Chapter 75 Celia
CELIA
Iwanted to drive to the airport myself to pick up my guys, but none of my officers would allow it.
Here I was, a supposed queen, somehow still fucking being told what to do by men.
I hated admitting it but they weren’t wrong.
It was a matter of security and I couldn’t make impulsive and risky decisions now that my tío knew I was readying for war.
The man was brash enough to try to execute a half-cocked attack just to have the element of surprise over me.
It wouldn’t matter. What he didn’t realize was that he’d already prepared me for this.
I was always expecting him. I had been for the last twelve years. Always looking over my shoulders, paying attention to my surroundings, and memorizing stranger’s faces. Who had I seen before, and where.
It was easy to fall into paranoid thinking, but at the end of the day my tío never let me down, he always came for me. It was almost comforting every time it happened.
This would be the last time.
So I caved and let Mateo ride with me to the airport, along with the security detail car that followed behind.
All capable and trustworthy soldiers hand-picked by Dominico himself and then vetted extensively by Santos before sending them over to Taylor for probing.
She’d dug up more information on each of them than I thought was even possible, from ex-girlfriends to which toys they preferred on the playground in primary school.
Overkill, but apparently necessary.
I opened the door of the car but before I could fully step out I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Jefa, please get b—”
“Rodrigo, right?” Mateo cut in, peeling one of my guard’s fingers off my shoulder. “You seem like a nice guy, but if you ever put your hands on her again it’ll be the last time you use them.”
Down boy, but he was cute when he went into rottweiler mode.
“I-I’m just trying to do my job. I was told to keep her s—”
“Rodrigo, I’m an ex-Navy Seal. I think she’s pretty safe with me, don’t you?” He spoke with the smooth, calculated tone he got before he went borderline psychotic.
I smirked, some weird primal part of me enjoyed the dick measuring contest Mateo was starting.
My guy however looked uncomfortable and anxious, and I didn’t need any rumors about me being hard to work for. Being a woman was a disadvantage on its own.
“Está bien Rodrigo.” I waved him off and gave him a look that was enough to tell him to get back to his own car. “Don’t scare my men,” I told Mateo playfully.
He shut the door behind me before pressing me against it, running his hand up the back of my leg, he let out a throaty growl.
“I liked you in my T-shirts, but I like you even better in these clothes, sunshine,” he whispered into my ear, goosebumps raising along the back of my neck as his fingers trailed along the hem of my mid-thigh length pencil skirt.
It was definitely more of Emory’s style, but I needed to figure out a way to present myself in public if I was going to be taken seriously. The raggedy band T-shirts and ripped jeans weren’t going to cut it anymore.
My papá always donned the finest suits.
I would do the same.
“I said, don’t scare my men, Mateo,” I repeated myself, giving him my coldest look.
“They don’t get to touch you,” he warned me.
“I thought you said you liked watching me come?” I challenged, knowing damn well that wasn’t what he had meant.
His hands pressed against the car, boxing me in with his arms as he pushed himself closer to me, one foot planted between my legs.
“I’m suddenly finding we may need to reestablish some boundaries, sunshine.”
“Oh?” I asked, biting my lip in an attempt to seem seductive knowing it probably looked nothing like I pictured it in my head.
“Yes.” He lowered his forehead to mine.
“Name your terms, crazy boy.” I batted my eyelashes, looking up at him through them.
“No one else touches you but us.”
“And in return, I get?” I teased.
His nostrils flared.
“No one else touches you but us,” he repeated as if it was also the answer to my own question.
“Fine. And if I break your rules?” I was having too much fun and since I wasn’t allowed to go inside the airport this was the best entertainment I’d be getting.
“Then I’ll punish them, cut their fingers off and hang them around their necks. Keep them around as an example so everyone else knows that you are untouchable in every goddamn way.” He was speaking so close to my ear that every word pebbled my skin on contact.
“What about me?” I breathed out.
“It’s me who’ll punish you, flower.” His voice came from behind Mateo, who freed me from the cage of his arms at the sound of Ronan’s threat.
“Hi,” I said with my best sheepish impression.
“Don’t ‘hi’ me when I just heard you say what I think you said.” Mateo moved out of the way to let Ronan take his place.
Santos rolled his eyes and walked towards the trunk, throwing all of their bags into it. Ronan gripped my chin between his fingers and pulled my gaze back towards him.
“Care to repeat yourself?” There was no amusement in his expression, but I wanted to poke the bear further, see how wild I could really make him.
“I think not.” I shook my head with a smile, knowing that Ronan Zerkos was truly the only man alive who could challenge me like this.
Maybe Santos when he got into that mood.
He scoffed, pulling my chin up higher to give me a kiss.
I moaned into his mouth, missing the way we could wrap around each other so perfectly.
“I’m no longer an injured man. Behave or I’ll make you regret it,” he threatened before pulling me away from the car and opening the door to the back for me to get in.
Santos grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me into an embrace, stamping a kiss to the side of my face before letting me go. He climbed into the back, and I followed, seeing Mateo already comfortably settled into the passenger seat.
How had I been alone for so long when now I felt so incomplete anytime I was apart from one of them? I’d done so well for myself as a solitary creature, caring for nothing and no one with only a goal to survive until the next day.
That wasn’t living, and my tío would pay for wasting so much of my life forcing me to live that way.
“So?” I asked, my eyes meeting Ronan’s in the rearview mirror before I looked over to Santos. “Did you deal with… whatever it was you were dealing with?” I asked them, playing along like Santos hadn’t already told me the truth.
Their eyes met; Ronan grunted.
I looked back over to Santos who gave me a look that said he was grateful.
“Tell me everything,” I insisted.
“The Crows have absolved.” Santos spoke and Ronan exhaled loudly.
“Ronan, what the fuck?” I yelled, and he moved a hand from the wheel to scratch the back of his head.
“It’s more complicated than what álvarez is saying,” he tried justifying.
“Then explain it better, payaso.”
“We stepped down. The crows split in two… maybe three actually,” Ronan explained some more without giving me any details.
“Ronan!” I slapped the back of his seat. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I can’t very well lead a criminal organization when I’m here with you, can I?” he asked.
It was a good point, one I hadn’t stopped to think about yet which was exactly why he hadn’t mentioned it until now, when he had already done it.
“Why didn’t you let me in on this? Why wasn’t this a decision you thought we could make together, between all of us?” I asked loudly, feeling myself getting angrier the more I thought about him throwing away everything he built for himself because of me.
He fucking laughed.
Laughed.
Mateo pinched the bridge of his nose, and it took everything to not crawl through the middle console to make my point clearer.
“Como?” I asked.
“I’m sorry darling, I just think it’s funny that you’d think I’d let you in on a major decision regarding me spending the rest of my life with you, when the last time you had the chance you dropped the ball.” His eyes met mine again with a coldness to them. “Completely,” he added.
“Fuck.” The memory of me leaving a suitcase full of money in our two-bedroom apartment while I drove away with a trunk full of cártel weapons haunted me still.
When you hurt the person you loved the most, you hurt yourself too.
I was plagued with nightmares of Santos’ voice calling out to me from the dark telling me that I was going to destroy Ronan. I imagined his reaction for years, how he must have felt and looked when he read my note.
But I never actually asked.
I was afraid of actually knowing just the size of the damage I’d left behind.
“It was the right move, morena.” Santos came to his defense, letting me know I was likely going to be fighting this one on my own if I wanted to ride into battle. “Our men were in limbo. Now they are free to choose where to go. Many will follow, soon Crows will be flying south to work for you.”
“And the ones that don’t?” I asked.
“That depends, quite a few have chosen to stay within the comforts of your brother’s motorcycle club in Grimm’s Reach. They’ll make decent prospects out of them. Some are now floating in the abyss, ready to look for revenge over Dezmond Archer Junior,” Ronan explained.
“You killed him,” Mateo said, not a question so much as he was just confirming it.
“He was in deeper with the Bratvas than we thought,” Ronan told him. “Leaving him alive wasn’t a possibility. I weighed out all my options.”
There was the faintest hint of regret in his tone. Killing someone you thought was family had to be hard, I was lucky to have gone thirty years as a Flores without experiencing it yet.
“That reminds me,” Santos said, reaching down to the floorboard and grabbing his backpack. He fumbled around inside before pulling out a velvet pouch with a drawstring. “It’s for you.” He tossed it my way and I caught it just in time for it to look mildly cool.
I opened the velvet pouch, seeing the yellowish teeth clinking around in the bottom of the bag against each other. I let out a chesty laugh and pulled the strings shut.
“Is this?” I asked and he nodded.
“I pay attention.” The smile was so faint on his face, but I could see the best parts of him fighting to come back to the surface.
“How romantic.” I kissed his cheek, letting my lips linger against his skin. “I can’t believe you brought this on a carry on.” I laughed.
“They’re not looking for teeth.” He shrugged, “It’s not illegal to carry them.”
“What did we miss down here?” Ronan asked, changing the subject.
“There is a big fundraiser event that we will be sponsoring in El Palacio on Saturday. President Ramírez has demanded my presence. I need all three of you to come with me.” I had already told Mateo so he had no input, but Santos and Ronan looked at each other with apprehension.
We’d had plenty of conversations about the politics behind the cártel, that the only way to claim my empire was to rule it from every angle. I needed to solidify my place in our world, make it so the Flores name held power once again.
“All three of us?” Ronan asked, raising an eyebrow up suspiciously.
“Is that a problem?” I crossed my arms, waiting for them to dare deny me.
“I mean you just plan to show up like, ‘Hey, I’m running for office, here are my three boyfriends and expect them to elect you?”
I hated when he knew better than I did.
“I haven’t figured out the logistics of it all, but I need all three of you there with me. It will make me feel more at ease,” I told them.
This fundraiser was a way to reintroduce me to the world, let everyone who mattered know that the Flores Cártel was once again its rightful regime.
Of course, only those who really mattered would know me for who I really was, everyone else would see Celia Flores, daughter of the prolific politician Rafael Flores.
For all they knew I was coming home after studying abroad to follow in my father’s footsteps, first a mayor, then a governor, and eventually a senator just like my papá.
This was my campaign announcement. This was also where the cártel would seal major agreements with the heaviest hitters in the country.
They’d have our protection, our guns, our drugs, we’d have their money.
Because I had my family’s fortune, the ledger, and the connections, I was able to attain everything my tío was promising, for much, much less.
A bargain anyone would be stupid to pass up.
It was also a trap. The fundraiser was sticky, sweet bait set out to lure my tío into our hands. He’d think we were unprepared, careless, and ready to celebrate. He would surely come for us. But we were more than ready, more than expecting him.
“What are you so nervous about?” Mateo asked with a laugh, like he couldn’t believe I was scared of anything.