Blood Ties (Cartel Wars #5)

13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Marcus

"Tell me who else you're working with."

"Fuck you," Mr. Williams spits. "I won't tell you shit. Just know you and your sons are dead. No one can pull you out of this hole you've dug yourself into. Kill me all you want, but it won't save you."

I kick him in the stomach, and he screams, rolling into a fetal position. "I'm not going to kill you, not yet. I think I have a much better idea." I grab my knife and cut off his ear, slicing the sharp blade right through the cartilage.

He screams louder and blood pours from the side of his head. "You son of a bitch."

"If you won't talk to me, then I'll have to do something to convince you why you should."

"Nothing you do or say will get me to say shit."

I rip a piece of his shirt off his body and wrap the ear inside before sliding it in my pocket. "Nothing, huh?You sure about that? Why even bother protecting them now? I don't see them trying to save your ass. What if the roles were reversed? You think they would die keeping your name out of their mouth, or wouldn't give you up for a chance to live? You obviously don't know what a desperate man would do in the last moments of his life."

He stays silent, squeezing his eyes shut and wincing in pain. I press my finger into the freshly open wound, and he hollers, tears spilling from his eyes. "Fuck. Just fucking kill me already."

"That would be too easy. I’d much rather mail you to your family instead. In pieces. Does your wife know about your extracurricular activities? What was the reason you gave her for needing to be at the beach house in Florida for so long? Or does she even know it exists? I bet she knows nothing about Jake, the boy you kept in the basement."

"I have no wife."

I throw my head back laughing. "Try spewing your lies to someone else. If you really wanted to make sure she remained safe, you would have never married her to begin with. Nothing stays hidden forever."

"I don't have a wife," he shouts louder, his body shaking against the floor.

"All right, then you won't mind if she gets a surprise package in the mail from me then since she's nothing to you anyway?"

He clenches his teeth, keeping his eyes closed.

"I guess not." I call for one of my men and the door opens. I hand him the ear, telling him where to drop it off at and ask him to send someone in to handle my captive’s bleeding. I need him to stay alive for a little longer.

"Wait," Mr. Williams says, before I can fully walk out of the cellar. "Please don't. She doesn't know. She can't know."

"Do they know about her?"

His eyes flash open, red rimmed and full of exhaustion. "No. She would have been a liability. I couldn't risk anyone using her against me."

I nod, stepping back inside and closing the door behind me. "You mean someone like me?"

He nods, swallowing hard. "Yes, someone exactly like you."

"Does this mean you're ready to tell me what I want to know?"

"Only if you promise to leave her out of it. She's six months pregnant and high risk. Knowing all this would only break her."

"I promise. As long as I'm satisfied with what you tell me, and everything checks out." I had zero intentions of hurting his wife or disclosing her whereabouts to others, he didn't need to know that though. Based on what I'd been told, the poor woman has no idea who her husband really is. It's bad enough she's been living with a monster this whole time, she doesn't need to suffer for his transgressions on top of it. Her and her unborn child are better off with this asshole dead.

"A friend called me months after my brother was killed. They asked me if I wanted closure from the ones who killed him and of course I did. Anyone would."

“What friend?”

"Mario Montoya. He had lost a few of his men, along with money and his purchases."

I wince at the end of that sentence. Purchases .

"Then what happened?"

"I contacted a few of my friends who either had a brother, boyfriend, cousin, or friend at the Mansion or who were attending the auction that day. The word spread from there and eventually got to the men who never got their purchases, the ones who sent others to do their dirty dealings for them."

"You know when these men will attack next?"

"The next one is supposed to happen next week, but I'm not sure when. We just planned to keep going until the bullets were gone and most of your guards were dead. Slowly your walls would drop and that's when we would make our big move."

"Do you know how Mario found out who was responsible for stopping the auction?"

"He said it was an anonymous tip."

I sigh, hating how vague his answer is. "Do you know where Mario is now?"

"I'm done talking to you."

I nod, taking my phone out of my pocket and he shakes his head. "No wait...please…"

"Go on and stop wasting my fucking time."

"Last I heard he was in Wichita, planning a visit to one of your clubs."

"Is that all?"

"It's all I know, I swear."

"Very well." I turn around and he speaks again.

"Wait, aren't you going to kill me?"

"Not me. There's someone else who wants to see your head separated from your body a lot more than I do."

Jackson stands on the other side of the door with a box of tools in his hand, his smile sinister.

"He's all yours."

The door closes behind him, cutting off Mr. Williams screams. I straighten my suit and head back up to the club. Carlos steps away from the bar, heading my way. "Did he talk?"

"He sang like a fucking canary. Mario Montoya, the head of the Spanish Cartel in California is on his way for a visit. Call your brothers. Let's make sure we're ready to give him a proper welcome when he arrives."

Carlos nods. "Will do.”

"I hope he likes Missouri, because I plan to spread the remains of his corpse all over Kansas City."

I leave the club and Germo drives me back to the house. "You going anywhere tonight, boss?"

"Why, are you trying to get rid of me?"

He laughs. "Are you planning to get away without letting anyone know again?"

"That was one time,” I mutter.

"Twice." He stares at me.

"I was having a bad day. I felt suffocated."

"How do you feel now?"

"Annoyed,” I huff out.

He sighs. "You know I'll drive you anywhere you want to go."

"I doubt that." I press my back to the seat, looking out the window.

"Try me."

"You're saying you would take me back to Mexico?"

His eyes widen. "To him? Absolutely not."

"Then you lied."

"It's because of him you went through what you did. The man is responsible for your wife's death, for your children being left fatherless and the reason you need those." He points to the pill bottle I shove in the glove box.

I grab the water bottle from the cup holder, washing down the bitter taste of the white tablets."Maybe, but isn't it my fault too?"

"You'd do better to forget the man ever existed."

Easy for him to say. I step out of the car the moment it stops in front of my house. "I don't want to be bothered even if the world is coming to an end," I say to no one in particular. I drag my aching feet up the steps, slowly making my way to my room. I'm too exhausted to sleep. Whenever I go too long without proper rest I grow restless and irritable. I pull off my clothes and crawl under the heavy covers of my bed. Sometimes the weight is enough to settle my body. Not tonight.

The longer I lay in bed, surrounded by the silence, the more the memories from the past invade my mind. I wish they were only the ones I had with Miguel. Those don't last before they are being soiled by images of Julia's men chaining me to the wall and beating me until I'm shaking against the ground. I open my eyes wanting to see anything but my brother's face as he mocked me and slid his knife over my right cheek. I touch the jagged scar with the tips of my fingers, the coolness stinging my skin.

"Can't sleep? Guilty conscience from this morning's events eating away at you?"

I sit up in my bed reaching for my gun, except it's not where I thought I'd left it. I turn on the lamp next to me to make the person standing in the doorway more visible. Miguel's smile is wicked, and his eyes grow darker the longer they stay on me.

"Looking for this?” He holds up my revolver. "I didn't feel like you needed it tonight."

"What are you doing here? Didn't I leave your ass in Mexico?"

"I'm here, because you need me. If you apologize, then maybe I'll stay and help you."

I huff. "What makes you think I need your help?"

"Gabriel told me Mario Montoya and his friends are headed this way."

"Nothing we can't handle."

"Are you sure about that? Carlos doesn't seem to think so."

"I told him to reach out to his brothers, not you. Where’s Gabriel?"

"He's tied up at the moment. Mateo needs him home."

My brows knit together. "Why? Did something happen? Is Mateo okay?"

"You're worried about my son." It's not a question, but a statement.

I roll my eyes. "Don't make this about you. I know how much your son means to mine."

And I know how much he means to you.

When Miguel loves someone, he does it with his whole heart. Too bad what he'd felt for me wasn't enough. I was never meant to stay in his heart forever, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to let me go so easily. This isn't about us though. Both of our families and businesses are at stake. There comes a time in all of our lives where we must team up with an enemy in order to take down worse ones. When it’s only the two of us left in the end, I will no longer be able to use it as an excuse to keep him alive. Who will be the one to pull the trigger first?

"He's fine. He will be at least. Mateo is stronger than he looks. It will take more than some homemade bomb to take him down." He inches closer, looking down at his feet.

"Do you know who it was?" I sit up taller in bed.

"I do. Gabriel is going to do what he does best and track him down. The man is hiding like a coward. He hasn't been seen at any of his clubs in Florida for weeks."

"Which means he's more than likely somewhere else."

"Wherever it is, he can't stay there forever."

"You should probably go home to take care of your family."

"I would, except not all my family is in Mexico and Gabriel has some of the best men at his side. I'm needed here right now."

"Isaiah is in Texas meeting up with Angel and Santiago."

"Mateo and Isaiah aren't my only family,” he says with softening eyes.

My heart beats in my chest. "I think it's time you go now and if you don't, I'll call for my guards. They are just outside the door."

"Are they?” He smiles cheekily.

My eyes widen and my chest quickly rises and falls. "What did you do to my men?"

"I only put them to sleep for a little bit. They aren't what you need right now."

"What is it I need then, mister knows it all?"

He crawls on the bed, slowly moving toward me. I freeze in place, unable to break from the mattress, my eyes incapable of tearing away from his. Before I know it, he's sitting between my legs, brushing my cheek with the bed of his thumb. "Me."

My breath hitches in my throat. "You know what? You sure as fuck can really—"

He cuts me off. "Really what? Take your breath away?"

I roll my eyes, shooting him a glare. "No…"

"What then? Make you scream my name loud enough for everyone to hear?"

I shove him to his back, pinning his body to the bed. I cover his mouth with my hand. "You really should learn how to shut up every now and then, and let someone else talk for once. But then again you may miss the sound of your own voice too much."

I yelp and jump back when he bites the inside of my palm. "You had that whole time to talk and still haven't told me what I am. I'm starting to think I got it right on the first guess."

I clench my hand, my nose flaring. "You're the world's biggest jackass, that's what you are, and I swear if you don't—"

He kisses away my next words when he captures my lips with his, swirling his eager tongue around mine. He grunts when I sink my teeth into his bottom lip, breaking skin. Swiping his tongue over his bottom lip, he smiles with his skin torn and bleeding. I clench my teeth, wrapping my fingers around the knife in his back pocket. I remember him using it to cut himself free the other day in my car.

"Easy now, mi amor. You don't want to do that."

"How do you know what I want?"

"Because I always did before." He brushes his nose against mine.

"That was a long time ago. We are different people now. Enemies,” I remind him.

"Enemies who need each other."

"I was wrong. Not only are you a jackass, but you're also fucking delusional,” I spit.

He shakes his head. "You're more wrong now than before. I may be a jackass, but what we have is more real than anything else in this world. No one else was ever able to give you what I could. You've gone so long without it, it's time I remind you how good it can be. So stop fighting me and let me take you to that place you love to be whenever your world gets too loud and chaotic."

I swallow hard and with shaky words I say, "I don't need you. All these years I've gotten along just fine. I'm stronger and richer."

"But are you happier?"

I swallow down my next words and he tugs my face closer to his. "Well, are you?"

My face relaxes and I close my eyes, pressing into his touch.

"Answer me, mi mundo entero?"

My eyes snap open. "Don't call me that. I can’t be your whole world, because I’m not your fucking anything."

"Let me help take some of that weight off your shoulders. Let me love you."

My eyes water and I tear my face away from his hard stare. "You can fuck me, but that's all. I might as well get something out of this dreadful visit. Everything else is off the table. I won't let you have more than that. Not now, or ever again. It doesn’t matter what pleasure you bring to my body tonight; I’ll still hate you."

"That's what you say now." He pulls my face back toward his.

"It's what I'll keep on saying."

"Things change."

"Not the past."

"No, but we can overcome it with time. I know I made mistakes and I know I was a coward before. Just know, I would have never purposely left you behind if I knew you were alive."

My eyes widen. "What do you mean? You had a choice, and it wasn't me."

His brows furrow and he shakes his head. "What makes you think I had a choice? I thought you died in the fire, they even showed me your burned corpse. I should have known they were lying. I should have—"

I cut off his next words. "Wait, are you saying you didn't make a deal with Jorge in order to save your own ass?"

He tilts his head, squinting his eyes. "What deal? I was thrown into a room with my hands tied, forced to watch what I thought was live footage of the man I love burning. They beat me until I stopped asking about you. They put pictures of a dead man in your clothing all over the walls."

I shake my head in disbelief. "You're lying."

"I'm a bad man, precious, but I'm not a liar." He pulls my face toward his. "Whatever they told you wasn't true. They played us both."

"You...I…" I stare down at the floor, not sure how to feel about all this information coming at me all at once. This whole time I thought he had willingly let me go. I spent all these years hating him, wishing him dead. Can he really be telling me the truth?

"Maybe I didn't do all the things they told you I did, but I still let you down. I was dumb enough to think they'd let you go. I should have never allowed you to walk out of the hotel room that day. You don't have to forgive me today or ever, but I'll do whatever it takes to make you realize how sorry I am. Fuck, am I sorry Marcus." He kisses my nose. "If I could change things I would. I'd make sure it was me rotting away in that cellar instead of you."

My heart squeezes in my chest and the more I stare into his genuine eyes, the more I believe every damn word. My lips press against his. The kiss is long, passionate, and way overdue. Tonight, I surrender my body to him while barricading my heart with walls of steel. I'm not ready to let go. Fully giving myself to the man in front of me again terrifies me way more than anything. Even more than death itself. I was left broken before and had to slowly glue back together the pieces. If I pull all my trust in him again, I could lose everything I’ve rebuilt.

I won’t give in. I can't.