3. Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Marcus
Pacing in front of my desk, I'm too anxious and wound up to focus. I hate when I get this way. My thoughts are going a mile a minute. Filled with worry, I tug on the sleeves of my jacket, trying to come up with a solution to ease my frustrations. I'm too far on edge to face any of my clients. It's hard to give them a reason for their product disappearing when I don't even know where it is.
The fury inside me continues to build up like magma pushing through the vents of a volcano. Too many people have rattled my cage in the past two months and more brass shells reappear each week. They won't stop either, but that's not what worries me the most. What happens when they finally do? How many men would I have lost by then? How many of my businesses would be destroyed, how much product would be in ruins and when would they be coming to take what's left?
"Have we found out where the shells came from?"
Germo stands tall, appearing hopeful. "We have. Turns out they belong to more than one person."
"Who?"
"Your sons and their boyfriends."
My forehead wrinkles. "How could that be? Why would someone be leaving empty casings from their guns to send me a message?" Then it clicks as I ask the question out loud—a bullet for a bullet. They were returning each shell fired the day my sons had helped take down one of the largest trafficking rings's most popular auction houses.
"I guess they want to remind us of what Miguel’s and your boys did six months ago. From what I hear, the word spread from Santana."
Trying hard not to appear affected by the mention of Miguel's name, I clench my fists and slam them into my sides. "How, when she's dead?"
"Supposedly she made a call to a lot of people once she found out, to try and save her own ass. She didn't want the blame to stay on her."
"Are we sure someone at the auction didn't happen to survive and is the one out seeking revenge?"
"Not that we're aware of. From what I hear, no man who helped run the operation or even the buyers walked out of that hotel alive."
As soon as Abraham leaves my office, I pick up my phone and select Gabriel's name from my list of contacts. He answers on the second ring.
"To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Is that how you greet your own father?"
"I wasn't aware we became so close in such a short time."
I sigh. "Listen, hijo, I know I'm practically a stranger to you and your brothers. Hell, I'm still trying to figure out who I am myself, but we are in dangerous times, and nowhere near being in the clear of our recent enemies. I'm guessing we aren't the only ones who are receiving brass shells."
"No." He sighs into the phone. "Every one of us has had the pleasure of getting them, even Angel and Santiago. They want to let us know they are coming for us. This isn't a warning, it's a promise."
"It may have been Santana’s doing before she died. It would make sense for her to cover her own ass. She had a lot of dissatisfied clients and partners."
"I was more than sure we covered our tracks better and killed everyone she was in contact with. Looks like we signed a new death wish by waiting too long to kill the bitch."
"Or maybe they signed theirs."
"We don't even know who all we're dealing with. It's harder to see them coming. They have us at an advantage."
"They clearly have no idea who they are dealing with either. We won't make this easy on them. We never do. We will first try to catch the next group of men who come by in the act and get them to talk. They can probably tell us at least one name involved. We will go from there and then we will make sure he isn't left breathing."
"Carlos and I will try and see if we can find something else to lead us to whoever's in charge. We have a higher chance if we do it together."
"I don't doubt you do. If you are able to track down one of them first, bring them to me. I have questions of my own."
"You should hear from me in a few days whether I find anything or not."
I may have been an assassin back in the day, working for a man I was never supposed to get too close to, but I was never good at locating people like my sons are. They are masters at tracking people down. While I had always been the perfect shot and hyperaware of my surroundings more than most people.
They were natural born hunters and trained killers. I did what I could to survive, teaching myself to be indispensable. I needed to blend in with the life my brother had dragged us into. He stayed alive as long as he did, because of me. I tracked down, captured, and killed people in exchange for my brother's life. Then I met him, Miguel Juventino. I'd killed many of his friends and a few of his top clients. When he asked me to work for him it was in exchange for my own life. I had to make up for all the money he lost due to me, starting with the men who hired me before him.
Once I paid my dues, I was in too deep to leave. I was addicted to the kill—to him. I probably would have been better off letting him kill me before he infected me with lust and got under my skin in ways I could only dream of. I was too weak. Addicted. While his customers got their fix through his drugs, I got mine through his touch and reassuring words.
If I died at his hands, who would have shown my boys how to survive? If I could've given up my life for my wife's, I would have. Even though we weren't in love, we were still each other's rock. She was my best friend, the mother of my kids. Only Gabriel was mine biologically, but it didn't stop me from loving them all the same. I had no choice but to step up to the plate when my brother fled, and I'd gladly do it again. We both had the same flaw, me and her. We fell in love with the wrong man and couldn't find our way out, losing ourselves in different ways.
Being held captive and tortured daily at the hands of Julia Juventino led me to letting my family down. Not anymore. She is dead and so is her piece of shit father. Soon these men threatening us would be too.
Someone clears their throat from nearby. "Marcus? Sorry to disturb you but a package has arrived for you."
I freeze where I stand. I never have anything delivered to my home. "What is it?"
"We haven't opened it yet. We wanted to let you know about it first. There are words written on the side. It says, come back to me. Didn't know if you wanted…"
My pulse beats loudly in my ears. "Bring it to me. I'd like to open it myself."
He shuffles with hesitant eyes. "Are you sure? It could be anything."
"I'm sure."
With nothing more than a quick nod, Hector turns around, exiting the room. When he returns, there's a medium sized brown box in his hands. He walks with careful steps.
"Set it on the desk."
He stares down at the package and back at me with weary eyes. "Marcus…"
"I said, set it on the desk."
He does as I demand without questioning me this time. His hand remains on the package even after it's sitting on the wooden desk.
"That'll be all, Hector."
He opens and closes his mouth. "Yes, boss. Let me know if you change your mind."
"That won't be necessary."
His jaw twitches as he slowly steps away from the package, heading for the door. He leaves the office quietly and doesn't as much as glance back. He knows better than to question my orders more than he already has. This isn't the first package that’s arrived addressed only to me. The last one was delivered at one of my main office locations. The man who opened it for me blew up into a million pieces right outside the building the moment he pulled the cardboard apart. This one is different, and I don't want to tell Hector why or how I know it is safe.
My gaze stays on it for so long, my eyes practically burning a hole through the box. I brush my fingers over the familiar handwriting in black ink before ripping the top open with my forceful hands. Buried between several pieces of brown packaging paper sits a blue pistol, the same one I'd set in Mateo Juventino's hand over two years ago. The exact one which was gifted to me almost twelve years ago. It was only a matter of time before he found me. Even knowing it would happen sooner than later, I still wasn't prepared. No one ever could be when it came to Miguel Juventino.
I'd never thought it was possible to want and fear someone at the same time. Before, he was the one constant thing in my life. Everything around me erupted into chaos and the world got uglier. Our love never changed. It was beautiful and pure, the only thing I could make sense of. It never mattered how much time passed between us, he had always been my favorite place to run to. I was able to let go of everything when I was in his arms. It was dangerous, terrifying, rejuvenating, and until now a force I'd never fought against.
I hold the gun in my hand and it feels different than before. It was recently in contact with his hands. The same ones I've dreamed about touching me for the last twelve years. I'd tried hard to forget them and failed every time. I couldn't allow him the power he once had over me. Instead of using our best memories to help me get through the days I was being tortured and starved in Julia's underground cellar, I used the bad ones to fuel my hate for him—reminding myself why I was there to begin with.
He let them take me. Never once did he come looking for me. He'd accepted a bargain—my life for his and his families. Julia was more than happy to tell me herself, how in the end I was nothing to him. After that day, I shut him out of my heart. Something I will now continue to do. I trace the engraved words with the tip of my finger. Come back to me.
Not this time. Never again.
I toss the gun in the box and bury it in the back of my closet, along with my love for the man who'd promised to never let them keep us apart .
What’s between you and me is ours alone, precious. I'd die before I let them have it.
Such a fucking liar.
He'd made living without me look so easy, continuing to flourish and prosper when I struggled every day, slowly rotting away to nothing. So I've done my best to make him suffer the only way I know how, by messing with the one thing most important to him. I've sabotaged a few of his latest deals, spreading lies about his product and burning down the crops of his newest supplier.
I still do what I need to in order to survive and this time it involves taking down my new competition. Soon I'd be the one on top and he would be the one left in the dark, alone, wallowing away in his own failure. First I have to help defeat the people who are a threat to us both. If Miguel goes down, it will be because of me, not anyone else. I always did like saving the best for last and death is way too good for him.