AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Kill me, and you’ll never find out our plans for your bitch.” It’s muffled by my grip, but I understand Dalian clearly and refocus on him.
“Keep talking.”
“You can’t protect her from us, Ivan. We know her schedule.” Spit dribbled out the side of his mouth, and I smear it against the opposite cheek in mocking. “When she wakes up. When she eats. Every fucking thing Amberlyn Ibarra does in her day-to-day.”
“So you say, but I also know those you hold dear.”
“They’d never betray me.” His defiance is almost admirable. “I trust my family.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” he asks, confused by my lack of taking his bait. I’ve played this game too many times to fall for his bullshit.
“If you trust or don’t, it makes no difference to me.”
“Let me walk, and I’ll give you the chance to save her.” A different tactic. Next, he’ll beg like the bitch he is.
“No.” With my unoccupied hand, I flick open the blade Dad passed over and dig the tip into his cheek, carving out a T, then an I, and finally, an O. The letters once put together, say tio, the Spanish word for uncle, and if his body is ever found, or just the cheek area, they’ll look toward his family. And while President Rodriguez is the catalyst, those letters stand for Thiago, Ivan, and Orlando: the three male De Leons he tried to fuck over.
“We already have a grip on her,” he hisses through clenching teeth, trying to shift away, but my hold doesn’t allow that. Blood drops seep from the wounds and onto my fingers. They’re not deep enough to have an open flow, but drip, drip, drip they do. Nevertheless, I pat them to make sure they sting a little more before releasing his chin. “One call from me or my brother, and she’ll be taken and shipped to another country. She’ll be used as a pet. Used like a—”
“Isn’t that the job of Karen Lopez? Stepsister of Henry Davila?” At my response, anger flashed through his eyes, nostrils flaring. “From my understanding, she’s looking for her fiancé at the moment. Crying and begging for help, while you rent a hole to fuck.”
“You won’t get a word out of her. She’s conditioned to be loyal.”
“I’m not the one you should worry about when it comes to her or Cindy, Dalian.” My smile grows and I bite my bottom lip, sending the asshole a wink. “The De Leon women are ruthless when betrayed.”
“Amberlyn isn’t claimed.” That idiocy isn’t worthy of a response and I tilt my head to the side, casually standing from my position and walking to his back. There, I watch him squirm like the rodent he is. Dalian goes from cocky to scared. Human nature never fails to bring in the fight-or-flight impulse at the right time, and I watch as his eyes bounce from man to man, landing on a crying, sniveling Montgomery.
The man is now praying, the front of his pants soiled, and the stench of piss hits just as a warm breeze sweeps through us. Why do they always pee?
Bending at the waist, I lower my head just enough to place my mouth beside his right ear. “Just so you know, it was easy to find you and the woman you paid to suck your dick. The tip given to me paid its dividend.”
“How did you find us?”
“Ahhh. There you go.” With two fingers, I undo the latch on the wrapped-twice-around-my-wrist bracelet and it falls open, exposing a long, flexible wire hidden within. It’s sharp and thin, just long enough to reach around a person’s neck from side to side, and after gripping each end, I pull it tight against Dalian’s neck. “Finally, an intelligent question.”
“Stop!” His reaction is automatic as my knee digs into his back and I begin to saw from side to side. The flesh gives under the stress, cutting a straight line across his skin with ease and then deeper through the first layer. “You can’t. No mas!” Both hands try to grip the wire, but all that does is cut his fingertips. The slickness of each doesn’t help him find purchase, and I watch from above as his face becomes redder and redder, reaching an almost purple tint quickly.
A chuckle escapes me, my grip tightening. “Knew you’d be begging soon enough.”
“What do you want, Ivan?” It comes out in between coughing—choking—but I don’t ease off. “Ask, and it’s yours.”
“To know everything. Talk, and we’ll come to an agreement at the end.”
“You pissed off Tio Rodriguez and he asked us to remove the threat to his regime.” A little deeper and a tiny bit of blood squirts from the wound, his coughing causing more of his life’s essence to flow. Dalian tries to bring a hand up to the area again but a quick tsk from me and it falls back to his thighs. “H-he wants you and Thiago dead.”
“Keep talking.”
“We agreed, with one condition.” His chest shudders, and I ease the pressure.
“Go on.”
“Jaime wants your operations, and I, Amberlyn.”
“Why?” When he’s not quick to respond, I begin the side-to-side motion again, ripping through a little more flesh. “Last chance.”
“Did you know I met her at a city function a few years back?” No. I didn’t, but don’t say this. Instead, I raise a brow as a silent request to move on with his story. Dalian exhales roughly, reality finally sinking in to that thick head. “It was a charity fundraiser hosted by the police department and my brother dragged me along. He wanted me to meet someone. Turns out that those someones were the owners of Mariposa Bail Bonds and their daughter, who’s set to take over in a few years.
