Chapter 22 #2
La’Nova moved on survival and instinct, kicking him right in the balls.
He weakly grabbed at his sack just as La’Nova rammed the rat-tail comb right back into the same spot she did before.
She took it a step further and twisted the comb.
Closing her eyes she stabbed him repeatedly in the throat until his body partially fell on top of her.
She felt a hand grab at her ankle and quickly kicked out before yelling at the top of her lungs.
“I have men!!!” She shouted with wide eyes.
That admittance caused the masked men to freeze. She quickly reached into Lennox’s waist and pulled out a gun. Not thinking twice about it she pushed his body off of her then sat up with the gun pointed at the masked man that held her ankle.
“If I don’t make it out of this room alive, my men will expose all of you!” She affirmed with a small crack in her voice.
She took her wild eyes off of them and glanced down at Lennox’s limp body.
“Everybody sit the fuck down and don’t make no sudden moves.” She demanded, finding her confidence.
“Calm down, La’Nova,” one masked man holding her foot finally spoke.
His voice could be mistaken for a woman’s voice. She also realized that his fingertips were as soft as silk.
“You’ve done me a favor, and nobody in this room will hurt you. If you complete what you’ve started… You’ll be able to walk out of this room with your life.” The soft voice behind the mask reasoned.
“I-I don’t understand…” La’Nova eyes flitted up to an icy pair of blue eyes. “What do you mean?” She glanced back over at Lennox’s body.
Squinting her eyes, she thought they were playing tricks on her. Lennox’s chest looked like it was still moving up and down. He still clung to his life.
“What I mean—” The masked man reached for the bottom of his all red mask.
He removed it swiftly and tossed it to the floor.
From his action, the rest of the naked masked men removed their masks.
La’Nova focused back on the man in front of her.
His features looked delicate. Cheekbones carved high, lips soft and full.
There was something ethereal about him, something almost feminine in the symmetry of his face.
He batted his naturally and long curly lashes that framed his icy blue eyes. This man before La’Nova was as pale as a vampire as he eyed her with a blank expression.
“Tonight was indeed an initiation.” He snapped his red painted fingernails once.
A burly man stepped from the shadows of the room then reached behind himself producing a gun. The room seemed to freeze when bullets zapped past La’Nova, landing in Lennox’s stomach, chest, and head.
“Thank you, mi amor.” Blue eyes winked at who La’Nova assumed to be his lover.
She wasn’t moved by the bullets riddling Lennox’s body. All she could think about was the naked burly man pulling a gun from behind him when he had no boxers on.
“Did he–”
“Yes.” Blue eyes smirked. “He pulled it from his ass.”
“Wow,” she exclaimed, studying the man responsible for finishing Lennox.
“Lennox took everything from me.” Amusement left his eyes.
“My father’s name. Our territory…” A flicker of sadness crossed his icy eyes. “My innocence as a six-year-old boy.” He swallowed down roughly.
“I escaped.” He squared his shoulders.
“Long story short, I left Vegas… got into politics, did a couple of tricks until I was placed in the proper position of sick fuckers like the ones that dwell in this underground casino. I played my position for some time now, until I was welcomed back in undisguised. It took time to rebuild. Time to find men who weren’t weak.
Men who understood loyalty.” He nodded his head to the side to emphasize the naked men standing around her in silence.
“I don’t trust easily,” he added. “But the ones standing in this room with me tonight? They’d die before they betray me.”
There wasn’t arrogance in his tone. Just facts. He looked beautiful to La’Nova, standing in front of her explaining his hostile takeover like it was an overdue correction in the universe. His features remained soft but there was steel threaded through every word he spoke.
“Tonight was initiation night for you with him. You failed but passed with the new head of the Reyes Mafia,” he assured her.
Slowly, La’Nova’s eyes dragged away from blue eyes to Lennox’s lifeless body. His body laid twisted slightly to the side, thick blood oozed out of every wounded hole on his body into a puddle metallic smelling puddle beneath him.
“You did me a favor,” La’Nova stated mindlessly.
She couldn’t take her eyes off of Lennox, it was as if she was stuck in a trance.
All the evil he committed, death seemed to be too easy and kind for him.
She also realized that she hadn’t felt this way when she looked Dontrell in the eyes and pulled the trigger.
La’Nova felt a small ounce of empathy for The Don and didn’t understand why.
Now she knew the reason. Dontrell and Lennox might have been brothers by blood, but they were two different men.
Granted, Dontrell killed her father. It was a part of a business deal gone bad.
One shot to the head from Dontrell and La’Nova’s father was dead.
Lennox, on the other hand ,did not give La’Nova’s mother the same so-called justice.
Lennox brutally raped and killed La’Nova’s mother then climbed the stairs to axe her in the middle of her forehead.
“You did me a favor as well.” Blue eyes smirked sinisterly before continuing.
“My name is Baleni Reyes,” his soft voice deepened.
“I am the rightful heir of the Reyes Mafia. Tonight, I come to clean house and take back what is mine. In seconds, this place will turn into a warzone. It’ll be all over the news for weeks to come,” he boasted proudly.
“What about me?” La’Nova got to the point no really caring about getting to know Baleni.
“Are you going to kill me or let me walk?” she asked flatly.
“I’m going to let you walk.” He smirked. “My men already went through several hidden safes around here. I think it adds up to a couple million. You can have it to start over.” He shrugged nonchalantly like it was nothing.
La’Nova’s throat tightened. After everything she had gone through, a stranger came in like Spiderman, saving her and giving her what she wanted from the very beginning…
freedom. In order to have that freedom, she needed the money to start over somewhere fresh.
Still, she thought about the other victims that roamed around wishing for their own freedom.
They probably went through worse than her.
“W-what about the other victims here?” La’Nova stuttered in disbelief.
“If they survive what’s about to go down in a couple of minutes… my men will take care of them and get them to their families with pain and suffering packages as well,” Balani stated calmly.
It still bothered him that a lot of Lennox’s victims refused his helping hand. Most of them left, but the ones that were brainwashed still offered him their bodies. They begged to stay, too scared to go back out in the real world and really live.
The room didn’t feel the same to La’Nova anymore.
The power that Lennox had over it vanished.
La’Nova slowly stood, her chest rose and fell slowly.
She turned around to glance at Lennox again.
From the first time she laid eyes on him until now, he looked small.
He was no longer the man that haunted her dreams.
“It feels good to conquer what tried to destroy you,” Balani said lowly behind her.
La’Nova stared blankly at Balani. His presence didn’t clash with the chaos that was about to surround them. He was beautiful in a way that felt unnatural. His soft features, smooth skin and blue eyes didn’t match the men that stood around him waiting on his commands.
“He destroyed me.” A tear fell down her cheek landing on her chest.
Loud footsteps could be heard outside the bedroom door. Balani’s men got in position, naked and all. Again, they all pulled weapons from their butt cheeks. The same man that La’Nova assumed to be Balani’s lover stepped close to him and handed him a gun.
“So, all your men be stashing guns in their asses?” La’Nova asked seriously.
All the men around her snickered with amused looks on their faces.
“La’Nova,” Balani’s voice was void of any emotion.
He was used to people being surprised by him and his sexuality. There was nothing that Balani had to hide about it. Right now, things were about to take a turn, and he had no time to entertain La’Nova’s amusement by his men pulling hidden weapons out of their asses.
Outside, the sound of movement grew louder. Balani could hear the building waking up in the worse way.
“You’re free to go,” He waved at her to get her attention off of his men surrounding her. “My men are about to clean this place out… Everything Lennox built, dies tonight,” he continued, voice steady.
“There’s a passage,” Balani added smoothly, he nodded his head toward the far wall in the room. “Behind that panel it’ll take you out before things get bad.” He gestured.
Still, La’Nova didn’t move. Her feet felt rooted as her eyes drifted back to Lennox one more time.
Memories hit her all at once. Vividly, she could see her father on his knees begging, her mother screaming.
She could smell the scent of her childhood home and her feeling helpless and small, waiting for what was next.
Tears burned her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall yet.
This wasn’t just revenge. It was the end of a version of herself that had been stuck inside of her childhood home long before tonight.
Her chest hurt because endings weren’t always clean as everyone expected them to be.
“Where’s Lucille?” She asked suddenly.
The question slipped out before she could stop it. Balani’s lips curved into a soft, almost amused smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“I let her go,” he said.
Relief hit La’Nova fast but it didn’t last as Balani stepped into her personal space. He tilted his head slightly, studying her closer.
“Interesting.” He mumbled more so to himself.
“What?” Her brows pulled together.
“She should be the last of your worries. I’ll soon have to kill her if she decides to come back around for revenge on her husband,” Balani stated coldly.
That was another truth that landed heavy on La’Nova.
She swallowed down as her chest tightened again.
Luca crossed her mind. Instantly, she felt bad for him because of all the dirty secrets his mom kept away from him.
She wondered what was in store for him with a shady ass mother like Lucille still walking around with her chin pointed to the sky.
“She never inquired about you, so don’t worry about her. There’s money in your camper; it’s filled with gas. You need to go. I’ll see you never, my new friend.” Balani winked at La’Nova then stepped out of her personal space.