Chapter 47 Mateo #2
If she was solely meant for Ronan they would have lived happily ever after a decade ago in some suburban neighborhood with a picket fence and a cul-de-sac. Fate worked its cruelty mysteriously, and I held faith deep in my bones that Cecilia was here because she was meant for us, all of us.
She healed something in every single one of us, and I knew there was something she needed to take from the three of us just as equally.
Only these idiots were too stubborn to allow themselves to see that, they were too caught up with what was socially acceptable, and they thought the idea of her belonging to just one of them made their dicks look bigger.
I knew the truth, a woman like her, she didn’t belong to anyone. She was Lilith incarnate and we were simply the demons on the end of her leash meant to do her bidding.
“I trusted you with her, above everyone,” Zerkos was yelling, and anyone could tell it was taking all of his self-control to not beat into Santos any further. He really couldn’t handle any more of it, he was the smallest of the three of us by far, and compared to Ronan, he was downright tiny.
“You think I don’t know that?” He cried out looking up at our brother standing over him.
“You think I didn’t want to be what you wanted me to be for her?
You think I want to feel this way? I’d rather fucking die Ronan, so go ahead and put me out of my misery so I don’t have to do it myself later.
” He spit out another bloody wad and turned his head to the side, like he didn’t care to see our expression after dropping that kind of bombshell.
The thought of Santos taking his own life because of the way he felt was a guilt I couldn’t live with, and the fact all of it was over a girl and what he was forced to do in the name of Los Muertos was even worse.
Except she wasn’t just some girl, and if I put myself in his shoes even for a split second, his actions didn’t seem so out of sorts.
I pulled Ronan back by the shoulders and shook my head at him, hoping he’d drop his feelings for now so our brother could have a chance to process his.
“Pull up her location Kane,” Zerkos instructed, his tone just a touch calmer as he breathed through the pain of losing her yet again.
As I logged on to the tracking app there was an obnoxious buzzing of a phone pressed against the hard concrete floor.
I looked over at Santos and he pulled a cell out of his pants and handed it to me.
I pulled the phone out to see a few missed calls from Dez as well as a text from a random number with a location sent over.
“Maybe it was a good thing you killed him when you did, he would have probably done the same to you at some point tonight.” Ronan said to álvarez, softening his tone as he extended his hand out to help him stand.
“Dez keeps calling. You think he’s involved or just missing daddy?” I asked, holding up the phone and waving it.
Ronan and I both looked at each other and simultaneously raced to the lobby, but my heart sank as we pushed through the doors and found Nate dead and a few bullet holes on the door.
“Fuck!” I yelled out, my breathing short and ragged, I dropped my hands to my knees while I took in the situation.
“How would he know?” Santos asked as he hobbled into the lobby looking like a bag of soggy shit, and I felt kind of bad for the guy now that I was getting a good look at him in the light.
Ronan’s fists were heavy as hell, I knew firsthand.
I kind of never wanted to be on the receiving end of them ever again if I could help it.
But then, if it meant I could keep her, well I’d take as many of them as I needed to.
“Fifth floor, let’s go,” Zerkos barked out, keeping his cool and dialing out another number on his phone.
“Hey, meet us in the armory in ten. We need you.” He hung up the phone and we bypassed the elevator taking the stairs up to the fifth floor.
There was too much urgency, even Santos who was seriously struggling to keep up, decided that waiting for any of the three elevators to drop down to the lobby was going to take more time than we had to spare to get our girl back.
“Dez is calling again,” I said to Ronan, and he slowed down a couple steps to match my pace.
“Don’t answer. I don’t want him to do anything rash, It’s better if we don’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that we know.
” He had a genuine look of concern on his face, and I didn’t blame him.
Santos really sunk us in deep with this one.
Generally, I almost always craved this kind of disorder, but for some reason, with her life on the line, it wasn’t something that sparked any excitement anymore.
I just wanted her safe, with us.
“Taylor, can you see if Dezmond Archer is in the building?” Ronan spoke on his phone as we approached the fifth floor.
“Keep us posted.” He hung up and turned to me.
“Call someone down to man the lobby. Send at least five men down.” I nodded to him while I began setting up the instructions to our soldiers.
Once we entered the fifth floor, Ronan and I waited for álvarez to catch up and we walked down the now empty cells together. I came down here when I heard of the mess he made here the other day, and I was honestly really impressed at our crew with how fast they cleaned that shit up.
“Change of plans blondie.” Ronan called out to our remaining prisoner. “You’re going home today.” Her eyes went wide with his words, but not in a good way. Instead, there was fear brightly shining through them.
“No! You said I would get a new start!” She pleaded with him as Zerkos grabbed the keys from Hughes and unlocked the cell.
He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the cage, and though she pulled against him she was far too small to make an impact.
Hughes handed him a pair of handcuffs and Zerkos snapped them on behind her back.
“It’s not personal,” he hissed in her ear before shoving her towards Hughes.
“Need a couple of favors, can we count on you?” I asked him.
“You know it, boss,” he reassured us with a nod.
“Tie her up a bit, get her in the trunk of the Escalade, see if you can get rid of the body in the garage on your way back. Try to avoid being seen, let’s keep it between us for now, yeah?” I asked him, slapping his arm.
“The body?” He asked me, eyeing Ronan then doubling back when his eyes caught the state of Santos.
“Yeah, you can’t miss it.” I gave him an awkward grin and another tap on the arm. He picked up Oksana and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and made his way out.
“Keys!” I shouted back at him and tossed them over his way in time for him to catch it.
“Now that’s dealt with,” Ronan said, and he eyed me suspiciously.
I cocked an eyebrow at him, not sure where his head was going this time.
Normally Santos would be the quicker one, but he was still pretty shit-faced and now he was injured to boot. Zerkos was just too fast when he pushed our brother into the open cell and shut the door, letting it lock in front of us.
“What the fuck man?” Santos cried out from the floor.
“You’re no good to us right now. You’re a liability. Sober up. Maybe we’ll come back for you after I figure out if I can still trust you,” he said to him before turning around to walk out of the room.
“You can’t fucking leave me here! Are you kidding me right now Zerkos?” He yelled out again, shaking the bars in his hands. “Kane!” I looked back at him with my mouth open, and as much as I wanted to help him, get him out of that humiliating cell, Ronan wasn’t wrong.
He was a liability right now.
We couldn’t fuck this up.
We couldn’t risk losing her again.