Page 77 of Empire of Carnage
“Espérense pendejos,” I shouted. The insult had Ronan stopping in his tracks abruptly forcing me to slam into the concrete wall that was his body.
He turned to face me, a scowl on his face that loosened once he eyed me up and down and appreciated that I’d listened to his demands.
“Thank you,” he whispered into my mouth, gripping my jaw with one hand and forcing me on the tips of my toes in order to collect the kiss from him.
“One more thing,” I said, forcing a single eyebrow to raise up from him.
He didn’t ask, he just waited.
“There was a bird in that basement.” His expression became even more confused. “If he’s still there. I want him,” I told him, not leaving room for discussion.
“Do you want the lion too?” Mateo laughed.
I clucked my tongue in annoyance as I shoved him to the side. The four of us broke up and headed for separate entrances.
“How do you plan to get to Sokolov without drawing attention to yourself?” Mateo asked.
I gave him a knowing tilt of my head without explaining anything.
“Sunshine, I promise you if he sees an inch of your body tonight, he dies by my hands.” His expression was serious, fully devoid of humor.
“I guess we shall see.” I winked, picking up the pace and walking ahead of him.
I slipped on my coat and nervously patted at it after fastening the buttons, hoping the vest was well hidden underneath. Mateo slipped on his suit jacket and did the same. It was bulky as hell, but these idiots weren’t paying enough attention. They didn’t know we were coming.
That alone would be their ending.
We paid our cover fee and walked in through the front door, the bouncer unchaining the velvet lined rope after checking our fake IDs matched the names on the list that Taylor had hacked into and gotten us on. I set off the metal detector just as I had expected, but I stuck my boots out, letting the metal buckles clink loudly to justify the alarm. The guard ran the hand paddle over my body, seemingly satisfied when it only sounded after he brought it down to my boot buckles once again and let us go.
The purple velvet covering every inch of the place smelled of stale smoke and none of the hanging neon lights matched. I was overly made up, playing the part of arm candy while Mateo had the ID of some well-to-do billionaire Taylor had conjured up for him and put on the club’s VIP list.
The same list all the vile men who came here to purchase women were on. We walked through dark halls together while some less than cheery bikini-clad server led us to the area where the show would be.
Calling it a show made my stomach churn.
Flashes of memories cut through my mind like shards of glass, broken and fragmented from the drugs they’d pumped into my body after days of starving me. I slowed down, palms sweating as I realized what killing Allisher Sokolov would mean to me.
A freedom in a way.
The death of Cecilia.
The death of everything I had pretended to be while running away from who I truly was. The death of an entire world inside of me really, according to Yevtushenko.
We had been sitting at our booth for less than two minutes before a cocktail waitress came by to get our orders. Mateo asked for a soda with lime, she eyed him suspiciously but jotted it down anyway.
“Fortaleza?” I asked, and she nodded her head.
I held up two fingers indicating I wanted a double and she turned away to fetch our drinks. The stage lights flashed on just as she set our glasses in front of us. I reached for the glass, ready to put the straw in my mouth but Mateo covered the top of the glass with his hand, shaking his head at me.
“Not here.”
I didn’t have to ask why. There were a million reasons, and though I wanted a drink to calm my nerves I also knew I needed to do this with a clear head. Clean, fast, and viciously.
And there was no way I was gonna beat Mateo to him if I was drunk.
“I’m going to the bathroom, text me if things start to seem off,” I whispered in his ear, sliding past him on the booth and feeling his hands cup my ass while I slid by.
I ignored his low growl, walking past all the other tables and not taking notice of the disgusting filth who assumed the shape of men, waiting to buy a girl. The cocktail waitress pointed the women’s bathroom out to me and thankfully I seemed to be the only one in the building who wasn’t already working here.
