Page 100 of Empire of Carnage
Lucky for me.
I’d heard how she was using her inheritance to try to fix the steaming heap of shit that had become The United States. Despite his dying it looked like Arlan Black wasn’t going to be leaving a gap at all. My heart pained when I thought about the country I’d spent my youth in. For years I begged my brother to come home, to relocate his motorcycle club and bring Los Diablos Locos south of the border.
The US was controlled by the church now, it was no place for Devils.
But this little girl had all the answers apparently.
That’s what people said.
“Miss Black.” I stood from my chair and extended my hand out to her.
She gripped firmly, a glazed over look to her eyes as she stared through me blankly. She cleared her throat and let go, sitting down in the chair across from my desk.
“I’m grateful you took the time to meet me, Señora Presidente. I’ve heard so much about the great things you’ve done for your country.”
“Please, you can call me Celia. And it seems our mutual friend has great respect for you, how could I turn you down?”
“Dr. Emory O’Connor is the very reason I went back to the United States after finishing school. I would have preferred to leave it all behind, to let it all burn behind me—”
“But it’s not in your nature?” I asked.
“No, it very muchis. But that’s the problem isn’t it? Sometimes seeing something through to the end isn’t just about leaving it behind, it’s about fixing the damage. Even if you weren’t the one who caused it,” she explained with a sentimental look on her face.
“Why do you care what happens to the Americanos?” I didn’t hide the suspicion in my expression.
“Can I be frank with you? You seem like a woman who’s seen it all.”
I sat back into my chair and crossed my arms over my chest with a nod. She took notice of the Santa Muerte statue on my bookshelf and smiled.
“I know that you know what my family is capable of doing. And I also know whatyouare capable of Señora Presidente, because I’veseenit. I’ve dreamt of your necklace made of teeth, I’ve dreamt of the scar on your back and your childhood villa burning down, twice.”
“Excuse me?” I leaned forward, my mind running wild with thoughts of betrayal and the breach in my security that I was going to have to address.
I was too old to be killing my own men, too in the public eye. The deeper I got into politics the more I entwined the cártel into it, blending the two into one so that no one could tell them apart. It was my second term, and in my six years in office we’d fixed most of the country’s violence, drugs, and poverty. México’s currency stood amongst the highest in the world. I knew that when the time came for me to step down, the divide would begin once more, and that would all depend if my successor and I would see eye to eye.
After all Señora Presidente was just a temporary title, Reina del Cártel was my fucking name.
“Relax. My family has been contracted with… a deity, for generations.” She looked back at La Flaquita knowing she didn’t need to explain herself.
She didn’t.
Where she was contracted to whatever demon held her leash, prisoner to doing their bidding, I was just a servant of death. Devoted to her, merely a child at her altar accepting whatever love she would give me in return for my offerings.
“There is a reason why we are the ones putting people in power. I’ve been getting glimpses of your past for the last two years, now most recently I’ve seen your future.” She smirked.
I hardened my eyes, not trusting this overly cheery stranger who dared speak so openly like she had no secrets.
“We’re going to do great things together, Celia Flores. The faster you accept it the faster we can clean up that mess.”
“What do you want from me?” I asked, knowing damn well she wouldn’t be here, revealing so much to me if I wasn’t already involved in her own mind.
“We’re going to fix the North.” She smiled big, the kind of smile that still hurt my face from time to time when the old scar pulled at my skin.
“An impossible dream,” I said. “What makes you think I would even want to?” she asked.
“Because it is no longer inyournature to leave things burning behind you.” She stood up from the chair and dropped a black card with a gold outline of a horned goat on it.
There was nothing more on the card at all.
