Page 67 of Empire of Carnage
“Both of you are just like your mother. Bloodthirsty. Constantly thinking with violence first, assuming the Ortíz name still means anything around these parts and that you can use it to your advantage. You think just because you have both families’ blood in your veins it means you deserve this any more than I do?”
“You knew?” I asked him.
“Of course I fucking knew, we all fucking knew. The only person who didn’t was you and the sorry excuse for a man that was the Ortíz boy.” I barely gave him a chance to finish before putting the next bullet in his knee cap.
It was one thing to spew his mierda about me, but César was blameless in all of this.
“What do you know? Who killed Diego Ortíz?” I asked, hoping I’d get any crumbs that could help me unlock all the bullshit secrets our parents buried with them.
“Everyone knows Ortíz killed his own son.” He coughed, blood splatter flying everywhere.
“Why would he do that when he needed a successor?”
“He didn’t, at least not anymore. He was marrying your mother to be head of the Flores family. Diego was done, he wanted out. No one gets out alive, you know that better than anyone don’t you sobrina?”
“Thanks for the reminder, tío.” I stepped one foot at a time closer to him until I was standing over him.
I placed the heel of my stiletto over his bleeding kneecap and put my weight into it, ignoring his screaming pleas as well as his cursing and name calling.
There was no bird who could outsing a serenade by a man on the verge of death.
26
Mateo
There was nothing quite as chaotic as evacuating a building full of people whose language you didn’t speak. No wait, there was something that topped that. It was getting a text from Santos saying that Celia was headed to the villa to kill her uncle and that she somehow found a way to ditch him in the process.
He sent a photo of him next to a blown up Mastretta with text underneath saying, ‘SOS, probably will get killed by cártel soon’ and I practically bulldozed through every civilian in the crowd gathered outside El Palacio in order to find Ronan and rush the fuck out of there to our girl’s aid.
It wasn’t that I didn’t think she was capable of doing it herself. It wasn’t that I didn’t think she couldn’t handle the fight.
It was about how the fuck I was supposed to go on if she somehow needed me and I wasn’t there?
Again.
I peeled onto the main road, the tires screeching against the asphalt as the car drifted sideways before entering the grounds of the villa.
A burning sports car was now crashed into the front of the house, blocking the doorway. A portion of the upper level collapsed over it while the flames engulfed Celia’s childhood home. Ignacio’s men struggled and fought each other to climb out of the building as fast as they could, but each time one of them found their way out Santos would shoot them down.
I hadn’t fully parked the car before Ronan jumped out, in full Berserk mode he pulled two pistols out, firing them off simultaneously towards the incoming lackeys to give Santos a break.
“Where is she?” I roared out over the sound of bullets flying in the fire taking over the mansion.
He pointed to a balcony up in the distance.
“She went up through there,” he yelled.
“You let her go by herself?”
“I’m gonna fucking tell her you said that,” he thundered at me. “She’ll have your balls for saying anyoneletsher do anything.”
“I will actually pay you to keep your fucking mouth shut about that. Help me get up there.” I nudged him, both of us leaving Zerkos looking more than capable of handling the mess of men scrambling to get out of the villa just to be shot. The pile of bodies was making it harder for them to crawl out of the blazing embers.
“She was in there.” He pointed at the glass door that led to the veranda.
“Give me a boost up,” I told him. He didn’t hesitate, clasping his fingers together and sending me up with a grunt.
“Hey, what the fuck man? Help me up,” he called out from below while I ran into the house.
