AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jesus nodded. “Well, you’ve made it extremely easy for me, so thank you.” He started tugging me again. “Let’s go, Lyse. Your father wants to see you, and so does Matteo.”
“Apá told Omar to do what he wanted with me,” I argued, fighting back. Was I absolutely crazy? This was my cousin; the man had literally no reason to hurt me, but the closer I got to the rubber dinghy, the more I dug in my feet and leaned my weight on my heels.
Jesus stopped and turned. His face was cold now, like a light had gone off, and all the emotion had leached from his expression. “Stupidputa,” he snarled and backhanded me. I hit the sand with athud.
Pain erupted in my cheek, and my hand automatically reached for my face. It was wet: he’d broken skin.If Omar sees this, he’ll die. The thought was an oddly calming one. “Apá sent you after me? To kill me?”
Jesus sneered. “I’m cleaning up the mess,” he said. Reaching behind him, he pulled a handgun out of a holster in the small of his back. He held it up and showed it to me, taunting me by waving it around. “I was supposed to take you back to Miami and dump you somewhere in their territory that was just public enough that it would be easy to find you. Felix would help pin it on the Castillos, and thatcabrónAngel would be carted off for good.”
I wanted to scream, to wave in the direction of the house, but if I did that, I was as good as dead. I could only hope that someone could see what was going on. “My father is going to start a war. The police aren’t going to cart Angel Castillo off over one dead girl, not when his brother got away with killing twenty. Apá isn’tthinking…why do any of you listen to him?”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” He clicked the safety off the gun. “But it doesn’t matter. Killing you here shouldn’t derail anything too badly if I bloody you up enough once I get back.”
He pointed the gun at my forehead. My chest went tight as fear bled through me, but instead of begging for my life, only one thought came to mind:
I didn’t get to tell Omar that I loved him.
CHAPTER26
Omar
THWACK!
The wooden siding of the dry dock exploded into splinters, and I hit the ground, falling back inside the door. Whoever was shooting at me had missed and blown their cover.Too bad for them, I thought, and a cruel smile worked its way onto my face.
This was just the sort of thing I needed today. Someone to tear apart with my bare fucking hands.
I reached inside the dry dock and grabbed a large steel wrench that was on the workbench, wishing I had time to open one of those crates stacked to the side. When I peeked out the door, I saw two men. One had a gun plain in his hand, the other did not.Pendejo. They weren’t my brother’s men. Angel had yet to see to his promise to send men after me, though I doubted he would be sending anyone toshootme. So that meant they were sent by Luis Rojas.
Using the doorframe as cover, I aimed at the gun-wielding lackey first and let the wrench fly. It struck him in the forehead and he sprawled on the ground. Before the other had time to react, I burst through the door and tackled him to the ground. I grabbed the wrench from where it had fallen and brought it down again and again until the man’s face was unrecognizable, and my face and chest were spattered with blood and other viscera.
I picked up the dropped handgun. If there were these two, there would likely be more. I stood, and on the beach, farther away than I would like, was a man who had a gun trained on Lyse. I raised the gun in my hand, aiming, and while I could hit a target at this distance, I couldn’t risk hitting Lyse.
Instead, I bellowed and started running. The man jerked at the sound, and Lyse sprang immediately, tackling him around the middle, knocking him off his feet.My girl is so damnclever, I thought. My chest swelled with pride.
I hit the sand, and it slowed me down.Goddamn it. Lyse grappled with the man for his gun, but he rolled them, getting the upper hand. He attempted to hit her with the butt of the gun. He didn’t get a chance before I was on him.
“You think you can touch her, fucker?” I spat, dragging him back and throwing him down. He tried to raise the gun against me, but I put my knee into his forearm and rained my fists down on him. “Did Luis send you?” I demanded, and all I received as a response was gurgles.
He went limp, and with the amount of damage to his face, I assumed he was dead. I looked at Lyse, who was lying on the sand, panting. I looked down at the body I was kneeling on. He didn’t stir; his face looked concave. I got off of him and went to her, helping her to her feet. There was a small cut on her cheek. It was enough to make me want to kick the bastard again. “Your cousin?” I asked.
She nodded, looking at him. “Jesus.”
I sighed. “I keep killing your cousins,conejita.” I wondered if I should start apologizing.
“He was going to kill me and blame it on your brother,” she said. “He deserved what he—” Lyse let out a scream and pushed me as hard as she could at the same time as I heard the booming explosion of a gun going off. I hit the sand with Lyse on top of me.
Jesus wasn’t quite as dead as I thought…but he was a shit-poor shot. Jesus tried to aim the gun again, but he collapsed back onto the sand. Lyse was trembling on top of me. “It’s okay,conejita.”
She shook her head and pointed. I followed the direction of her arm and froze. Helena was standing farther up on the beach, clutching her shoulder. Bright red was gushing down her arm and dripping into the sand. “Mierda!” I scrambled to get up, and I pulled Lyse with me. I needed to deal with Jesus…but I couldn’t abandon Helena.
I looked down at the bloody mess of the man and took his gun. I popped the clip and emptied it before tucking the gun into my pocket. “Helena,” I called to the woman, practically dragging Lyse up the beach.
“Is he dead,jefe?” Her teeth were chattering together. She was going into shock.Shit.
“Dead,” I said, “or mangled beyond all recognition. His own family won’t know him.” We reached Helena, and I saw immediately that the bullet had ripped a hole in her shoulder, but at the very least, she had both an entry and an exit wound. No exploratory surgery in the kitchen this time.
“Come on,” I said. “I’ll show you how—”
