She eyes me critically for a moment before making what I assume everyone else would see as an executive decision.
“No. Stay sober while you look for him and learn his routine. Once you’ve got him pinned down, then I’ll coax the animal out of his cage.”
I hold a hand out toward her without hesitation, and when she takes mine in hers, I give her a hard enough yank to pull her close to me.
I look Sofi right in her eyes and when she looks like she’s ready to explode, I smirk.
“Deal.”
“No shit,” I say with a laugh as I walk out the front door.
It took some finagling on Sofi’s end to get Pops to let me out of the house today, but he insisted that I take someone with me. Sofi told him that she already agreed to it, and when that wasn’t enough for him, I volunteered Cankle to come with us.
What’s got me so shocked though, is that somehow, someone managed to find my car and bring it to the murder family’s house.
“Not a scratch on her,” I confirm with a grin as I walk the length of the car, trailing a finger down the side of it. “Thanks, man.”
Pops nods at me before he walks over to Sofi. He takes her face in his hands, kisses her firmly on the forehead and tells her to be safe and careful.
“I got it from here. No one’s gonna touch her. You have my word,” I assure him with a nod.
He looks at me for a moment before he sighs and walks back into his home, bulldogs in tow, and shaking his head.
He probably thinks that whatever happened to his other daughter is gonna happen to Sofi, but I’ve got other plans. We’ll ditch Cankle on the side of the road somewhere, I’ll take her back to Culiacán, show her the present I got her, then we’ll go look for Omar.
“Your chariot awaits,” I tell her in a faux snooty voice as I open the passenger side door for her. She’s instantly unamused, but now I’m feeling upbeat about things. This is the girl who’s plagued my goddamn mind for the past year; not the one who crumples instantly in the presence of her father.
Once she’s tucked safely inside, I close her door and glance over at Cankle. He seems to be having some issues opening his door and staying upright, so I decide to be nice to him.
“Here,” I say reaching for his crutches and opening his door. As soon as he gets one foot into the backseat of the car, I toss the crutches on him, and kick the door closed.
“Pretty fast for a guy with a busted leg,” I commend him with a laugh as I slip into the driver’s seat and adjust the mirrors.
I catch sight of his eyes and he looks so fucking angry right now that I can tell he’s contemplating making a move on me.
“Let’s wait until you’re all healed up first,” I say conversationally as I turn the keys in the ignition. “Wouldn’t want to bust you down any more than you already have been, you know? Besides, I like my fights fair. That way, when I win them, I’ll know it’s because I’m honestly the better man.”
“Ignore him,” Sofi says loudly, and I glance over to grin at her, but it’s stopped dead in its tracks when I realize she’s giving that advice to Cankle and not me.
I decide not to let it sour my mood, though. I mean this is the girl I’ve been dying to see for a few days, and now that she’s here, we can start having some real fun.
“I have to go back to my place before we go take care of things,” I tell her conversationally as I press down on the gas pedal and navigate the long driveway. We’re stopped at a huge, wrought iron fence by a fancier bulldog than the others, but when Sofi nods at him, he steps back into his little oblong box and presses the button to let us out.
“We don’t have time for that,” she says as she leans back in her seat.
“Actually, we kind of do. You did say you didn’t know where, um … things, were, so I’d say we have all the time in the world, don’t you?”
I can see the scowl on her face, but she doesn’t fight back. She knows she can’t because what I’m relaying is what was said to me and since we really don’t have anywhere solid to start, then what’s the point in rushing things along?
“Hey,” I say to her quietly, giving her a nudge as I pull up to a red light. When she looks at me with an eyebrow arched dangerously, I jerk my head slightly toward the backseat, “Does he know what’s up?”
She shakes her head and I sigh.
Looks like I’ll be talking in code until I have the chance to get rid of him once and for all.
Which is fine by me.
Considering most of the company I’ve found myself around throughout my twenty-seven years, I’ve become rather good at picking up code talk, and making some of my own too.
I crack my neck when the light turns green and stifle a yawn. Even with the few hours I’ve had to myself when someone wasn’t kicking my ass for their own amusement, I don’t think I’ve really gotten enough sleep.
Oh shit.
I sit up instantly and look both ways before I slam my foot down on the gas pedal. Thinking of not having had a good night’s rest lately reminds me of Inez.
She’s still bound to my bed, still probably bleeding out, and more than likely dead at this point considering that she hadn’t eaten in days since before I left her.
“Slow the fuck down, cabrón!” Sofi shouts at me, reaching for the steering wheel, but I grab her wrist and set it firmly on the dashboard.
“Can’t. That thing I have to do back at my place? I’m not entirely sure it’s even doable anymore considering I forgot about the condition I left it in until just now.”
She lets out a screech as I cut around a row of cars and straight into oncoming traffic. Lucky for me, that side of the road is stalled due to another red light telling us to do the one thing I’m refusing to do right now.
“Hold on tight and if I fuck this up, just know that I had every intention on following through with what you needed, okay?” I tell her through gritted teeth.
Before she has a chance to reach for the wheel again, I press the pedal down as far as it can possibly go and play a game of chicken with the cars coming down the other side of the road.
I manage to get past the first couple of cars with no problem, but damn near end up getting clipped by a small truck packed to the brim with mid-day workers. The driver swerves at the last minute and so do I, managing to scrape by them and the rest of the traffic, but when I look in the rearview, I cringe.
The truck collided so fucking hard with one of the stalled cars that was obeying the traffic laws, that it tipped on its side and now there’s a pile of people all over the road.
“Remind me to send them get well cards,” I say to no one in particular as I keep driving.
Hopefully, they aren’t critically injured because I can’t stop right now. Not for them, not for Sofi, hell not even for me.
If there’s the slimmest chance that Inez is still alive, I promised to tell her about my escapades and I think she’s earned at least that much before I turn over what’s left of her to the Cocaine Cowgirl.
“You almost fucking killed us!” Sofi shouts at me as I cut the engine in my driveway.
“But I didn’t,” I bark at her as I retrieve the keys and push the driver’s side door open.
She gets out of the car as quickly as she can and runs around the front, giving me a hard shove in the back. I stumble, lose my footing, and go face first into the ground with a grunt.
I turn onto my back and shake my head to get the pain to fuck off, then reach up and place the tips of my fingers to my nose.
“Just like the first time, isn’t it?” I ask her with a smirk as I snake my tongue up to lick the blood away. I decide not to let this little love-tap take away my sense of humor, not to mention the way the memory made her blush, telling me that perhaps, she’s into the blood thing.
Besides, I’ve gotten this far, now I just have to get her inside before she thinks that almost busting my nose on the concrete isn’t enough.
“Shut up,” she grumbles as she reaches down to help
me up. I chuckle as I take her hand and get to my feet. It amazes me that she can blow hot and cold so damn fast, but that should work in my favor here shortly.
“Anyway …”
I go through the keys on the ring until I find the one that unlocks the front door. I glance over my shoulder at Sofi and grin nervously, but then shake my head. “You can’t come in here.”
“What?” she asks in confusion.
I nod behind her and she turns to see Cankle hobbling up the steps.
“She doesn’t go in without me,” he barks, and I roll my eyes.
“Listen tough guy, I’m not going to hurt her. If I was, it would have happened already. Her father obviously trusts me with her, so I think maybe you should fall in line with that sentiment.”
He grinds his teeth and I laugh. “Maybe you can take care of this one for me?” I ask Sofi.
She sighs as she turns to face Cankle head on and tells him to go for a walk. I don’t know how far she thinks he’s gonna get on a busted leg, but that’s not my problem.
“If anything happens to her, I’ll have your fucking head, maricon,” he warns me as fire begins to burn through his glare.
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Now go for a walk,” I confirm with an eye roll.
I stand there and watch him, refusing to unlock the door until he hobbles out of sight, and when he finally does, I look at Sofi again for a moment. I can see the distrust that Cankle voiced dancing behind her eyes and I smile.
“I swear to God that I’m not going to hurt you,” I tell her softly. “That’s not my thing, remember? But I will say that what happened inside was kind of a one off—and part of the reason I’ve been trying my damndest to stay off the blow. Anyway, I guess you’ll have to tell me if it’s been worth the year I’ve spent working on it. Come on.”
I turn the key and once I hear the click, I lick my lips nervously and shake my head when I can still taste the remnants of copper. I don’t know what it is about her that makes me so damn skittish, since I’m not normally like this.
Not while sober, anyway.
Sofi steps by me and enters my home first. I close the door behind me but leave the lock alone. If she doesn’t want to stay once she sees what I’ve done, I’m not going to force her to.
I’ll hope that we can forget that it ever happened, and I’ll go on my little recon mission, kill the bad guy, save the damsel in distress, and then fuck off back home.
Granted, some plans are easier said than done, but it’s what I’m hoping for if this goes to shit.
“Okay, so what is this great thing you want to show me?” she asks as she glances around the living room. I cringe at the look on her face. It makes me wish that I had cleaned up some before I left.
“Um, it’s in the bedroom,” I mumble as I walk by her to pick up a pair of pants that never quite made it to the hamper. “I promise I don’t live like this normally. Time gets away from me sometimes.”
She smiles slightly as she turns to look at me before she shrugs. “I can have Anabella bring some of her girls here to pick up after we get back home.”
“Thanks,” I reply quietly.
An awkward, tense moment of silence fills the room as I fold the pants and tuck them under my arm. I feel like an asshole right now because I don’t know how to segue this toward the bedroom without sounding like a dick.
“Which way?” she asks, and I blow out my breath as I look into her eyes. Sometimes, her take charge bullshit is annoying, yet this is one of the few times that it’s welcomed.
I gesture for her to follow me as I lead the way down the hall. It’s nowhere near as long as hers, nor is my little ramshackle as opulent, but she doesn’t seem to be judging me over it.
I make a quick stop by the bathroom to toss the pants near the hamper, then rub the back of my head as we walk to the end of the hall where my room is.
“So, remember that girl that you completely fucked up at the brothel?” I begin with an anxious smile, “Well, I mean there were two, but I asked you which one your favorite was?”
She nods as she leans against the wall and places a hand on her hip impatiently.
“Yeah, Inez.”
“Right. Well …”
I put my hand on the doorknob and push the door open, take a step back, and make a grand sweeping gesture to let her know that the only way to get the rest of the story is to go in.
With a shrug, she pushes her hair behind her ears and walks into my room.
I follow close behind her.
If she screams, that will attract the neighbors and I can’t have that. I won’t hesitate to restrain her and keep her mouth shut.
She gasps almost instantly, and I tense up behind her.
“Is she … is she dead?” she asks, a slight tremor to her tone.
“No idea. I haven’t been home, but she was fine when I left,” I respond quietly.
Sofi gasps again and turns when she realizes how close I am to her and I shake my head, “I already told you that I won’t hurt you, but if you scream …”
Her body is shaking, and her breaths are coming in short gasps, and that’s when I move quickly to lock the door.
It’s time to find out just how high up on the ladder of her little kill squad she happens to be on.
Chapter Eleven
“Why did you do this?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Honestly?” I ask as I prop a foot up against the door and shove my hands into my pockets. When she nods, I shrug, “Because you said you liked her best. You know, after I left the brothel, I kind of became obsessed with seeing you again. That’s what snorting too much shit can do to you, for future reference. It makes you obsessive; it makes you believe that everything is a great fucking idea and I guess you can say that I assumed you would go looking for Inez. But you never did. Guess I fucked up, huh?” I finish with a smile.
Sofi looks at me for a moment as her breathing steadies and her eyes soften. I haven’t seen this part of the Cartel Princess yet and I’m intrigued.
“If she’s dead, she needs to be buried properly.”
I nod as I push myself off the door and walk over to the bed. I climb on and place a hand on either side of Inez’s face and shake my head, a sigh escaping me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper to her when I realize that she’s not breathing anymore. I use my fingers to close her eyes so that she finally has some peace. She must have just died in the last few hours, though because she hasn’t started to smell yet.
I reach up and begin to undo the restraints on her wrists when Sofi comes over and places a hand on the back of my shoulder. I turn my face slightly enough to see her out of the corner of my eye and when she reaches forward and tucks my hair behind my ear, I pull away from her.
I’m not used to affection and this is starting to get too fucking weird.
Even for me.
“Put her in the bathtub and I’ll have Hector come get her.”
“Is that how this works?” I snap at her. I don’t know where the anger is coming from, but I’m starting to get a little pissed off that she can get things done so easily with just a few choice words. “You’re going to have your band of merry maids clean up my place and your henchmen dispose of the body? God, it must be nice to be so fucking pampered.”
“You’ve got it all wrong,” she begins, shaking her head vehemently. “I don’t do this for you, Gringo. I’m helping you because of what you told me. Your fucking obsession is what cost this girl her life. It’s what made you let your home go to hell and I’m just trying to repay your fucking fantasies by doing what I can. If you want to clean up your own goddamn messes, then that’s fine with me.”
I get off the bed when Sofi turns on her heel to walk out of my room and grip her by the elbow. She attempts to jerk her arm out of my hand, but I yank her hard and look into her eyes.
I’m trying not to be angry.
I’m trying to not feel like less than a man.
I’m trying so fucki
ng hard not to show her what else I have here for her, but she’s not really leaving me with a choice.
“Tell you what, Princess,” I hiss at her. “Let me present you with the real reason that I kept this useless bitch and maybe then you can decide if I’m man enough to be your fucking lap dog. Sound like a plan?”
She raises her other hand—to strike me, to push me away—fuck knows, but I’m not going to give her the chance to make me any angrier than I already am. When she finally realizes that I’m a hell of a lot stronger than I’ve been letting on, when she can’t pull out of my grip on her elbow or wrestle her wrist out of my other hand, she finally grunts and nods.
“Hurry up; we’ve still got shit to do.”
I look at her in amazement.
If I were the kind of man that she’s used to dealing with, I could have snapped her neck by now and been done with her, but that fucking little clause I gave myself a long time ago when it comes to women is the only thing stopping me.
“Give me a minute,” I say as I let her go and turn my attention back to Inez. I finish undoing her restraints, and pick her up, cradling her against me as I carry her body toward the bathroom. I place her in the tub as gently as I can, wrapped in the blanket she died on, and hoping that wherever she is, she’ll understand why I had to do this.
When I reenter my room, I wander over and turn off the fan that I left on for Inez when I left. While it wouldn’t do much against the sweltering Mexican heat, it still let her know that I gave a damn.
That’s when I notice that Sofi is stripping the sheet off the mattress and removing the pillows from their cases. I arch an eyebrow as I watch her for a moment.
“So you can do shit for yourself, after all,” I say in an amused tone. She shrugs without looking at me and continues her semi-cleaning spree until the pillow cases and sheets are folded and placed neatly in a small pile on the floor.
El Gringo (The Sicarios of Navolato Book 3) Page 8
