Leave Me Breathless: The Black Rose Collection

by Dakota Willink

  “You disappoint me again, Dantes. I need the girl uncomfortable. We need to frighten her father, make him fear for her safety. We can’t do that unless she is truly afraid when we send him video evidence of her well-being. She’s not going to willingly act out a kidnapping plot to coerce her father to our side.”

  I was pushing my luck but hoped that my many years of tireless service to El Tuerto would count for something. If I didn’t fall into line in short order, it wouldn’t be long before he found me expendable.

  “We can use my brother-in-law’s basement,” Oscar offered. “It’s warm, dry, and relatively comfortable. It’s also soundproof.”

  “Gracias, Oscar. Pick the girl up tonight, Dantes. Choose several halcones to watch over her.”

  “I can do it,” I said quickly. I should have kept my mouth shut and just agreed, but I wouldn’t trust Mia with anyone else but myself. Not even Oscar. Not with the way he was playing up to El Tuerto.

  “You’ll be the first person Bernard will send men after.”

  “Then doesn’t it stand to reason I shouldn’t be anywhere I can be found, either? Or do you want me in jail?”

  “Ay,” he hissed. “Don’t be smart with me muchacho. Take the girl and stay with her, but be prepared to be here for the meeting with Bernard when it’s finally arranged.”

  His words sparked an idea, one I thought might work.

  “Before I take Mia, why don’t we try going to the undersheriff first? Cisneros can arrange the meeting with Bernard. Kidnapping Mia should be our last option.”

  “Go on,” El Tuerto encouraged.

  “I’ll call him, explain the time has come to get Bernard on board. I’ll let him know we’ll be taking extreme measures if he doesn’t get us in with him. I might even suggest it’s Carmen who might come to harm.” I had zero issues terrifying that woman.

  “This isn’t a bad idea.” El Tuerto sat back in his leather chair, taking a deep puff on the fat cigar. “I prefer not to take those extreme measures now. Our shipment is supposed to come in tomorrow, is it not?”

  “It is. I’m waiting on Kosareva to give me the details. I’ll call Cisneros from the helicopter and demand he meet with us as soon as we land. That way, we can have everything in place to protect these weapons from falling into the Soldados’ hands.

  “Then make it happen. I want a full report as soon as you’re done. And Dantes? Don’t let me down. Your own future is at stake.”

  Oscar and I nodded, then got to our feet when El Tuerto waved a hand, dismissing us.

  I stalked back out to the helipad without a word to Oscar. I was going to push him out of my inner sanctum, replacing him with one of the other loyal sicarios. With his attempts to ingratiate himself to the capo, I would be further suspect if I tried to move him to another territory. I didn’t need El Tuerto questioning my loyalty any more than he already seemed to be.

  We settled into the soft cushions of the helicopter’s roomy cabin, donning our earphones, and securing our safety harnesses. We were back in the air less than half an hour after we’d arrived. I busied myself, trying to work out how I could achieve El Tuerto’s orders without losing Mia, but it seemed no matter what scenario I came up with, I lost one way or another.

  When we were back in my car headed toward The Pink Pistol, Oscar finally spoke.

  “You going to make the call?”

  “What call?” I answered gruffly. The last thing I needed was to be questioned by my sicario about anything.

  “To Mia. To arrange to meet her tonight, just in case the thing with Cisneros doesn’t work out. I need to call my brother-in-law, so he’s ready when we bring her in.”

  “First of all, there is no we in this situation. I’ll handle it my way and on my timetable.”

  “But El—” he began, but I cut him off.

  “Look, Oscar, I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, but you need to remember your place. You’re a hitman, not a lieutenant. You do what I tell you to do and only what I tell you to do. Or have you decided to stick your nose so far up El Tuerto’s ass, you forgot?”

  “You don’t know what’s gotten into me?” he said incredulously. “Listen to yourself. It’s like you don’t even want to be part of the organization anymore. Before you met Mia, you never would have thought to go against anything our capo said. You’d die for the cartel.”

  “I still would, but I’m not the first to have a girlfriend or wife. Just because she has connections you all find so useful, doesn’t mean you can take advantage of my relationship with her.”

  “This is exactly what I’m talking about. You were a ruthless bastard. When did you grow a heart? You’re going to make me cry,” he said with a mock sniffle as he pretended to wipe away a tear from his eye.

  I yanked hard on the steering wheel, screeching across lanes of traffic to pull over to the curb. Thrusting the car into park, I reached over and dragged Oscar toward me by his collar until we were nose to nose.

  “You need to step very carefully, hermano. You’re dangerously close to finding your smart ass with two bullets behind your ear.”

  He tried to shake me off as best he could in the small confines of the car, but I held fast to his shirt.

  “You’ll follow my orders. I’m going to phone Mia in the morning. You make the arrangements with your brother-in-law, and if we bring anyone in, it’ll be Carmen. Even though I can’t stand the puta, I want a soft place for her to sleep. She’s to have anything she wants anytime she wants it. I don’t want your suggestions, your warnings, or your criticism. You’ll shut the fuck up and do what I tell you.” I let go of him, shoving him back into his seat.

  “Yeah, man. Okay,” he said as he tried to smooth the creases in his shirt. “I just want you to keep your eye on the goal. I didn’t mean to cross you.”

  “Next time, don’t interfere, and you’ll be fine. Keep your mouth shut and your opinions to yourself.”

  We rode the rest of the way to the club in tense silence. I knew Oscar was pissed and would likely go crying to El Tuerto, but I’d cross that bridge when I came to it. First, I had to visit Cisneros.

  I pulled up outside the club, leaned over, and opened Oscar’s door, jerking my thumb toward the street.

  “Get the fuck out. I’ll call you when I have the details in place. For now, just do your part with your sister’s husband.”

  “I’ll be waiting,” he said ominously before climbing out of the car.

  As soon as I pulled away from the curb, I was dialing Cisneros’ number. It was almost eleven o’clock, but El Tuerto was expecting word tonight.

  “Belisario,” the undersheriff said in greeting when he picked up the call.

  “Tonight’s the night, Cisneros. El Tuerto’s run out of patience. We have a shipment of weapons coming in tomorrow the Soldados are already targeting. We need to have Bernard on board, so things run smoothly this time.”

  “I don’t see how showing our entire hand to Leo will give you the cover you need for tomorrow night. You know he doesn’t want to be involved.”

  “Let me put it to you this way, José. If you don’t get him to meet with me tonight and get a deal sealed, it just might be your daughter who pays the price,” I warned him as I navigated the streets toward his house.

  “Is that a threat, Dantes? Don’t forget I can take your entire cartel down.”

  “You can’t do shit as dirty as your hands are. It’s not a threat, amigo. It’s a promise. I’m almost at your place. You can call Bernard from the car.”

  “Fuck. I’ll meet you outside,” he said angrily. I had no doubt he resented finally being forced to do what he’d promised all along someday.

  When I pulled up in front of the gated house, Cisneros was waiting at the curb. He climbed in almost as soon as I stopped.

  “Call him,” I demanded as I turned the car around and headed back the way I came. “Tell him to meet us at my club within the hour.”

  “He’s not going to want to take a chance on b
eing seen there.”

  “I don’t give a fuck. Tell him to wear a hat and glasses, whatever. Just make sure he knows if he doesn’t come, we’ll be at his doorstep, and he can explain to his wife why we’re there.”

  Cisneros didn’t need any more convincing. He made the call, and though Bernard gave him plenty of pushback at first, by the time we pulled into the parking lot at The Pink Pistol, he agreed to be there shortly after midnight.

  18

  Mia

  We got as far as the lobby of Dantes’ building, only to be stopped by the security guard. There was no answer when he rang Dantes’ apartment, which only further heightened my anxiety. It was late, and though it wasn’t uncommon for a strip club owner to not be home before midnight on any given night, my mind was running straight to every worst-case scenario I could come up with.

  “Carmen, what if something really has happened to him? What will I do?”

  “Don’t panic just yet, Mia. There’s a really good chance he’s at the club. We’re bound to learn something about him, even if he’s not.”

  I tried to buoy myself with the thought we’d find him at the club, no longer worried he didn’t want to see me anymore. My only concern was seeing with my own eyes he was fine. I’d deal with the rest once I did.

  When we came through the door to the club, the heavy bass of the loud music, punctuating the bump, grind, twist, and turn of the dancer on stage, assaulted my senses like sandpaper on skin. I didn’t want to be there, knowing Dantes would be beyond angry with me for coming again, assuming he was okay, that is. My fear for his safety pushed me forward as Carmen and I wove our way through the throng of men waving dollar bills. She grabbed my hand as she led me toward the back of the club, to the doorway next to the DJ’s booth. The door had been guarded the last time we were here, but today it was surprisingly unattended. Never being one to shy away, Carmen pushed the curtain aside and strode into the dimly lit hallway. There were three doors, two on the left, one on the right. Fortunately, each bore a sign, so we wouldn’t have to peek into each one to find the office.

  The one on the right was marked for dancers, so I assumed it was their dressing room. The first door on the left was the restroom, so Carmen forged ahead to the last door. Not missing a beat, she grabbed the knob and pushed in as if she had every right to do so.

  Four faces stared back at us, two startled and scared, one blank. The fourth went from surprised to seething within mere seconds.

  “What the fuck, Carmen?” Oscar growled as he stepped forward to push us back. “I told you not to come back, and certainly not with Mia.”

  I blinked rapidly as I took in the sight of Carmen’s dad seated in front of Dantes’ desk, my own father sitting stiffly next to him.

  “Dad?” I blurted out. “What are you doing here?”

  “Mia, you need to leave. I’ll explain everything when I’m done, but you can’t be here.”

  I looked at Dantes, hoping to see some expression on his face. My emotions were a riot of relief, he seemed to be physically fine, disappointment he obviously had just decided not to call me back, and deep confusion as to what my father was doing in Dantes’ office in the middle of the night. Dantes’ face remained a blank stare, giving no hint what was going on in his mind. I would have preferred to see him outraged at my defiance of his prior orders, but again, there was nothing to be seen.

  “Is this why you haven’t been returning my calls?” I asked, grasping to make sense of the entire scene. “Is my father threatening you?”

  “Quite the opposite,” my father muttered.

  Dantes finally shook himself out of his stupor.

  “Mia, why are you here?”

  “Why? Because you’re not returning my calls! I’ve been bouncing between worrying something bad happened to you and the possibility you’d dumped me without bothering to let me know.”

  “This isn’t the time or place,” he said through gritted teeth, one hand gesturing to the men in front of him. “As you can see, I’m more than a little busy.”

  “I don’t care if the Pope himself is next in line! What the hell is going on?” I demanded, digging in my heels and giving Oscar a warning look as he started to move in my direction. Dantes waved him away as he stood, eyes carefully focused on mine.

  “Excuse me, Sheriff Bernard, Undersheriff Cisneros. It seems your offspring require some tending to,” he said gruffly. My father looked like he wanted to say something but was biting his tongue. Jose merely looked at Carmen and shook his head, obviously used to her turning up wherever and whenever she felt like it.

  “Come on, Mia,” Dantes said, putting his hand on my shoulder and turning me around. “Let me walk you back to your car.”

  “No! You won’t usher me out of here like you did last time. You’re going to tell me exactly what’s going on and why you haven’t returned any of my calls.”

  “Don’t make a scene,” he chided me as he tried to move me forward, but I still wasn’t budging.

  “If you don’t want a scene in your little club,” I sneered, leaning forward, putting us almost nose-to-nose, “I suggest you drop your hand and start answering my questions. Why have you gone silent on me?”

  “Mia…” he choked out as one of the dancers squeezed past us in the narrow hallway outside Dantes’ office. “It’s not so simple. Please. Just go home.”

  “No. If you won’t tell me why you’ve decided to dump me, fine, be a coward. At least tell me what my father is doing in your office.”

  “It’s business. Nothing that concerns you,” he said, pressing me further away from the open doorway.

  “The hell it doesn’t!” I shouted, pushing right past Dantes again, into the office. I stared down at my father, watching the shame travel across his face.

  “You warned me against Dantes seventy different ways, and now here you are, doing business with him?”

  “Mia, do what you’re told. Go home. Don’t stick your nose in affairs that are none of your concern.”

  “I’m sorry, but I think it’s well within my business to learn my father is the biggest hypocrite in the city. It’s probably every law-abiding citizen’s business to know their Sheriff is hanging out with people he insists are known criminals.”

  “Mia,” Dantes growled from over my shoulder. “That’s enough. You and your father can have your confrontation some other time. Right now, I want you out of my club and out of my life.”

  That was the ice water on the fire that’d been searing through my veins. I looked at Dantes, astonished he was so callous. I wasn’t sure what I expected coming to The Pink Pistol, but that wasn’t it. If I was honest, I think I’d been expecting him to take me in his arms and reassure me that my imagination was working overtime. Instead, my worst fears were realized.

  “Wh-what did I do? I thought we straightened everything out last week.” I said, stumbling over my words.

  “I thought so too, and yet here you are, standing in my office, in the very club I told you never to visit again.”

  “Because you slammed the door on me! I tried your apartment first, but you weren’t there. What was I supposed to do, just sit home and wonder what happened, never knowing if you were okay?”

  “As you can see, I’m fine,” he said with a lift of his shoulder. I couldn’t believe he was so indifferent. “You are too much effort, Mia. I have enough responsibility with my work and now, with a new venture with your father and Carmen’s. I can’t have a woman I need to babysit, too.”

  “I know this is my father talking through you. He refused to do business with you unless you agreed to stay away, isn’t that it? I can’t see my father compromising his future otherwise.” I turned my head to look at my dad, but he closed his eyes and shook his head.

  “Go home, Mia. I’ll be by after I’m done here and we’ll talk,” he said.

  “Listen to your father,” Dantes said.

  “Come on, girl,” Carmen chimed in, putting a hand on my arm. The cacophony of voices a
round me, telling me to leave, to go home, to go anywhere, pressed in on me.

  “All of you stop!” I shouted, startling everyone in the room. I whirled on Dantes, pointing a finger directly at his chest. “You’re a bastard. You could at least have had the decency to come explain how you felt rather than let me worry for a week. There’s one thing my dad is right about, you’re scum.”

  I spun away to face my father, my finger still sticking straight out in accusation.

  “You’re trash, too. You want to pretend to be honest Sheriff Bernard, pillar of the community, but you’re just as corrupt as the rest of them. You two should work well together, you two-faced backstabbing assholes!” I shouted before bolting from the room.

  Carmen was right next to me when my feet hit the sidewalk in front of the club. I stalked toward my car, tears streaming in angry rivers down my face. At least I hadn’t started crying in front of Dantes and my father. That would have only made me look even more like the little girl they seemed to think I was. I released the locks on my SUV with my key fob as I came alongside it. Fortunately for Carmen, she was doing a good job of keeping up with me because I wasn’t slowing down for any reason.

  “So, what do you know about this cartel business?” I asked after I’d pulled out into the nighttime traffic. I was headed for my loft and the two bottles of wine in my kitchen cupboard. I planned to chase away all thoughts of Dantes, my father, and whatever organized crime they were involved in, but I knew that wouldn’t happen until I passed out. It seemed as good a time as any to learn what Carmen knew.

  “Not a lot. I know Dantes and Oscar are involved with the Desalmados. Surely, you’ve heard things about them in the media.”

  “Only here and there. I recall there were reports of a war between them and another group about a year ago when their leader was found murdered in an abandoned warehouse.”

  “I don’t know much other than that, except to say they pretty much own the city now,” she replied as she reached into her purse and withdrew a pack of cigarettes. “The tidbits I overheard from my dad led me to believe he has a close association with the tenientes in the city. Do you mind if I smoke?”