Chapter Eight
Back at the Clubhouse...
Ironman looked at the siblings and asked, “What else can you tell me about your Uncle Tomas?”
Lily shrugged. “Our grandfather used to talk about being raised in his father’s house.
Jesus Sanchez was not a very kind man. In fact, he was an outlaw back in old Mexico.
He raised Tomas to be just like him but our grandfather got out of there as soon as he could.
He tried to go the straight and narrow but his own father refused to allow that.
Grandfather finally fell under his pressure and raised our father and our uncles in the ways of his own father. ”
“In other words,” Canto picked up the conversation. “He started a new branch of the family who are still below the border. Then our father and his brothers started the next generation of that same family.”
Lily looked at her brother and shaking her head she added, “I never wanted to be this person. But I never had a choice. Canto didn’t have much of a choice either, but at least we weren’t as bad as Ricco and Gabriel.
But only because we chose not to be. We stood to gain a brutal death if we refused a task.
In front of the family, we were just as bad as they ever were, but we never succumbed to the devil that rode them. ”
Canto shook his head. “But it took its own kind of toll on you didn’t it? Every single time you pretended to be obedient to father’s wishes you would go to bed and puke. Sometimes all night long.”
Lily looked surprised and stared at her brother. “How the hell did you know that?” she asked.
“You forget that my room is next to yours. I used to listen to you on those nights. You usually just cried but there were times when I listened to you puke your guts out.”
Ironman stared at her face then he shook his head.
She certainly wasn’t the complete badass creature she was reputed to be.
Her life had been harsh; he could see that.
He wondered how she balanced all of that.
Then again, as her brother pointed out, she really did not handle it with total bravado all the time. And who could blame her?
An hour later...
Lily couldn’t rest. Her world had changed in just the last few hours.
No more Eduardo or Ricco. No more Joel. That might be the best part.
No marriage to that monster. He had tried to get at her for sex a few times already and she managed to evade his advances if you could call them that.
More like an attempted sexual attack really.
She might face jail in this, but hell, she did not care.
When she got out, she would actually be free.
If Uncle Tomas survived this, he would not insist on her being a part of the cartel family.
He was totally old school like she had told the bikers today and women were not allowed to be members in his part of it.
Canto could slip away with her too, she hoped. But what if Tomas wouldn’t allow that?
She sighed and prayed that they would both get free finally.
Yes, she prayed. In secret. Always had. Her mother taught her to do so and she also warned Lily not to allow Eduardo to catch on to that.
He detested the church. Lily thought it was because he was truly the devil, but her mother said he never like the idea of being subservient to anyone, even God.
Now Lily got a feeling...The same kind she got when Eduardo had men watching this place. She looked over at the wall clock to check on the time when she caught movement outside through the window. She saw a man standing just beyond the fenceline and two other men stood with him on each side.
Lily froze and stared at them. It was her uncle and his two guards.
He had spotted her for sure as he glared at her then he slowly raised his hand and drew a line across his throat.
Lily gasped.
Canto looked toward the window but he didn’t see anyone there. “Was it Tomas?” he whispered with a ripple of fear in his voice. “He’s out there already?”
Lily nodded.
Ironman stood and walked over to gaze out the window too, he was careful not to be in front of the glass as he peeked out from the side. He looked back at Lily. “He’s brave to just stand out in the open like that.”
Looking ashen, she whispered, “Not sure about the braveness. He is arrogant like the rest of the family. But it was Tomas and he saw me. He drew a line across his throat.”
Canto slipped to the floor and shook his head. “When he comes in here, he’s going to slit our throats for failing our father.”
Ironman paused, then asked, “But why? He doesn’t know what really happened.”
Lily shook her head. “That doesn’t matter, not to Tomas.
And it won’t matter to his men either. Just the fact that my father and uncle are laying out there dead while Canto and I are still alive is enough to condemn us.
We aren’t even in the cells. Instead, we are here and we seem to be just fine.
Not bruised or bleeding. Like we’re just sitting here without a care or a worry. ”
“And that’s enough to condemn you?” Ironman exclaimed.
“In his eyes? Yes.” Lily sighed hard. “To the family we are already dead.”
“Not in our eyes.” Ironman growled. He reached for his phone and texted Titus.
A few minutes later someone knocked on the door.
Ironman got up and went to unlock it.
Titus, Bouncer and Boomer came in.
“What happened?” Titus asked.
Lily looked at him and replied, “Uncle Tomas is here and he’s pissed.”
“You saw him?” Boomer asked as he looked out the window.
Lily nodded. “He saw me and Canto just sitting here in comfort. No bars around us, no bruised or bloodstained clothes. He probably thinks we betrayed them all. He knows our father and uncle are already dead and he’s wondering why we aren’t out there under blankets as well.”
“What do you think he’ll do now?” Bouncer asked.
Canto looked up and told them, “I’d watch the front gate. He’ll probably try to ram his way inside. And if you have a back gate watch that too. He might try both at the same time. He’ll figure out how to get inside the gates, then he’ll bring hell down on everyone inside these walls.”
Boomer looked at Titus and nodded. “That makes sense, it’s what I would do.”
Titus left the room.
Boomer sat down next to Lily on the bed. “Are you afraid?”
She took a minute to think about what he was asking.
Then she shook her head. “No, I’m not afraid, I’m getting pissed.
Pissed at my father, pissed at my stupid brothers and pissed at Tomas.
I mean I didn’t do anything wrong here. I’m not the stupid one that decided to go to war next to a fool like Todd that couldn’t keep his business in his own pants.
Then Eduardo declared war on you guys and look at how that turned out.
Now Tomas is out there thinking where my father failed he might just win but that isn’t gonna happen either.
He’s going to split his men up too thin and you guys will be able to pick them off like shooting fish in a barrel.
Tomas thinks if he has people coming in at every angle at least some of his men will make it through. ”
“Well, that just ain’t gonna happen.” Boomer growled. “As you saw we have been to this rodeo before.”
Lily nodded. “And that’s where he makes his last mistake. You guys are ready for him.”
Canto nodded. “He’ll think we betrayed the family for our own skin. He’ll never think we did it to escape that same family.”
Lily sighed and admitted, “As you saw, I was ready to surrender my weapon. I refused to fight anymore after I called the men to arms, like I was expected to do. I gave it up, because I am just done with it. I had to be sure Joel was dead first. He was the worst of the worst too. He bought me, you know? He even said that to me...Like I was meat at the supermarket.”
“I could see you hated him...” Ironman noted as he remembered her blade.
“If he would have only been kind to me...” She halted and shook her head.
“But no, he was the same kind of man my father and most of my brothers are. I did not like him, let alone... love him. He was a bully and mean as hell. We would have killed each other someday soon, because I was not raised to step back from a fight.”
“And that marriage would have been a fight every damn day,” Canto added.
Titus got busy texting his men. Letting them know that the attack could start at any minute.