Chapter 43 Mateo
MATEO
The drive to Grimm’s Reach was barely tolerable.
Between Santos’ moody aura stinking up the whole car without him even being here, and the fact Cecilia and Zerkos could barely look at each other without bickering about the A/C or the music playing, I was ready to get the fuck out of this negative car and stretch my legs.
I sat in the back with Cecilia, for one, to piss off Zerkos, and two, because why would I pass up a chance to try to finger her in the backseat?
Once we arrived at the Diablo’s compound, I could feel a visible wall being put up around Cecilia.
She was covering herself in armor, and her change in attitude sent a powerful surge of excitement through me.
I craved the unpredictable, and right now she was feeding the monster that lurked beneath my surface.
“Give me a gun,” she demanded from Ronan, and he scoffed, turning back to look at her.
“First of all, no. Second of all, if you go in there waving a gun around, you’ll be dead in less than three seconds.
Trust me,” Ronan said to her sternly, clearly remembering the first time he’d ever been here all those years ago.
She let out a laugh that was a bit unhinged but fit the mood suspiciously well.
“Well, good thing I only need two seconds to make the point I need to make,” she extended her hand out for the gun.
“No,” he said again, and she flared her nostrils back at him.
“Scared I’ll turn on you?” She let out a half-smirk.
“Baby, always,” he said, grabbing her by the hair and stealing a kiss from her that should have had me clenching my jaw with jealousy, but instead, it just left me turned on. She pushed him away roughly and stuck her hand out again.
“Uh-uh. No way,” he laughed out, but her change in tone let him know she wasn’t here to play around.
“I swear to God Ronan Zerkos, give me a gun or you will regret it,” her threat was empty, but Ronan lifted his eyebrow up with hesitation and let out a heavy sigh of defeat.
“Your fucking funeral then,” he groaned as he placed the gun in her palm.
I would have given her one too, but she didn’t ask me.
She probably knew she could get anything from me, but I think she enjoyed challenging Ronan too much.
She squeezed my thigh and the corner of her lip turned up in the tiniest amount before she released my leg and grabbed the gun with both hands.
“Do you know how to work the safety?” Zerkos asked her.
“I know my way around a pistol better than I know my way around you these days baby,” she spat back at him, for once owning the double life she had been living.
She put the gun inside the back of her pants, and we pulled into the compound, where the same kid with the Prospect leather cut waved us through.
“Are you coming, or not? I don’t care either way,” she baited him, using her confidence in knowing full well I had her back no matter what she was planning to do once we got in there.
The prospect tried to stop her from walking through the doors before he could alert his president, but she just pushed him away with one hand, and the kid stumbled back in surprise.
She shoved the door open and in the same moment two shots rang out from the gun Zerkos had given her, all hell immediately threatening to break loose.
Over a dozen guns pointed our way but before my brain could register what was happening, I heard the pained shout coming from Cézar. “Stand the fuck down!” he shouted to his men, that’s when I noticed him clutching his leg and the blood dripping from his shoulder.
Cecilia put two bullets in Cézar Villalobos in less than two seconds of entering his clubhouse and it took every part of me to not let the smile break free from my face.
It wasn’t lethal but I was betting it hurt like a bitch, and that was the least he deserved.
I lifted my gun up to back Cecilia, not knowing what the hell kind of point she was trying to make here, but still a hundred percent down for the chaos.
I looked over at her with wide eyes but the girl I thought I knew wasn’t there anymore. There wasn’t an ounce of fear coming from her, this was the woman her father shaped her into, this was the little girl ruthlessly molded in a Cártel dungeon.
“I came to collect, pendejo,” she said pointing the gun at him, and I looked back at Zerkos and mouthed what the fuck? To him but he just lifted his shoulders and gave me the same look right back.
“Back down little girl, I can’t let you keep pointing that gun at my Pres,” the enormity that was Calaveras stepped up to her and put himself between the two of them.
She didn’t flinch though, and instead, she put the pistol right under his chin like she didn’t give a fuck about the size difference between them.
“Take a seat gigante, this is your president’s comeuppance.
You can either be a good little grunt and listen to him, or I’ll shoot him dead right here, and you can bet your ass he’ll let me.
Because that motherfucker owes me his life,” she pushed the gun until Calaveras had no choice but to crash back into the couch behind him, and then she looked back at Cézar.
“So, what’s it gonna be Pres? Your life, or your life?” She asked him, letting out an icy laugh as she used his title exaggeratedly so that it came off as the condescending remark she'd intended it to be.
“What the fuck is she talking about Pres?” A dark-haired, equally large motherfucker wearing a leather cut with “Sanguinero” on it spoke, but pressed his hands down to encourage the others to lower their weapons. Cézar stayed silent as his men looked at him, and he looked at her.
“There’s a reason why he’s not talking right now boys, it’s because I’m in the room.
Which means unless I ask him to bark, your Lobito will stay quiet like the good little dog he is.
I’m talking about the fact that your president has two options right now, he can leave you in the capable hands of his VP and do his fucking job like he was sworn to.
Or…” Cecilia trailed off in thought, but Sanguinero took the opportunity to speak.
“We’re a family. We ride or die for each other. If he’s got business with you then it’s our business too.”
“Lovely, I was betting on that. I could use more muscle behind me. It looks like as of right now the Diablos Locos belongs to the Flores Cártel until further notice.” Conflicted voices spoke over each other in anger all at once, but it didn’t break her cool composure at all.
“You think we’re just gonna let this stand?” Another guy chimed in from the corner and Cecilia didn’t blink before putting a bullet in his kneecap. Calaveras stood up and Cecilia stepped forward to match him, power, and control exuding from every pore of her body.
“I said stand down!” Cézar shouted and Cecilia smirked something sinister at the deadly-looking motherfucker looming over her.
“Try something, I promise you any harm comes to me, and your President won’t hesitate to put a bullet in his own skull on my account, but not before he puts one in yours as well. We were both brainwashed in the same tub, he knows where his fucking duties lie.”
He looked towards Cézar for some sign that Cecilia was fucking crazy, but he bowed his head silently and I knew she wasn’t lying, the whole room did.
“Why the fuck would he do that?” Sanguinero asked.
“No one ever pays attention to the part that says no one gets out alive!” She tapped her finger to her head to suggest the thought should have crossed his mind. “The only way out is death.” Clearly, all of his men had known his history if the mention of the Cártel didn’t surprise them.
“You can go down to hell with him and do my bidding, or you can watch him burn by himself. But Cézar Villalobos belongs to me, until I decide otherwise,” she said, crossing her arms and turning her chin up. “And I’ve been missing my number two boys, so I might be keeping him for a while.”
“Pres,” someone said quietly, possibly the poor fuck who had just gotten shot in the knee cap. Calaveras looked to Cezar again and Cecilia sighed heavily.
“I understand it may take some time for you to get used to the idea, but I won’t tell you twice. When I’m in the room, you don’t look to him for approval, you look at me. Understand?”
Calavera let out a low growl in disapproval, and Cecilia took it for the challenge that it unmistakably was.
“I don’t think you understand the position you’re in.
You want to ride or die for your number one?
Well, let me be the first to tell you that your number one is my number two.
Has been since the day I was born, and until the day my miserable existence ends, he will continue to serve me,” she threw a coin at Cézar, and he scowled at her but gripped it tight in his hand. “You lost this, payaso.”
“I didn’t want it back,” he looked away and she marched over to him and grabbed his chin between her fingers to force him to look into her eyes.
“We both know this is scarred into us deeper than a fucking coin,” she let go and began walking away like she owned the place.
I was fucking impressed. I was hard, and I was mesmerized all at the same time.
She was the kind of woman who breathed fire, who turned men into a smoldering pile of ash with nothing but the sheer power that ran through her veins.
I could feel the layers of who I once was scorching away in her embers, from simply the heat of basking in her glory.
“I hope you enjoyed your freedom, Lobito. We have work to do, you left me with quite a mess.” She announced, walking over to the bar and grabbing three shot glasses.
“Where the fuck is your doctor? My brother is bleeding all over the place,” she said angrily to Calaveras as if she wasn’t the one who just shot him.
“He’ll be here in five. He said to keep pressure on the wounds. All of them.” The Prospect said looking at Cecilia's other casualty as he pulled the phone away from his ear to tell us.