My daughter.
The words feel foreign and yet so right at the same time. My heart aches for this little girl that I haven’t even met. I feel a hole within my chest start to knit but it’s not closed yet. It won’t be until I find her.
With that resolution, I turn towards the man bleeding out on the floor of the room. His eyes are swelled shut as he lies down. But he’s not dead yet.
Death would be too easy, a mercy I won’t grant. A sharp kick to the rips has him jerking awake. My lips pull up in a sadistic smirk as I stare at him. A worthy target of all my rage and anger.
“My scythe!” I call towards Raul who doesn’t hesitate to leave and grab the weapon.
I crouch down and grab Carlos by the back of his head lifting him until we’re eye level.
“You’re going to tell me where she is and who you’re working for,” I say the rage in my voice palpable enough that my chest shakes.
“You’ll have to kill me first,” he says brokenly.
I was hoping he’d say that.
“There are worse things than death,” I state. “First I’ll take the rest of your fingers. Every single one of them. And then I’ll gouge out your eyes. Perhaps I’ll cut off the hands that dared to harm what’s mine. Eventually, there won’t be any pieces of you left and you’ll still be alive.”
He gulps, fear causing him to start to shiver in my hold.
“I won’t stop there though. I’ll find your family. Everyone you care about and then I’ll make them pay for what you did as well. I don’t usually touch innocents but I swear to God if you don’t tell me where she is, you’ll wish you were never born. Everyone you love will die.”
“I don’t know where she is!” he shouts.
“Alright then. Have it your way.”
Raul returns and I begin to make good on my promises. I work fast knowing every second that passes is another that my daughter spends alone and scared without her parents. Soon enough, I’ve reduced Carlos to a husk of a man.
He gives me what I want when I slice off his ear. The screams echoing through my eardrums provide me no pleasure or satisfaction. My heart continues to thump with the knowledge that I have a daughter I might never get to meet.
“Ignacio!” Carlos screams. “He’s the one responsible. He has your daughter.”
A gasp erupts in the corner of the room. I completely forgot Liliana was still there, her presence dulling in the back of my head. I wonder what she felt watching me torture him and then I tell myself to stop because I’m not supposed to give a shit about her and her feelings.
If she couldn’t stand watching, she should have left.
Carlos’s revelation about Ignacio isn’t shocking in the slightest. I knew the slimy old man had something up his sleeve. This is beyond my imagination though.
“He asked me to kidnap them. Liliana and her daughter. He was going to use them to extort your family and get back everything you took. He would have used the baby to lure you to him. He wanted to kill you.”
“Where is she!” Liliana asks, her voice hollow as she moves to stand beside me. There’s nothing but disgust as she looks down at the man bleeding out in front of us. “Where’s my daughter?”
“I swear I don’t know,” Carlos gasps, clutching his ear with the few fingers left on his right hand.
“Then you’ve expended your usefulness,” I murmur before plunging a knife into his chest.
He falls backward in the next breath.
Liliana turns to me in shock, “He could have been lying!”
I wipe the blood off my hands with a towel Raul hands to me.
“He wasn’t.”
I whirl around and leave the room. I can hear Liliana following me, but I don’t look outside. When I step out, there’s a hubbub of activity. Elio is barking orders at some men to secure the area. Relief brightens his eyes when he looks at me, and then his gaze shifts to the woman behind me.
My heart fucking aches right now. I’m surprised it’s even working.
