Page 90 of Empire of Carnage
“Glad you could join us, Ronan,” Carolina said in a cheery voice. “You were always like a brother to me, you know?” She sighed. “Way more than that pendejo César.”
Ronan’s jaw hardened, the muscle bulging as his brain slowly pieced together what was going on.
“What’s your plan?” he asked.
“Well,” she drew out the word. “My big sister is going to pick one of you to die, before I kill her.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because you don’t get to have everything you want if I didn’t. And let’s face it, neither of these cabrones fucking deserve it either.” She pointed her gun at all three of my men.
“And if she doesn’t?” Ronan squinted like the pain of the hit to the head was catching up to him.
“Then I’ll make her watch me killallof you, before I kill her.” She placed her index finger over her lip like she was thinking. “In fact,” her eyes widened, “Iwillkill you all.” She laughed loudly, clapping her hands together. “Why leave witnesses? We just upped the stakes again hermanita. Now we're choosing who you get to watch die, while the others die after watching me kill you.”
I turned my head to the side, my eyes burning straight into Fernando Garcia’s hateful stare. He thought he was clever, that he’d fall to his knees for my sister and somehow steal it all out from underneath her.
Lackeys with too much ambition always thought they could rule. They didn’t understand the game, they didn’t know the logistics, and they certainly weren’t blood thirsty enough for it. At least Carolina had the taste for it, even if she was shit at the admin portions of the job.
“Hurry up, or I’ll choose for you.” She demanded.
“Choose me, flower,” Ronan said softly, “There isn’t a world for me if you aren’t in it and I can’t watch any of you die.”
I shook my head, tears pooling at my eyelids as I refused to make the decision.
“It’s me, morena. Say it,” Santos demanded but I hung my head down, looking away from all of them. “Don’t make me go through this again.”
“I can’t,” I refused, crying as my entire world crashed around me and I realized there was no one left to save us, there was no one who would care.
Fletcher was dead and gone, César had gone back to his motorcycle club, and we… we had been bested, just a foolish and rookie move was enough to be the blade in our guillotine.
“How romantic,” she said sarcastically. “You have two minutes.” Her voice dropped to an icy tone as she stepped back and sat on the piano bench, noisily clanking the keys without an ounce of skill in her bones.
When the worst thing that could ever happen to you finally happened, the whole world slowed down. You played every action, every thought or movement you had leading up to it, wondering if at any point there was any chance of it going any other way. If you could blame something other than yourself for leading down this path of no return.
“Caro! Stop! Let them go,” I cried, raising my head shamefully.
If there had ever been any doubt in my mind that I needed to kill her, if there had been any shred of love left inside of me for her, it had rotted and festered right before me. But that didn’t matter, because she was going to be the one getting the last laugh.
I’d already gone through the pain of losing Ronan… twice.
A third time would kill me.
But for once I didn’t have it in me to be a selfish bitch. He’d suffered my loss too many times as it was, and he didn’t deserve to watch me die. If that was the only gift I could give him in this life, it would have to suffice.
“Have you made your choice hermanita? Or shall I choose for you?” She spun her pistol towards Mateo, his big brown eyes full of fear.
I nodded slowly.
Every second up to this moment was still replaying in my head.
What could I have done differently?
What could I have changed?
Even if I had gone inside with them together, none of us had weapons on us after our flight.
Hindsight was more than twenty-twenty here.
