Chapter 16 #2
‘How much does my family owe you?’ Shade asks Senora Reyes.
‘Five million,’ she answers. ‘By the end of the month, it will be higher.’
‘I’ll make a new deal with you.’
She laughs, seeming genuinely amused.
‘You have no money, younger Novelle.’ She glances at Blake. ‘You don’t have skills I can use like your friend does and even he will die today. You should not have come here.’
A plethora of guns click at her words like they’re some secret command.
‘Take the young Novelle and his friends to the back. All three of them,’ she says.
The guys are herded away, struggling, but unable to do anything. I stare after them, shaking, trying to get out of Andy’s grip, but he’s much stronger than I thought he was.
‘Wait! I’ll marry Marcus. I’ll do whatever you want. You can have all the money,’ I shout, sounding as desperate as I feel. ‘But don’t kill them.’
The cartel queen tuts. ‘Hush. Your brother knows what is best for you. And I know you can’t touch the money yourself.’
She taps the side of her head. ‘Retardada.’
My eyes widen because that’s close enough to English that I know exactly what that word means.
I see red, anger bubbling up hot and fast. This woman. Andy. All the people who constantly think the same things about me just because John Novelle told them a bunch of made-up stories to steal from me.
‘That’s a lie!’ I yell and Andy grips my arm so hard that the bone feels like it’s bending.
‘Shut up!’ he hisses.
Lu gets to her feet, looking angry on my behalf, but Eduardo grabs her. She struggles in his grasp, screaming loudly right in his face and the cartel queen lets out a loud sigh.
‘Dios! Take your loud prize to the plane, Eduardo,’ she orders in annoyance. ‘Keep her quiet.’
‘No!’ I turn on Andy. ‘You told me if I did what you wanted, you wouldn’t let them have her!’
‘You’re acting like a spoiled brat, Marguerite. Deals off.’ He grins at me. ‘But even if you had been good, I still was gonna give her to them just because.’
Eduardo pulls Lu from the hangar while she screams bloody murder and I look after her, helpless to save my friend, to save everyone I care about.
The cartel queen looks me up and down like I’m less than her. ‘In my world, a pillow over your face as soon as you were birthed would have ensured you weren’t a problem for anyone.’
Andy snickers next to me, and pats my head. I pull away from him.
‘You fucker,’ I snarl, slapping him across the face so hard that I split his lip.
He laughs it off, but his eyes are hard as he yanks me closer to him roughly, silently promising retribution. My hand brushes against the cold metal of the gun at his waist.
I don’t even think. I just grab hold of it. The idiot doesn’t even notice my hand on it, can’t even conceive that I’d be smart enough to take his weapon from him even when he’s made it so easy for me.
‘With your permission,’ he says obliviously to the cartel queen, ‘I’ll take Marguerite to her future husband now. Get everything squared away this morning.’
Reyes waves a hand, and Andy begins to pull me toward the hangar’s front door.
‘Don’t do this,’ I say, pulling the gun, and pointing it at Andy who just laughs.
‘Put the gun down, Marguerite. You don’t even know how to use it.’
‘I can pay more than he can,’ I say to Reyes, ignoring him.
She rolls her eyes, looking at me as if I’m barely a mild inconvenience.
‘You have nothing, girl. No money. No rights. Why should I listen to you, hm?’
‘Because, whatever bullshit you’ve been told, I’m not retardada!’ I spit. ‘There’s nothing wrong with my mind and I’m not marrying anyone for Andrew. He’s the one with nothing. I’ll make a deal, but you have to let my friends—’
I gasp as I hear shots being fired from out the back and tears come to my eyes as I look toward the door all the way at the back of the long hangar.
No…
They can’t be dead…They can’t be.
Andrew takes advantage of my inattention and lunges for me, grabbing hold of the gun.
‘This is your fault!’ I snarl. ‘They’re dead because of you!’
The trigger is pulled and Andy staggers back, a look of shock on his face that even I can see as he peers down at the blood rapidly soaking his white shirt.
There’s a stillness around me that wasn’t there before.
It was an accident. I didn’t mean to shoot him, but there’s also a sense of equilibrium being restored. After everything Andy did, I’m sort of glad I was the one to do it. There’s a dark symmetry in it.
If only I’d been able to save my guys…
Andy falls to the floor unmoving, and his eyes stay open, staring at nothing.
‘Take the gun from her,’ the cartel queen snaps.
My eyes find her, and I will my tears to dry so that I can see properly. I blink them back and notice a guy trying to sneak up on me in my periphery.
I put the barrel of the gun to the side of my head.
‘Without me, there is no money!’ I yell at her.
‘You will not do it,’ Reyes laughs.
I glance at the back door.
They’re dead. My guys are gone.
‘I have nothing to live for,’ I force out.
It’s the truth and she must realize I'm serious, because her hand gestures toward her man, and he stops advancing immediately.
‘What do you propose?’
But before I can answer, Thomas, Sauvage’s right hand man, enters the hangar. He’s flanked by at least fifteen other guys.
Sauvage is here?
I stay where I am, and I don’t make a sound, but I want to scream at Thomas that he’s too late. They’re already dead.
Reyes’ eyes widen slightly when she sees how badly outnumbered the four men left with her are, but I don’t notice anything else to show she’s surprised or upset.
Thomas says something into his sleeve and his eyes fall on the cartel queen.
‘Senora Reyes, Monsieur Sauvage wishes to speak with you regarding this woman,’ he says loudly.
Reyes stares at me, as if trying to glean something from my appearance that might tell her why Pierre Sauvage would know me, why he’d put himself on the line for me.
She gives Thomas a tiny nod, saying nothing.
He looks at me and says something else into his wrist.
‘Are you okay, ma’am?’ he asks.
All I can do is shake my head, keeping the gun where it is.
‘Sauvage will be here in a moment.’
But what does it matter? They’re gone. Should have tried to get the gun earlier, fought Andy before the cartel even got here, and escaped.
But I didn’t. I failed them.
Sauvage walks into the hangar a few seconds later with a few more of his men. When he sees me, and notices the gun I’m holding on myself, his eyes harden.
He comes to me without hesitation and takes it gently from my hand. ‘Ma petite fleur, give me this. You do not need it.’
I fight him at first, grip onto it and won’t let him have it, but he gets it away from me and hands it to one of his guys.
Only then does he turn to the cartel queen.
‘What have you done?’ he bites out with a snarl that makes several of the guys around us visibly shiver, and for the first time, I see the Sauvage that everyone is afraid of.
Even Reyes draws herself up as tall as she can and takes a tiny step back.
I just stand where I am, numb and not sure what to do.
What is there to do?
***
Mav
They take us out the back door into the early morning light, lining us up against the outside of the metal hangar.
The cartel guys speak to each other in Spanish, chuckling at us as they aim their rifles.
Shit.
One of them lowers his toward our feet and whoops loudly, yelling something at us in Spanish and shooting the ground in front of us. They all laugh when we jump around to dodge the rounds that hit the dirt.
I glance at my friends. Sauvage is coming, but we need to do something to stall. What though? We have no weapons. No nothing.
Shade looks up at the sky.
‘I prefer the French,’ he remarks loudly.
One of the cartel guys sneers. ‘Francés?’
‘Yeah,’ Shade says. ‘The French guys I’ve met. Like Pierre Sauvage and his guys. They’re just tougher, you know? I mean, sure, you dudes are scary, I guess, but,’ he shrugs, ‘they’re just on a different level.’
‘Yeah,’ I jump in, ‘tougher. I agree. No offence guys, but they’re just… French, you know?’
‘Their food is better, too,’ Blake adds.
One’s lip curls in disgust at our words.
Another one spits on the ground, and they begin arguing with us, mostly in Spanish.
I cross my fingers that we’re all making enough noise, gaining enough time, and I pray that Sauvage isn’t late.
But after a few minutes of bickering, the leader yells at us all to shut up and points his gun toward the building.
Out of time.
I shut my eyes, hoping for a little more luck, hoping we’ve stalled for long enough.
A few seconds pass. Nothing happens. We don’t get blown away.
It’s too quiet.
I crack open my eyes to find several of Sauvage’s men with knives to the cartel guys’ throats. Their guns are silently taken from their hands as we watch.
I feel like I might throw up.
That was close.
‘Almost late, guys,’ Blake remarks lightly, but his hands are trembling just a little.
Letting out a harsh breath, I glance over at Shade. His brother didn’t give a shit that he was about to die. My friend looks shellshocked.
‘Sorry,’ I say.
He gives me the barest nod.
‘Where’s Sauvage?’ I ask Frenchie’s guys.
‘Going back around the front now that we’ve found you and saved your asses,’ one of his guys says. ‘Come on.’
Sauvage’s men use the guns they took off the cartel guards to make them walk ahead of us.
We go around to the front of the hangar, where the sliding door is now wide open.
I see Lu Garrett with another of Sauvage’s guys.
She’s spattered in blood but gives me a double thumbs up. She looks like she’s okay.
We follow Sauvage’s men straight in through the door like they own it, and we follow their lead. Inside, we find that Sauvage and the cartel queen are in a standoff.
Andy is dead on the floor. I glance at Shade, who’s looking down at his brother’s body. There’s regret in his eyes, but nothing else.