Saved by a Sinner

by A G Henderson

  I met Narciso’s eyes confidently but it wasn’t him I was speaking to. “Tell me, Little Reaper, who do you belong to?”

  “You.”

  Eyes went wide. Bodies went still. Some looked at me with jealousy, betraying their want. Others with disdain. Others still with disappointment, there and gone in a heartbeat. It was the latter I concerned myself with. It was those I would give a single chance to when all hell broke loose.

  “Who decides whether you live or die?”

  Sylvia jerked away from my touch, but not as hard as she could have. “You do.”

  “And when the others start asking questions, what will you tell them?”

  She hung her head, rigid posture slumping. “That they have nothing to worry about.”

  Narciso chuckled, sounding like a demented child, and my skin crawled. “Well done, Carlos,” he nearly sang, starting down the steps slowly.

  That's right motherfucker. Come meet your maker. It's long overdue.

  A gummy grin took hold of his face when he was halfway down and didn't let go even when he stopped a couple feet from us. “Well done indeed. You've brought me the single finest present I've ever received.”

  Was now the time? He might never be this close again. The weight of the weapons on my body increased with awareness. Grab her, get on the floor and start shooting. Those might be our best chances because anything else-

  “Now open it.”

  I blinked, the only outward sign of acknowledgement I gave. But inwardly, my stomach pitched sideways, acid roiling. Muscle clamped down on bone so tight the creak of strain echoed in my ears. The cool indifference coating my veins became flowing magma, ready to sweep away everything in its path.

  “You heard him, Carlito.” Dante hitched the strap of his rifle higher on his shoulder, the threat clear. “Sometime tonight would be nice. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to take some pictures and send them to you before she gets too used up.”

  There was a whisper of movement at my back and I knew it was Isaac before he spoke. “Don't,” he said so quietly I could barely hear him.

  He didn't need to bother. We were already on the same page. There wasn't a chance I was going to do what was being asked of me. Not a chance in fucking hell.

  “I won’t,” I told the shorter man in front of me, voice firm.

  Narciso’s eyes narrowed, grin fading. “Is that right? You brought her to me. But where is your leverage? Unless you have none. Unless you’ve made the most foolish move of your young life and betrayed me.”

  I didn’t respond, taking a deep breath instead. When I let it out, I felt the old calm settle across my shoulders, burning away the rage and tension. Sylvia thought she was a monster, but there was one inside of me as well.

  Because when I let my gaze move around the room, taking in the people I had set my mind on killing, I felt nothing. No joy or anger or regret. There was only the woman before me, my brothers at my back, and the task at hand.

  Brainless as he was, Narciso had been around long enough to see me work. Whether he knew the extent of my betrayal or not, the look on my face had him taking a step backwards. Dante and Marcel both saw it, their grips on their rifles readjusting. The men around us bristled, looking at each other warily.

  There were hands moving towards holsters when a husky voice rang out.

  “Wait.” Sylvia’s single word drew attention from us like moths to flame. The chain links dangling between her wrists clinked together as she brought her hands up, yanking the hood over her head in one smooth motion.

  The eerie stillness of impending doom heightened as she gracefully stood to her feet, abandoning the pretense she might be under anyone’s control but her own. My eyes narrowed as she faced Narciso, head held high. I wished I could see her face.

  With a look, I would be able to tell what she was thinking.

  But she didn’t so much as glance backwards at me.

  Shoulders loose, she started walking forward. The rest of us remained in a bubble of suspended animation, waiting to see what would happen next. Sylvia stopped in front of the last known man personally involved in her torment and offered no pretense, only demands.

  “Let them go and I’m yours,” she said calmly. Manny popped his knuckles. Isaac cursed under his breath. I held myself like a statue and equally as quiet. “As soon as they disappear, I make one phone call to Creed and he stops being your problem.”

  Narciso glanced over her shoulder at me but I wasn’t sure what he was looking for. I was sure about how little I cared.

  Did she really think I would let her do this? Sacrifice herself for us?

  For me?

  Was she completely out of her fucking mind?

  An animalistic sound left my throat and I took a step forward. Before my foot landed, Sylvia had pivoted, turning to face me fully, freezing me where I was at the torment in her silver eyes. My heart was suddenly trapped in a juicer, slowly being squeezed to death.

  If any doubt remained about her intent, it had been sealed away as soon as she turned her back to the enemy. She would never allow herself to be put at such a disadvantage if she intended on making it out of here.

  Our stares locked, and I pleaded with her wordlessly. Why are you doing this?

  Her head tilted, a small, sad smile on her lips. Because I can’t lose you.

  Narciso scoffed, the sound harsh enough to make my woman’s eyes shutter. I watched, unable to do anything more as she hid her emotions behind an unreadable wall. “What makes you think I’ll agree?” he asked angrily. “I let them walk out of here, what keeps them from skipping town and bringing the Sinners down on my head? Or simply regrouping to finish the job themselves?”

  “Maybe we’ll finish it now,” Manny growled, stepping up beside me. Isaac said nothing but did the same.

  Sylvia took the three of us in without blinking and it was such a stark reminder of our actual introduction years ago I could almost hear fate laughing on my shoulder. She surveyed us the same as she had then. Weighing. Calculating. Preparing to save us again when all I’d ever wanted was to save her instead.

  “It won’t matter,” she said, ignoring us in favor of the piece of shit standing behind her. “Fleeing the city will automatically put them on our shit list. They’ll never be able to show their faces in the city again.”

  My hands balled into fists so tight they trembled. She was completely full of it. I knew it. She knew I knew it. And she didn’t care.

  The lie she was crafting had merit. Still, it wouldn’t last the night. Taking Narciso down had been personal, but whether we succeeded or not, his time was finished. Once Rockwell and his teams completed what they were doing, this would be over either way. The Cartel’s most prominent concentrations of money and weapons would be a footnote in someone’s ledger. Without those, they would be drastically weakened.

  Blood in the water, as some would say.

  And the men Sylvia called brothers were sharks at the top of the food chain.

  He would have no choice but to try and flee beyond the border when the truth came out. Which wouldn’t do my woman any good. He would either kill her and make his escape or try and keep her with him to smooth things over with his bosses.

  Neither option was acceptable to me.

  The music in the background cut out suddenly, only to be replaced by a voice coming through the speakers instead. “Testing. Testing. One...Two...Three.”

  Fuck. Now what? No one looked anymore sure than me. Several heads turned around, searching. Did they think whomever was speaking was going to pop out of a corner holding a microphone? Idiots. Then I glanced back towards Sylvia and found a recognizable grin on her lips.

  The one she tended to wear before the blades came out.

  It clicked for me then, who the speaker had to be. There was only one Sinner with the knowledge to pull this off.

  “I see lots of soon to be dead people looking around,” Tanner started. “So I guess y’all can hear me fine.”

 
; “You!” Narciso’s face was flushing an angry shade of red as he pointed at one of his thugs. “Get to the fucking security room, now!” Booted footfalls accompanied the man running down the hall and to the right. I could’ve told him not to bother. Once Tanner was in, no one was getting him out until he decided he was done. Either way, it meant one less gun.

  “While I hate to interrupt your regularly scheduled hostage situation, I would like to take this time to announce how incredibly easy it was to gain access to your systems. Dude, I know you’re old and all, but have you ever even heard of password protected?”

  Someone snickered and surprisingly, it wasn’t one of us. Narciso looked to be on the verge of having an aneurysm by how inflamed his face was getting. “I’ll see you dead, puta!” He railed at the ceiling. “You hear me? Dead!”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Something sounding suspiciously like a yawn floated through the room. “Can’t say I haven’t heard that one a time or two, or a hundred. If I give you my number, will you call and put it on my voicemail? I’ll be sure to respond to it... never.”

  Narciso turned his glare to me. “You did this. You told me she was the only one in the city.”

  Tanner clucked his tongue. “It’s rude to ignore someone when they’re talking to you, but that’s fine. My feelings aren’t hurt or anything. I only wanted to tell Sly two quick things and then y’all can feel free to get back to this tense standoff you were having.”

  His voice sobered. “First. I hope you’ll accept my apology.” She winced slightly and I wanted to bash his nose in once more. “Second. Genesis 1:2”

  Sylvia’s eyes went wide and she mouthed a single word: Down.

  I didn’t question it. I reached out to my brothers, pulling us towards the floor a heartbeat before the lights went out around us and the sound of something metal hitting the floor registered.

  CHAPTER 31 - Sylvia

  Apology accepted.

  “What happened?”

  “Find her!”

  “I can’t see shit!”

  I quickly spun and crawled backwards along the floor, ignoring the commotion around me and how good it felt to be freed from the handcuffs. Thank God Narciso had put his house so far outside the city. The mansion was surrounded by too many trees to receive any light from auxiliary sources. With Tanner having turned off any source of illumination in the house, this was the closest we could get to true darkness without being underground.

  It was a lucky break for us and one I planned on making the most of before the distraction was over.

  The command was familiar to me, so was the amount of time allotted. We’d run this gambit enough in training and in reality to know what was required. I had one minute before he turned the lights back on. Sight was useless and sound wasn’t far behind, but I didn’t need either at my beck and call for what I was hoping to accomplish.

  Counting the seconds in the back of my mind, I kept moving, following the overpowering smell of body spray until it was burning my sinuses. I reached out blindly, feeling scratchy blue jeans in my hand and dense muscle beneath it. He felt me at the same time but I was already yanking with all my might, pulling his foot out from underneath him.

  “Shit!” he cried, crashing to the ground. There was a dull thud I immediately recognized as human skull hitting an immovable object and his body jerked, falling still shortly after.

  Searching hands probed across his chest until I felt cool metal in my grip. Putting a knee center mass in case he wasn’t out of it, I wrenched it from his grasp and checked the safety. Off. Perfect.

  Pivoting on my heel, I lined the stock up with my shoulder and slid my finger inside the trigger guard before taking a deep breath.

  Ten seconds. I was praying Carlos had done what I asked as I exhaled and squeezed, aiming to my left where people had been gathered in the biggest grouping.

  I braced against the recoil but nothing could spare me from the deafening crack that left my ears ringing sharply. The muzzle flash brightly lit the room, showing me my man and his brothers were safely hunkered close to the ground, and giving me actual targets even as they dove desperately for cover. There were pounding footsteps behind me, retreating deeper into the house, but they weren’t my immediate concern.

  Light flooded the room once more and I swiveled to my right, letting quick bursts go one after another towards heads peeking around tables and furniture. Carlos and his brothers scrambled across the floor towards me, guns out, expressions fierce.

  Manny and Isaac went past us, most likely in the direction Narciso and whoever else was with him had fled. Carlos stopped at my side, attention shifting to the body near my feet. He put two bullets through the man’s chest without warning and began pulling me along in his wake, eyes scanning.

  Someone tried to run towards the front door and I didn’t hesitate. Red bloomed bright and vibrant on the white paneling as glass shattered and his body jerked before dropping to the floor. He landed about the same time I heard a frustrating click come from the weapon in my hand. I wasn’t the only one who heard it either.

  A body leaned out from cover, pointing death our way. My heart skipped and Carlos jerked me behind him. An instant later he raised his arm and a hole opened up dead center in the man’s forehead, then he was pulling us around a corner and out of sight.

  I quickly took in our surroundings while the ringing in my ears subsided. No wonder Narciso was the size he was. The man’s kitchen was big enough to feed an army. And there was another staircase, with an angry Manuel standing at the bottom of it using every curse word he knew in two languages.

  There was another body at his feet. I assumed it was the man who’d run to try and stop Tanner’s breach.

  Carlos tightly squeezed the arm still in his grip and I looked up into burning pools of golden brown. “Are you crazy? What the fuck was that?”

  I shrugged out of his grasp and pushed him back against the wall, holding his neck to keep me steady while I rose up on my tiptoes and placed a quick kiss on his lips. One of his arms banded around me, pressing us together. The satisfied rumble from his chest made me smile against him.

  “Really?” I recognized Isaac’s incredulous tone. “This couldn’t wait until people aren’t trying to kill us?”

  Carlos pressed his forehead against mine. “Answer me.”

  “I was saving your lives,” I said honestly. “I hope you’re not waiting on an apology because one isn’t coming. I told you that I can’t lose you. I won’t.”

  He pulled me impossibly closer until I had to spread my hands across his chest to make room. I could feel the beat of his heart against my palm. Steady and proud, just like the man himself. “You think I want to lose you?” he asked roughly. “You think that wouldn’t irrevocably destroy me?”

  He had me there, because I knew he was speaking the truth. “I don’t know what to say,” I told him.

  “Then say nothing, diosa. I have you once again and that’s all I need.”

  This man.

  The cabinets behind us exploded and we separated, instantly reminded of where we were. It wasn’t enough to keep my heart from overflowing but it did allow me to focus once more. We were together, but we weren’t out of the woods yet.

  Isaac returned fire down the hall before taking a longer look. Whatever he saw earned a grunt. “Front door is open. No movement.”

  Carlos pulled himself to his full height and I gave him room. “Did anyone else go up?”

  “No, I got the only one who tried.”

  “So the rest ran.” He emptied his clip and started reloading. “Text Raze, let him know what’s going on. Tell him he’s got several headed his way and to give them once chance. One. Fucking. Chance. To surrender their weapons.” I thought it was a mistake, and I must have made a sound saying as much because his attention shifted towards me. “Some were loyal, when they didn’t have to be. It doesn’t balance out their ledgers but they’ll owe me their lives. I can make use of that.”

  I offered him
a small smile and kept my mouth shut. When it came to violence, I had no issue taking the lead. Actual administration was something different, and I had no taste for it. If it were up to me, I would have Tone and Raze put the stragglers down without mercy. Dead men could never rise up and retaliate. But I trusted my modern day warlord.

  Part of trusting someone meant having faith they were making the right decisions.

  Isaac stepped towards me, carrying offerings I greatly appreciated. “Thought you might need these.” I grabbed my large knife first, hefting the familiar weight of it. Without the sheath I used to keep it on my back I would have to be careful, but I would manage. I tucked it against my hip and took the matte black Glock, running through the checks I knew by heart.

  “Thanks for holding onto ‘em for me.”

  He went back to his post overlooking the entryway. “It was my honor, reina.” My eyebrows went sky high. Queen? “Don’t look so surprised. Just because my brother doesn’t know how to say thank you for saving our lives, again, doesn’t mean I don’t.”

  Maybe I should’ve kept my self-imposed silence longer. Then I would be able to just...not respond, instead of looking so incredibly lost. But Carlos was moving, so I focused on that instead.

  “Who went up, Manny?”

  “Marcel, Aarón, and the fat man himself for sure.” I gave Manuel a lot of shit for being immature, but he was zoned in right then. Maybe more than any of us. “We never saw Jay so I’m gonna guess he’s up there as well. Even numbers, if that’s the case.”

  “Not quite.” Carlos glanced up the stairs then back. “We didn’t have a chance to check the rest of the grounds. Isaac, I need you-”

  Isaac was holding up a finger as he looked at something on his phone. “Good news. Rockwell and the rest of his teams are well underway. Not so great news is that he'll be coming this way once they're done.”

  The cold edge of the blade resting against my hips grew colder still. “I won't let Narciso be arrested. He dies. Tonight.”