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Someone who wants me dead.
“Your enchiladas are supposed to be the best in the city. Figured I should sample them myself. Heard they were to die for.”
“You heard right.” The woman nods, folding her arms over her chest. “And so today, you should be prepared to die.”
“I don’t know about that.” I take a step toward her. “It’s not on my list of to-dos today. But you know what is? Destroying your disease-ridden sex den.”
“And how do you plan to do that by yourself?”
With four AR-15s on me, I can’t exactly pull my own gun. But I can pull my knife.
Sudden and muffled gunshots crack into the air. Marisol’s scream shatters my ears. She falls to the ground like a lead weight. The men twist around to see where they came from, but with a quick glance behind me, I can see we’re still alone in the room.
The men dart out the door, leaving us alone. The woman turns toward Marisol, a tortured cry escaping her lips as she drops to the ground next to her daughter. I yank the woman back by her arm.
“She’ll be dead in minutes if you don’t cooperate.”
In a hot second, my knife is in hand and pointed at the woman’s jugular.
“Tell me where to find Luis.”
“Never.” With one hand, she clings to my arm. Her eyes widen when I press the blade into her throat. “It’s too late for you,” she rasps. “And your sister Charly. You’ll never see her again.”
Chapter39
Quinn
That fucking bitch.
I grit my teeth as I creep closer to the doorway in the back of El Mariachi, my finger pressed to the trigger of my Glock 19. Maria Rojas’ sinister voice slithers over my skin like leeches ready to suck the life out of me.
Tell me I didn’t hear that right. Tell me she’s not dangling Charly’s life in front of Val right now to save her own ass.
I know exactly what Val is thinking right now, what she’s about to do. I have to stop her because my fucking blood burns for this woman and I can’t lose her.
Val’s brothers are really fucked in the head for letting her walk into this by herself. Boris said they’d be nearby and ready to attack, but shit can happen in a hair of a second. They’d never have time to save her.
But I came rushing down here as soon as Boris gave me the address. For some reason, now they suddenly trust me to handle a job. I shoveled my beefs with those guys aside when I heard what Val would be up against. No way does she go into this by herself. We started this together, and one way or another, we’re finishing it together.
Sweat drizzles down the sides of my face. My sneakers stick to the cracked reddish-brown floor tiles, and it’s an effort to peel them off the floor with every step I take. My gut twists. The air in this place stinks. Every time I try to breathe, it clogs my lungs like it would my arteries if I ate the fried food. Speaking of fried food, where the fuck are the people who are supposed to be making it? The kitchen was empty when I passed it, and the people sitting in the front of the place are huddled together with no plates in front of them.
I don’t like this. At all.
“Don’t say that,” Val snarls. “It won’t save you or your daughter.”
“Are you sure about that?” Maria says. “You want to call my bluff?”
I hold the barrel of my gun to my forehead and squeeze my eyes closed, willing her to hear me.
She’s gone, Val. You know it. You saw her. Don’t let her get into your head, don’t—
“I can see the hope alive in your eyes. You don’t want to give up on her or the belief that maybe Charly might be alive.” Maria pauses, her voice desperate. “What if I’m telling the truth? What if she really is alive and you have the chance to save her after all this time? If you kill me, you’ll lose her forever.”
I tug at my sneaker and inch closer.
Don’t buy it, Val. She’s baiting you. We both know Charly is dead.
My fingertip tingles as it presses against the trigger. I want to barge in there and plug that woman between the eyes for what she’s doing to Val right now.
