Chapter 85 - Celia
CELIA
Between Susana’s knowledge of her father’s day to day life and Taylor’s incredible tech-stalker skills it was a piece of cake pinpointing where we were likely to find Sokolov.
Because I’m a spiritual kind of pendeja, I thought it was quite symbolic to pick Friday at midnight, when he was sure to be at the very strip club he’d kept me prisoner in for nearly a week.
The very place where he drugged me and sold me like cheap meat at the market.
If I was lucky, I’d get to free some girls from that very same fate tonight.
Mateo’s hand found mine in the backseat of the car, squeezing it tight and ignoring the nervous sweat as if it didn’t bother him at all.
“Hey,” he whispered nervously in my ear.
“Hmm?” I answered quietly so that the conversation stayed between the two of us.
“I can’t promise to hold back when we go in there.” He furrowed his eyebrows in the middle, creating a hard crease.
“His death belongs to me.” I growled.
“No Sunshine, his death belongs to all of us. I watched helplessly while you almost died because of the drugs he pumped into your system. He killed my men.” He didn’t stand down.
“Mateo,” I gritted out, hating having to get stern with him.
“How about this,” he grinned dangerously, “first one to him gets the kill?” He raised his eyebrows with his proposal, and I tilted my head at an angle while I thought about it.
“No guns?” I asked.
“If that’s what the lady wants, that’s what the lady gets.” He gave me a shameless smirk.
“Fletch and his team will be waiting at the other exits to cause distractions and take down some of their men. We should have plenty of time,” Ronan said from the front, making eye contact in the rearview mirror.
“I need you to go down into that basement and free the girls that will be in there,” I told him before turning to Santos in the passenger seat. “I need you to check the dressing rooms behind the stage for any girls getting ready to be sold.”
“Aye aye, jefa.” Santos gave me a two-finger salute.
We parked across the street and just as Ronan was opening his door to get out, I called him back to me.
“Ronan, there was a lion in that basement last time,” I warned him.
“What?” he said with a laugh of disbelief.
I was high as hell, but I remembered very vividly what I’d seen. The hot breath on my back and the sharp claws scratching against the smooth concrete floor with an obnoxious sound.
I remembered the bird’s warning.
“Just be careful, okay?” I told him.
He turned back fully, reaching for me and pulling me into him despite the middle console standing as a barrier between us. His lips parted against mine, his tongue raking softly against my own for just a brief moment before he withdrew from me, leaving me high and needy for more.
“Focus, morena.” Santos growled like he didn’t approve of Ronan’s distraction.
We got out of the car, the men strapped on their Kevlar vests and double checked all of their weapons. Ronan handed me a vest and I raised an eyebrow at him.
“I don’t need that,” I reassured him.
“Oh, have you become bulletproof in the last twelve years?” he said with a sarcastic tone.
“I’m not afraid to die,” I explained.
His jaw ticked with anger, the scowl forming deep into his forehead.
“Put the fucking vest on, Celia.” He pushed it into my chest. “I’m getting real sick of this shit.” He dropped it from his hold, forcing me to clutch it fast to keep it from falling on the ground.
I turned to Mateo and gave him a questioning look, hoping he could help me with the angry blonde giant.
“I don’t think you realize it, Sunshine, but every time you disregard your life, it feels like you’re saying we aren’t enough for you to want to do your best to stay,” he said with deflated energy, scratching his head and walking ahead of me.
I sighed, turning to see Santos still standing next to me.
“What, you’re not going to say something too?” I raised my voice, preparing to snap.
“No. I get it,” he said, not bothering to explain himself.
He was gonna make me work for it.
“You get it?” I asked.
“Yeah. You think as long as we’re safe it doesn’t matter what happens to you.
I get it because that’s how I feel about you, how I feel about them.
I’d give my life a hundred times over to make sure you three have the happy ending you deserve.
” He started walking away. “But if you take that vest off, I’ll be taking mine off too.
If you die, I die too,” he said without looking back.
Motherfucker.
I slipped on the vest and ran after them, buttoning my coat over the obnoxiously thick Kevlar.
“Espérense pendejos,” I shouted. The insult had Ronan stopping in his tracks abruptly forcing me to slam into the concrete wall that was his body.
He turned to face me, a scowl on his face that loosened once he eyed me up and down and appreciated that I’d listened to his demands.
“Thank you,” he whispered into my mouth, gripping my jaw with one hand and forcing me on the tips of my toes in order to collect the kiss from him.
“One more thing,” I said, forcing a single eyebrow to raise up from him.
He didn’t ask, he just waited.
“There was a bird in that basement.” His expression became even more confused. “If he’s still there. I want him,” I told him, not leaving room for discussion.
“Do you want the lion too?” Mateo laughed.
I clucked my tongue in annoyance as I shoved him to the side. The four of us broke up and headed for separate entrances.
“How do you plan to get to Sokolov without drawing attention to yourself?” Mateo asked.
I gave him a knowing tilt of my head without explaining anything.
“Sunshine, I promise you if he sees an inch of your body tonight, he dies by my hands.” His expression was serious, fully devoid of humor.
“I guess we shall see.” I winked, picking up the pace and walking ahead of him.
I slipped on my coat and nervously patted at it after fastening the buttons, hoping the vest was well hidden underneath. Mateo slipped on his suit jacket and did the same. It was bulky as hell, but these idiots weren’t paying enough attention. They didn’t know we were coming.
That alone would be their ending.
We paid our cover fee and walked in through the front door, the bouncer unchaining the velvet lined rope after checking our fake IDs matched the names on the list that Taylor had hacked into and gotten us on.
I set off the metal detector just as I had expected, but I stuck my boots out, letting the metal buckles clink loudly to justify the alarm.
The guard ran the hand paddle over my body, seemingly satisfied when it only sounded after he brought it down to my boot buckles once again and let us go.
The purple velvet covering every inch of the place smelled of stale smoke and none of the hanging neon lights matched. I was overly made up, playing the part of arm candy while Mateo had the ID of some well-to-do billionaire Taylor had conjured up for him and put on the club’s VIP list.
The same list all the vile men who came here to purchase women were on. We walked through dark halls together while some less than cheery bikini-clad server led us to the area where the show would be.
Calling it a show made my stomach churn.
Flashes of memories cut through my mind like shards of glass, broken and fragmented from the drugs they’d pumped into my body after days of starving me. I slowed down, palms sweating as I realized what killing Allisher Sokolov would mean to me.
A freedom in a way.
The death of Cecilia.
The death of everything I had pretended to be while running away from who I truly was. The death of an entire world inside of me really, according to Yevtushenko.
We had been sitting at our booth for less than two minutes before a cocktail waitress came by to get our orders. Mateo asked for a soda with lime, she eyed him suspiciously but jotted it down anyway.
“Fortaleza?” I asked, and she nodded her head.
I held up two fingers indicating I wanted a double and she turned away to fetch our drinks.
The stage lights flashed on just as she set our glasses in front of us.
I reached for the glass, ready to put the straw in my mouth but Mateo covered the top of the glass with his hand, shaking his head at me.
“Not here.”
I didn’t have to ask why. There were a million reasons, and though I wanted a drink to calm my nerves I also knew I needed to do this with a clear head. Clean, fast, and viciously.
And there was no way I was gonna beat Mateo to him if I was drunk.
“I’m going to the bathroom, text me if things start to seem off,” I whispered in his ear, sliding past him on the booth and feeling his hands cup my ass while I slid by.
I ignored his low growl, walking past all the other tables and not taking notice of the disgusting filth who assumed the shape of men, waiting to buy a girl.
The cocktail waitress pointed the women’s bathroom out to me and thankfully I seemed to be the only one in the building who wasn’t already working here.
It was totally empty.
I took off my coat, removing the bullet proof vest and dropping it to the ground.
Sorry boys.
Change of plans.
I unzipped my dress from the side and stepped out of it, folding it neatly and shoving it into a corner with the vest knowing damn well that if anything went right tonight, the chances of me making it back here to collect my belongings were slim.
Charged it to the game.
A worthwhile offering in exchange for Sokolov’s blood.
I took one last look in the mirror, fluffing up my heavy hair and wiping stray lipstick from the corner of my mouth. I was in that same matching black lingerie that all the girls in this building were wearing, well at least something close enough that no man would be able to tell the difference.