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At least the light on the porch is off. The only problem is the place is so lit up inside light exposes us as we mount the steps. One last glance around, they nod. A single slam of the small battering ram to the door sends all of us inside.
The room is filled with cigarette smoke. It’s not even a battle. I fire into the face of a man at the table. From the back, I hear them breaching the door. Screaming fills the room.
A bullet flies past me, too fucking close. I turn to fire, he’s already dead. Ninety seconds after we entered, it’s over.
It’s not enough. It isn’tfuckingenough. I still want to kill something. I empty the magazine into the closest dead body. Nothing.Fuck.
Unwilling to lose my shit in front of the men, I get the fuck out of the house while they retrieve everything they can to help find everyone who came into contact with them and destroy their world.
Jaw clenching tight. I stalk the alley.
Finally, they’re out. “What do you want us to do with the dead?”
Connor answers. “Valdez has—”
I cut him off. “I want you to reduce the place to rubble.”
They look from me to him. Then nod. Two men go back inside. I get into the SUV and wait for them. They’re back again quicker than I thought.
“What did you do?” I have no doubt it isn’t simply efficient, it wouldn’t come back on us.
“Gas leak, sir. Combined with the two crates of weapons in the basement will ensure it’s rubble.” One of the men is proud of his work.
I watch as the place explodes, turning the night into day before subsiding into a shuddering ball of fire. Satisfaction fills me. Around us, alarms are going off, and lights are coming on.
“Get me home,” I order the driver.
CHAPTER24
Manuel
I’m climbing the fucking walls waiting for the plane with Richie on it to land. My father is more than aware. He’s my shadow as I move throughout the house in an attempt to contain the violence within me.
“Come on.” He nods at me to the deck in the back.
I feel the talk coming. There’s no avoiding it. I follow him outside. Once the door is closed, he leans against the railing, pulls a joint from his pocket and lights it. His draw is deep, and he holds the smoke before exhaling. He offers it to me.
“What?”
He doesn’t retract his arm. “Smoke.” It’s an order.
Taking the joint, I inhale deep, allowing the smoke to heat my lungs then exhale. I try to give it back. He shakes his head. “Again.”
Motherfucker, this is what he wanted—me high and less agitated. I take another hit and give it back. “Enough?”
“You tell me. Am I going to have to tie your ass down? I’m something I’ve never been with you, worried.”
Because he’s not the only one, I take another hit. Exhaling slow. I give the joint back and finally, he takes it. “I promised her that I would never leave her without saying goodbye. And I did. She asks so little of me…”
I shake my head. “The last thing she told me before she got snatched was fuck you. She warned me she’d get rid of her tracker and run to hide from me. It’s why I allowed the plane to land here in Chicago instead of turning it around and sending her home. I wasn’t going to give her a choice. The pills to induce an abortion are upstairs.”
He sighs and shakes his head but doesn’t say anything.
“She would have eaten them with her breakfast. It was going to be simple and easy. One in four pregnancies end in a miscarriage. Sometimes the woman doesn’t even know she’s pregnant. If I had sent her back…” I take the joint and inhale so deep, it’s in my belly.
“But I had to control everything, including her. All I want is her. Everything else is the shit that keeps me from her. If I had said it, maybe she would have listened and gone back to Medellin.”
“We all remember our first kill, but do you remember your fourth? The family in Tijuana? Coke-head father with the shrieking wife?” He takes a final drag before letting it fall on the floor and stepping on it.
