each morning and the last thing on my mind each night.” Without another word, he opens the door and walks out.
Apparently, I’m in a misery loves company kind of mood today because that’s precisely what I just did. I made him hurt simply because I could. I wish I could go back to a time that this wouldn’t bother me but right now… I feel like shit for what I’ve just done.
Does he deserve it? Fuck yes! But… when I leave this world, no matter how soon, I want to be able to tell my little one I was a good person without having to lie through my teeth. How can I expect to spend eternity with her if I’m burning in hell?
Fearing for your life on a daily basis tends to make you consider where you’ll be headed in the afterlife, and I damn sure plan to spend mine with her. Looks like I have some work to do.
Chapter 7
Snoopy
Ashton,
Today is a day I dread every year. No matter what I do, there’s no way to halt time, to stop it from coming. Believe me, if there were a way to wipe this day from existence, I would find it. But nothing will bring Iliana back to me. Nothing will change my brother from becoming the man he did. And nothing will change the woman I became after I lost everything I loved for the second time.
I once had a normal life. One with a friend who would’ve done anything for me if I only asked her to. With a mother who did all she could to provide me with a safe home and a happy life. With a brother who I thought hung the moon. Diablo took that all from me when he feared I could be used against him.
There was a cartel once that wished to take over the drug trade in central Mexico. Diablo would hear nothing of it. He didn’t need the territory, but to him, it’s all about control. Instead of letting them both do their business which happens all the time. Junkies will get their product one way or another. They don’t care about loyalty to a certain cartel or brand. Give them a cheaper product, a faster way to get high and they’ll flock to you. This is what the other cartel did. They went back and forth for years playing the same games.
When the head of the family died, his son took over. But he didn’t care for the game he wanted my father gone. He took the time to find any weakness that could be used against Diablo. I was that weakness.
When Diablo found out from his spies that I was to be taken, he did them one better. He had the Asesino come for me first. On my quince no less. The day that I was supposed to become a woman, a day that should have been filled with nothing but love and joy he took from me. Forever tainted with fear and terror.
For eleven weeks Alex and I were held captive. She was never supposed to be taken. Something my father was livid over. The Millers had money, Alex’s father had pull with the government due to his diplomatic standing. The media had a field day with her disappearance. It was looked at as a kidnapping for ransom. No one cared about the daughter of the help, they focused all their attention on finding her. It was attention my father didn’t want.
For the first few days, they left us alone holed up in a room with nothing but a torn-up mattress in the corner for us to share. The first time they took me from her, she fought. It got her, her first black eye. That’s when it was explained to me, I was the focus. It had nothing to do with Alex. She was merely friends with the wrong family. A family I didn’t even know I was a part of. Do you know what kind of shock it is to find out not only is your father alive, but the leader of one of the biggest cartels in Mexico?
I did everything I could to protect Alex, to keep the men’s attention off her. I know in my heart I failed at times and I have no clue what she went through at the hands of the Asesino I can only pray it
wasn’t to the extent of terrors they put me through. Nothing will ever compare to what my father did.
The day Alex believed I died, I met Diablo for the first time. I had a choice to make. I could either let my best friend think I had been killed or they would find both of our bodies that night. Kisin has taken a liking to me, so he and Diablo made a deal. If he could get Alex back to her family and pick up the ransom they had agreed to pay without problems, I would be his to keep.
Two choices both equally awful in their own right. I could allow my best friend and the world believe I had died and become a slave to one of the most depraved men I had ever met, or we could both lose our lives. In the end, Alex was in this mess because of me, so I did what was needed to get her out of it.
I spent two years as nothing but a shell of the girl I once was. Used for sex and tortured whenever Kisin felt the urge. I prayed for death. The only person who ever showed me any kindness was Jesus. He was nothing like his brother, so much so that it was hard to believe they came from the same family.
When I realized I was pregnant, he was the only soul I felt safe enough to tell. He refused to let his niece be born into that hell. For months he had been trying to convince me to be brave enough to run, but I couldn’t bear to put him and his family in danger. Iliana changed all that. She gave me a purpose to find my strength.
To this day I don’t know how he pulled off the raid on Kisin’s home. What it cost him or who he had to bribe to make it happen, but in the chaos of it all he pulled me from my hell, and we ran.
His whole family had to disappear that night, but they took me in with open arms. I was the daughter he and Mariana had always wanted. They treated me with kindness and love. It was then that I learned how Jesus was connected to the Asesino. He was their tech person, their hacker helping them to know what their enemies were doing as it was happening. He was the one who found out I was to be taken. The one who started the plans of my capture, something I think he went to his death regretting.
At first, I was angry with him, knowing without his skills they would never have known it was coming, but would I have been in any different of a situation if my fathers’ enemies had taken me? Would I have been any less damaged? I wanted to know everything he knew everything it would take for me to know who might be coming for me in the future, and he taught me. Molded me into the woman I am today. He was more of a father to me than Diablo had ever been.
Mariana was there for me every day of my pregnancy, making sure I was well nourished, and that Iliana would come into this world as healthy as possible. At first, it was difficult. My body had grown very weak, and I almost lost her twice. By the grace of God, she was born healthy and happy looking so much like my mother it took my breath away.
I wish I could’ve seen my mother again. She is the one person in this world I have so many questions for. How could she have once loved a man like my father? Why did she let my brother follow in his footsteps? Did she not think to warn us of what kind of man he was? I know one day I will get the chance to ask her all these things. I hope so anyway. Until that day comes, I can only hope she and Mariana watch over my little girl each day, giving her in death the life she deserved.
I don’t know that Iliana would be proud of the woman I became after she was ripped from this world and that’s something I’m trying to fix. Starting with you, Ashton. The man who in such a short time showed me kindness, and trust, even love. I hope one day you can come to forgive me for the deception and pain I caused you. I hope I won’t go to my death regretting the choices I made too.
All my Love,
Selena
I’ve reread Mystic’s latest email more times than I’d care to admit. I know what it's like to be used as a pawn. To have no real control of what happens in your life.
My parents were masters at manipulating each other with me as their means to do it. But nothing I’ve been through could ever compare to what she shared with me. Nothing.
Can I really fucking blame her for not trusting me? For hiding who she was, now that I know all of this? In the end, does it really even matter? I doubt I’ll ever see her again.
Chapter 8
Mythic
“Fuck my life,” I yell at the ceiling clutching my blue locks in fists. I’ve been hired to hack most of the country’s largest companies whether by competitors or the men in charge themselves. I’ve found money launderers, stopped assassination attempts and brought old fashioned family rivalries to light, but I cannot break through one damn firewall. How the fuck is this possible!
“Princesa is everything okay?” Evaristo asks as he bends at the waist to catch his breath.
“I’ve asked you not to call me that damnit,” I snap at him.
He scowls at me as he wheezes in pain, “It is a sign of respect Princesa,” he grumbles.
Huffing out I ask, “Why are you breathing so hard?”
“The general has demanded we give you your space.”
With a nod, I wait for him to explain why I think he could use an inhaler right now. How can he protect me if he can’t even draw breath into his lungs properly? I know Enterrador made them leave my suite. I am the one who requested it.
After he no longer sounds like he just ran the half-mile in the Olympics he continues, “When you scream in such a manner Miss it makes one think you might be in danger. We are not used to our charges screaming out obscenities when there is no threat to be seen.”
“I am not your charge, Evaristo.”
“I have been tasked as one of now only three to protect your life above mine. Whether you like it or not you are my charge. And it would be much easier to protect you if you allowed us in the suite.”
“Fine,” I answer with a toss of my hands. Rolling my eyes, I look back at the screen that continues to vex me. This should not be so damned difficult.
“Care to explain why you are so angry?”
Of all my brother’s men, Evaristo gives me the most pause. I know what he did to Lilly’s sister Rose, but he is also the only one here I feel I can really trust. He looks to me when I fight with Enterrador as if protecting me truly is his life’s most significant purpose.
“Why do you treat me differently than the rest?” I can’t help but ask.
With a tilt of his head, he says just one word,” Miss?”
“Don’t play coy with me fucker. You don’t look at me with distrust or disdain as the other Soldados do. Why?”
“You forget I am used to a woman’s outbursts whereas many of the men have chosen to not take a wife, I had Rose.”
“Taken is a good word for it,” I answer with a snort.
Running a hand through his hair, he sighs. “No, I didn’t meet Rose in the most favorable way, but no one can take from me the love I grew to have for her. Least of all you. I made a life with her. She was someone I looked forward to returning home to. Do I regret the way that it all began? More than anyone can ever understand, but that doesn’t change all that I lost in the end.”
“And your children? Do you know what has become of them?”
“I wish I did. If only to reunite them with Rose. I know I can never have that life back, but I know they would be whole if they were at least together. Rose showed me that perhaps this way of life isn’t all there is for me. But now that is gone.”
“Why would you tell me that?” I ask with a tilt of my head. Diablo would look at what he just said as a betrayal. Woman are meant to breed, not to love. He expects all his men to be loyal to his cause and nothing else.
“Because I know you think you are alone here, a prisoner even if it was one of your own making.”
“I made this prison,” I grit out.
“Yes, because just as I did, we came back to this place when we should’ve run.” Without further explanation, he turns to leave me with my thoughts only to confuse me so much more when he looks over his shoulder and says, “Perhaps what you’re looking for isn’t behind the walls of hell but hidden under your very nose. Follow yo
ur sister.”
My sister, what the fuck is he talking about? I don’t have a sister. None that I claim anyway.
***
For hours I sat thinking over everything Evaristo said. Can he be trusted? Was he truthful in what he said about Rose? Why would he tell me to follow my sister?
It took some time to find La Ocho’s home, but he was right the security system she has is child’s play in comparison to Diablos San Luis home. She indeed is a beauty. Diablos second wife was Cambodian with dark hair, almond eyes, and full lips. Traits that were clearly passed down to my half-sister.
One thing that strikes me as odd, she surrounds herself with more women than men. All her bodyguards and trusted advisors are women. Something Diablo would never allow if she were more involved with the cartel.
I have spent days watching her, watching how she handles herself with Diablos men. How she handles her business in Dallas. Nothing goes through her directly. There must be at least twenty confidants that manage the running of the business, though every decision is made by her. I can only imagine the trouble she gives to Dallas law enforcement.
When she sleeps, I go back months, years to see what molded her into the woman she is today. Watched the relationship she had with the woman who raised her. How she treated the staff at her home.
I’ve watched this day in her past multiple times, and I just can’t shake it. I know the little girl she plays with as a teenager. There’s something about her that is so familiar it kills me.
“You rang,” he says, leaning against the doorframe crossing his arms over his chest. His nostrils flare as he stares down at me.
I have refused to see him for weeks. Not letting him know what I had found or where the trail had taken me. Enterrador will never be used to someone not listening to his orders. Someone who could fucking care less that he is next in line to run the Infierno cartel. He’s grown used to those around him doing everything and anything he asks. I disrupt that but ask me if I give a damn.
