Page 75 of Empire of Carnage
“Something about having you watching over us makes me feel warm and safe inside,” I told her.
“Well, good thing I’m always watching then,” she said, raising her eyebrows up suggestively, making me laugh.
“Let me know if you need anything, seriously. I’m grateful you’re here. I’m grateful for all that you’ve done,” I told her, implying that I had been made aware that if it weren’t for her, Ronan would be dead right now.
“Even death can’t separate me from those fuckers, Celia. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me.” She smiled, assuring me I had no debt to her because her loyalty was to my men.
Which was more than fine with me because their loyalty belonged to me.
“I consider it a privilege, so let me know if I can help you make yourself comfortable here.”
“Just point me to a sexy woman who likes cars and I think I’ll be just fine around these parts.”
“I’ll keep my eyes out,” I told her, taking that as my cue to stop bothering her and let her continue her work.
She was already tracking down Sokolov for me, but now she was trying to find Carolina too. She really was the best at what she did, and I was thankful every day to have her on my side. My heels clicked over the smooth concrete floor, and I sent a text to Mateo to let him know I’d be heading home from the dungeons.
“You’re lighting a candle before we leave?” he asked as I held the match over the wick on the seven-day candle encased in glass.
“Yes, mi vida,” I told him, pouring a fresh shot for La Madrina and dropping an unlit cigarette on her altar.
“What if it burns the house down?” The look on Mateo’s face was so innocent and cute it made me smile.
“I promise you it won’t.” I grabbed my packed bag off the bed, but he ripped it from my hand to carry it himself.
“It could happen,” he mumbled.
“She wouldn’t do that to me.” I assured him, knowing Santa Muerte took care of her children.
“Zerkos said the jet is loaded.” His tone switched into business mode like it did anytime we talked about cártel related things.
It worked. All of us, doing this together. It somehow made sense, we were moving like a well-oiled machine, and I depended on my guys with my life. On top of that, I’d found myself a solid council who I trusted to call out my bullshit,respectfullyof course. I was only so tolerable. I was counting all my blessings and I knew they would only keep coming if I let Death loose so she could play.
When you were exposed to darkness so young, it just became something you had to embrace inside yourself. I knew now the only way to not hate myself was to love even the worst parts of myself.
After all, they were the parts that had kept me alive all this time.
29
Celia
Between Susana’s knowledge of her father’s day to day life and Taylor’s incredible tech-stalker skills it was a piece of cake pinpointing where we were likely to find Sokolov.
Because I’m a spiritual kind of pendeja, I thought it was quite symbolic to pick Friday at midnight, when he was sure to be at the very strip club he’d kept me prisoner in for nearly a week. The very place where he drugged me and sold me like cheap meat at the market. If I was lucky, I’d get to free some girls from that very same fate tonight.
Mateo’s hand found mine in the backseat of the car, squeezing it tight and ignoring the nervous sweat as if it didn’t bother him at all.
“Hey,” he whispered nervously in my ear.
“Hmm?” I answered quietly so that the conversation stayed between the two of us.
“I can’t promise to hold back when we go in there.” He furrowed his eyebrows in the middle, creating a hard crease.
“His death belongs to me.” I growled.
“No Sunshine, his death belongs to all of us. I watched helplessly while you almost died because of the drugs he pumped into your system. He killed my men.” He didn’t stand down.
“Mateo,” I gritted out, hating having to get stern with him.
