Page 88 of Blurred Red Lines
“Is anyone out there? I’m an innocent American! Anyone? Help!”
“You’re far from innocent…Cereza.”
I froze at the hateful snarl of Val’s private nickname for me. My eyes followed the voice to the far-right corner as a light flickered against a short, fat cigar. Thin lips wrapped around the end and sucked hard, puffing on smoke as the orange ember lit up his face.
Manuel Muñoz.
I’d never seen him in person, but Val had shown me pictures on the plane to Mexico City. He’d fought me on the issue, but I’d been adamant on knowing the face of the man who’d ordered my brother’s death. Yet, seeing his picture, and seeing his face in person evoked two entirely different responses.
Val and Manuel grew up in the same country and were around the same age, but that was where the similarities ended. Manuel Muñoz’s shaved head depicted scenes of war and bloodshed, with tattoos covering most his scalp. A dusting of facial hair hid what was probably once a handsome face, only now, it scowled with evil and hatred beyond anything anyone could imagine. But it was his eyes that turned my stomach. They were coal black and void of a soul or anything salvageable as human being.
“You,” I breathed with contempt.
A cruel smile teased his lips as he rose to his feet and stood in front of me. Inhaling a long puff from his cigar, he blew the smoke in my face and licked his lips. “We finally meet, Eden Lachey.”
“Go to hell.”
“In due time; first thing’s first.” Holding the cigar in between clenched teeth, he curled his hand and attempted to reach underneath my dress.
Screaming, I jerked and twisted as best I could, revolted at the thought of his touch, but also realizing they never checked my thigh holster. I needed to keep my only chance for survival hidden from view. “Don’t touch me, asshole!”
“Calm down,” he laughed, releasing me and returning to his cigar. “I just wanted to feel the pussy that rendered Valentin Carrera’s balls useless.”
With my blood boiling, I forgot about my burning arms and swung my leg, landing a light kick straight to his dick. His face twisted in tortured pain, and he moved out of my trajectory, his body bent over and heaving. After moments of labored breathing, he straightened with a furious roar, and barreled toward me with a clenched fist. Holding my breath, I braced myself as bone cracked against bone, his knuckles driving into the side of my face with brutal force. Upon impact, my head snapped back as the chain swung above me. Spitting blood, I’d barely recovered, when he landed an even harder blow to my ribs, a sickening crack echoing in the silent room.
Coughing wetly, I held his stare. “You killed my brother, you son of a bitch.”
“Not personally.” He smiled, licking my blood off his fist. “That part, I regret.”
I tried to hold in my rage like Val had taught me and stared at him with a cold eye.
“Never show your hand,Cereza. Your next move is the only thing you have that your opponent doesn’t know.”
Returning my stare, Manuel paced around me like a wolf stalking its prey. “You’ve caused quite the international shit-storm, Eden Lachey.”
“Well, as they say, go big or go home.”
He laughed, baring his stained teeth. “I see why Carrera likes you. American women are—how do you say—lively.”
“Fuck you.”
“And then you say things like that and ruin a good conversation. Crudeness isn’t attractive in a mate, Eden.”
“Why don’t you let me down from here and fight me like a real man?” I taunted, hoping to get a rise out him. Without many options left for escape, I grasped at straws.
He laughed again, waving the cigar in the air. “I have no interest in fighting. I’d just put a bullet in your head and be done with you.”
“Then why am I still alive?”
“You’ve amused me.” Taking another puff, he pointed the lit end of the cigar at me and raised a thick, black eyebrow. “I also know Valentin has a soft spot for you. We all knew you’d be the one to lead us to him. I enjoy torturing Carrera, and I love a good show. But, then again, this isn’t my show.”
That caught my attention. “No?”
“No.”
“I didn’t take you for a yes man, Manny.” I managed a grin, despite my cracked and bleeding lips.
Returning my smile, his lips curved into a knowing smirk—as if he held a secret weapon about to be unleashed on the world. “Not a yes man…a partnership,puta.”
