Page 27 of Empire of Carnage
“We should be able to track him down within the week,” she said confidently.
“How do you figure?” I asked.
“This dungeon is the central hub. There’s sixteen total throughout México. Four of them never got locked down when my papá died, that’s what he’s been working with this entire time. The other twelve I can open through the command station with Taylor’s help.” She walked over to a large table dusting it off to show a map. “Every dungeon is connected to this one, through a tunnel system. Once I open up all the doors, he’ll know I’m here. Either he’ll go scurrying like a rat and go into hiding, or he’ll take the bait and come straight to me.”
“Is that what you want?” Santos asked her, the scar on his face was finally starting to lose its shine.
“I’m not afraid of him anymore. Let him come, less work for me.”
Ronan’s phone rang, breaking the intensity of the moment. He stepped away to take the call and I turned back to her. She looked as beautiful as ever, radiant.My sun. She wore her makeup heavier than usual, to cover the scar on her face.
The scar didn’t take away from her beauty.
It enhanced it.
It told the story of her strength and her refusal to die in a world that wanted nothing more than to bleed her out. Fuck. She was a goddamn reckoning, and she was coming for them all. It was an honor to be considered worthy enough to stand at her side and watch it happen.
But all I wanted to do was reach out and touch her. Slide my hands between her legs and bend her over one of the desks and fuck her senseless. She was so wound up from the stress and the crushing weight of all the expectations that came with being her father’s daughter.
I couldn’t do that.
Not in front of her men, her soldiers.
I knew she played a calculated game and that to be respected she needed space.
But I hadn’t touched her in days, and I was ready to die because of it, I was sure. She cocked an eyebrow at me like she could read my thoughts. She shook her head and turned abruptly to say something to César in Spanish. Then Ronan stepped back into our circle with a pissed off look on his face, his jaw muscles ticking hard like the whole world pissed him off.
“Something’s happening in Cove City,” he said to me before looking over to gauge Celia’s reaction.
She didn’t have one. She wasn’t just damn good at the game, she was a prodigy, carefully cultivated by a monster of a man who genuinely thought he was doing the right thing. The life was a wicked game, and we are all just pieces on a chess board, waiting to be knocked over.
“You’re leaving then?” César spoke for her as if he could sense her lack of words was due to anxiety.
“I gotta sort some things out. I’m surprised your men haven’t called you. The Bratvas are sending threats, and the Crows are spread thin in multiple directions and with no purpose. I gotta figure out the future for my men.” He looked at both me and Santos, the question was there in his eyes, but he couldn’t ask it.
I shook my head.
“It’s you brother, it’s always been you. Go handle it and come back to us.” I tilted my head before slapping my hand on his shoulder, giving him my vote of confidence.
“You won’t go with him?” she asked, concern spread over her face.
“He doesn’t need us, morena,” Santos said from a chair, his arms resting comfortably on his thighs with his shoulders hunched forward.
“And I do?” Shit, she was offended. “Fuck that,” she spat out. “All three of you can fucking go. Deal with your Crows desmadre and then come back together.” She waved her fingers between the three of us angrily.
César choked out a laugh like the asshole he was. Santos huffed out a response, and Zerkos smirked, seeming happy enough to not be on the biting side of her anger for once.
“If you’re opening up these dungeons, you’ll be exposed, vulnerable for your uncle to try something. I’d feel better if at least one of us stayed,” I told her, finding myself with a shovel in hand, ready to dig my own grave.
“You don’t think the hoard of bikers can protect me from the big bad wannabe cártel jefe but you can?” She pouted her lips seductively and stepped closer to me, running her index finger from the center of my sternum and slowly dragging it down.
My breath hitched as she got lower. I could hear César pretending to suck something out of his teeth to distract himself from the moment.
She was dangerous as fuck when she wanted to prove a point.
“Or that the men I’ve collected who’ve sworn their allegiance to me, who’ve dropped to their knees for me, they aren’t capable of keeping me safe like you can?”
“That’s not it, sunshine,” I said with an exhale, feeling frustrated that her past had shaped her to believe that having people who cared for you somehow made you seem weaker. “It’s that there are three men in this room who would likely eat a bullet if they found out somethingelsehappened to you while we were gone.”
