Page 100 of Hellbent

“I am out of time,” Xavier said. “I swore the oath.” He held up his arm, showed the tattooed M at his elbow. “It’s written on my flesh. Know why they do that?”

“It’s good business,” Evan said. “Once you’re marked, you can’t ever join another gang. They own you. Which means they can treat you however they want and you can never leave.”

Xavier looked confused at that. “It’s to show allegiance. For life, get it?”

“Nothing is for life. We can remake ourselves in any image we want. One choice at a time.”

“I’m out of choices.”

“We’re never out of choices.”

“Know what their motto is? ‘Mata, viola, controla.’” Xavier snarled the words, suddenly the raw-boned gang member again. “‘Kill, rape, control.’”

“Their motto,” Evan said.

“What?”

“You said, ‘Their motto.’ Not ‘Our motto.’”

“I already robbed a store. I stole stuff from a truck. They make me collect from the putas. I brought one in today, and she … she got her face cut open.” Xavier put his hand over his mouth, squeezed his lips. “I’m already one of them.”

“Does anyone beyond this chapter know about you?”

“No. I’m just getting jumped in.”

“No one back in El Salvador?”

Xavier’s eyes shone with fear. “No.”

“You’ve got one chance to get out.”

Xavier paced a tight circle by the kitchenette, came back around to face Evan. “Why do you care?”

“I got into something when I was young,” Evan said. “I’ll never get out. Not clean. You still can.”

“What about them?”

“I can handle them.”

“You can’t do that. No one can do that.”

Evan just smiled.

Human engineering had been part of Evan’s training, no less than savate and marksmanship and endurance. He had been trained to disappear into a crowd and fire three-inch clusters at a thousand yards. He had been trained to intimidate, to make grown men afraid. He could convey breathtaking menace when he had to.

So he just smiled, and that was enough.

“You decide what you want,” Evan said. “And call if you need me: 1-855-2-NOWHERE. Say it back to me.”

Xavier said it back.

Evan started for the door. He’d stepped over the stripped gun and set his hand on the doorknob when Xavier spoke.

“This girl today, her face…” Xavier lowered his head. “There’s a point you cross where you can’t get yourself back. Where you can’t find, I don’t know. Redemption.”

“Every choice holds redemption.”

Xavier lifted his eyes to meet Evan’s. “You really believe that?”