Chapter 6
CHAPTER
SIX
LUKE
Another week, another day, another country.
This time, I was in Cuba, where true corruption lived and breathed. I knew this was Vicente Del Toro’s territory, and I was playing with fire, but I was never one to let anyone faze me. In fucked-up terms, Vicente took the cake. Word around the street was that he liked them young. He was deep into trafficking and just a motherfucker you wouldn’t want to cross.
He got off on torturing his enemies, sometimes only for shits and giggles. I’d define him as close to criminally insane as you could be. He thrived on pain to satisfy his sick sense of depravity, and that was mostly the reason I refused to do business with him. He was too much of a loose cannon.
He completely degenerated Cuba by catering to the rich. However, he was an extremely intelligent and charismatic man.
It was all a bunch of bullshit lies.
A fairy tale you told a child at night.
His motive for everything stemmed from power. He thrived on control, using it over whoever and whenever he needed to. In his eyes, everyone was beneath him.
At his mercy.
On their goddamn knees, bowing to him.
Marching in line.
Following his orders.
You betray him, and you’d pay with your life.
In my lifetime, I already paid with my soul a long time ago. With so much blood on my hands, I was surprised I could still see my skin.I drew the line at harming a child. I wouldn’t so much as touch a hair on their heads. Most knew I wasn’t to be fucked with. Not many were foolish enough to attempt it anyway.
But there was always that one motherfucker, here and there, who wanted to be top dog, and I had to set them straight.
I was the alpha.
There were no imaginary lines. I’d crossed them all. No boundaries. No second chances. No redemption.
Not for me.
Not for them.
Not for anyone.
I witnessed and participated in it all.
Somewhere along the way, I stopped allowing myself to feel. I became desensitized to it all. Now, I just did whatever I had to do, without giving it a second thought.
The most fucked-up part was I took pleasure in it. The apple never fell far from the tree, and I was no exception. You’d be surprised what the human psyche was capable of when it lost its conscience. Only the strongest survived, and I would always make it out alive.
I didn’t know darkness and evil lurked inside me until I had to murder in order to thrive in this life. The control, the power, the sins of it all were just as addicting as they were afflicting. Consuming every last part of my being.
Becoming the fucking monster I trained myself to be.
If death found me, then it was my time to go, and I’d go out guns blazing. Inflicting mental torture on my enemies was a tactic I enjoyed participating in the most.
For the past month, my men had been following the man I was about to destroy with a huge smile on my face. It was why I was in Cuba to begin with. I needed the names of the men he orchestrated to hit on for one of my warehouses in Miami, and I had yet to find the son of a bitches. Someone was coming for my territory, and I’d go down swinging if I had to.
I nodded to the guards I paid off as I made my way into the office in his home, living like the king he thought he was on a rugged cliff. There was no loyalty in this business. Money always talks, especially when you wanted them to shut the fuck up.
His glare immediately shifted from his paperwork to the box in my hands.
“How the fuck did you get in here?” he roared in a thick Cuban accent. “Javiar! Miguel!”
“Nice to see ya too, Jose.”
“Jav—”
“They’re takin’ a break.”
“There are no breaks.”
His curiosity for what I had in the box became more evident with each passing minute. I knew what he was trying to do. Reading body language was a talent I perfected. Nothing got past me. I could see the way his index finger on his right hand twitched ever so slightly for a few seconds. How his jaw was clenched and the muscles on his neck tensed. No matter how hard he tried to avoid it, I could see his pulse rapidly beating from the visible distance between us.
He wanted to come off all hard and unfazed, but I could smell his bullshit from a mile away. This motherfucker hadn’t been cooperating, so I decided to bring him a gift.
I grinned, placing my gun on the table with the barrel pointing directly at him, then setting the black box beside it. I leaned back into my wooden chair, making myself comfortable. I noticed how his eyes hadn’t wavered from the package, not even for a second. I didn’t pay him any mind, wanting the anticipation to build. Knock him down a few notches before delivering my final blow.
I leaned onto the table, arching my eyebrow with my hands clasped together out in front of me.
“Your refusal to tell me the truth and give me the names of the men I need for that little stunt someone pulled on my warehouse has reached its end.”
His fists clenched, his nostrils flared, and his face paled. My words clearly affected him. It fueled my rage.
“Fuck, it all makes sense now, no wonder your supplier didn’t put up too much of a fight. We probably did him a favor.”
He jerked back, breathing out, “My supplier?” His manic thoughts took over.
I slid the box across the table, hitting his arm resting on the surface. It stopped a few inches away from his face. His head flew back, and he was startled, locking eyes with me. I could see his anxiety radiating off him, fueling the fiend inside me.
He swallowed hard, holding his chin up higher and acting unfazed.
Provoking me.
“I bring you a gift, and I have yet to hear you thank me,” I mocked in a condescending tone, breaking the sudden silence.
“A gift?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. Confused and overwhelmed all at once.
“Go ahead, open it.”
He hesitated for a moment before reaching out his hands to grab the box. The panic swelled inside him. No longer the tough son of a bitch he once portrayed.
As he started to lift the lid, I added, “Someone once told me the only way to make a man pay for his sins was through the ones he needed or loved.”
“What the fuck?” he barked. Grabbing the severed head from the box, he immediately recognized who it was.
His mouth quivered, and his body shook. I saw him swallowing down the bile rising in his throat. I could see it in his eyes, one thought spiraling after the other.
It was time to break him entirely.
“Aren’t you gonna thank me now?”
His chest heaved with anger. “Oh God…”
I stood, placing my hands in the pockets of my suit, and casually made my way over to him.
“The only god in this room is me. Now confess the names I want, or I’ll be payin’ your wife a visit next. Don't worry, she won’t scream too much,” I sympathized, leaning forward close to his ear. “Not with my cock in her mouth.”
“You motherfuc? — ”
I crudely gripped his throat, jerking him backward in his chair. Slamming his body onto the floor near my boots, I held his ass down. He instantly grasped onto my hand, kicking his legs out from under him. I choked him harder, placing my knee on his sternum and squeezing the air right out of him. His face turned red, and his eyes began to water as his life was being drained out of him…
By me.
“Someone needs to learn some goddamn manners, and lucky for you…” I hovered close to his face. “I’m just the man to teach them to you.” And with that, I coldcocked him, knocking him the hell out.
He came to when I was dragging his soaking wet body by his collar out of the private beach in the back of his house.He was convulsing, sucking in air I was ruthlessly denying him. Choking on the water that took up occupancy in his throat and lungs, he spit up God knows what.
I ignored him as he visibly struggled, trying to get loose. Confused by the turn of events, he still didn’t realize he wasn’t going anywhere unless I wanted him to, and there was nowhere else I’d rather have him than at my mercy.
I waited until he tired himself out.
Until he had no fight left in him, and all he could do was roll over and play dead. I was used to the hysteria that came along with my violent acts. It was all part of being who I was.
I leaned forward, close to his ear again. Cocking my head to the side, I ordered, “Give me the names.”
His chest heaved as he desperately tried to regain his breathing and stay conscious.
“I didn’t hear you,” I taunted.
Grabbing his neck this time, I shoved just his face back into the water and held him under as his body fought to get free.
As I hauled him back up, he choked out, “Please, God!”
I viciously smiled, bringing his face right in front of mine to glare into his eyes. “How’s that workin’ out for you? Where is he now?”
I dragged him back under the water, holding him down longer this time. Watching his air bubbles come few and far between, I waited, not allowing the piece of shit any relief. I brought him over and over again to the brink of death till he pleaded with me.
“Please…” he whispered, trying to catch his breath.
“Please, what?”
“Please… have compassion…”
“Compassion for the man who won’t give me the names of the men who murdered three of mine? An eye for an eye. You reap what you sow. You have one last chance to confess the names, or my next stop will be your house, and I’ll wait until your daughters are home.” I deviously chuckled, feeling his heart pounding against my grip on his neck. “Now, count with me, one… two… time’s up!”
“Maur… his name is… Maur… Mauricio! His name is Mauricio Felipe!” he screamed out, then spit in my face.
I abruptly let him go, causing him to sink farther into the water. He froze, waiting for my next move. He breathed a sigh of relief, cautiously backing away from me, stumbling to get out of the water.
“Run!” I ordered, and he did exactly that.
When he hit the shoreline, I called out, “Jose!”
He spun around as I slowly wiped his spit off my cheek with the back of my hand. His eyes instantly widened, realizing what I was now holding.
Tilting my head to the side with dark and dilated eyes, I reminded him, “You never fuckin’ thanked me.” Pulling the trigger, I blew his head off.
Blood and brains splattered behind him in the sand while I internally battled…
The hell I was already burning in.