Epilogue
LAFE
“I didn’t actually think the picture of Grace Black would work,” Vicente said with a smug smile as he sat on the office chair across from me.
Maikel leaned against the desk in the lobby and crossed his arms, having a good laugh with Vicente.
“I’m glad I can amuse you,” I snarled but jerked to the right when a shadow passed.
“You have to lay off the drugs.” Maikel shook his head in mock sympathy. “The way you’ve jerked all over the place? That kind of paranoia is deadly. You’ll get yourself killed, or someone else.”
“Isn’t that what you want?” I directed my stare at Vicente, pushing against the ropes they used to tie me to the chair.
“Lafe, there are many things I want. I wouldn’t say your death is one of them.” Vicente tsked like I was a naughty child who didn’t grasp the whole picture.
I didn’t. My brain felt like stretched-out cotton as I tried to understand what he was saying. If he didn’t want us dead, why put a bounty on our heads? My runners had practically had to go to the ground to avoid his people hunting for me.
“But if it happens…” Vicente shrugged.
Skitstovel.
Familiar screaming caught my attention right before the door opened. One of Vicente’s men—Mauel—grunted as he carried a raging Amorette over his shoulder. She kicked and punched, landing any kind of hurt on him that she could, even grabbing a fist of his hair and pulling.
He cursed and threw her to the hard tile. “Fucking bitch! Ouch.” He rubbed his head.
“What a treat.” Vicente leaned forward to get a good look at Amorette. “You’re that cunt my sons can’t keep their hands off of. Why are you here?” He asked her like he actually expected an answer.
She twisted until she sat on her butt and pushed away from him as fast as she could. Her wide-eyed gaze swung around the room, but relief hit as she saw me.
My heart twisted inside my chest. After everything I’d said to her, did to her, I never thought she’d want to speak to me again, much less be relieved that I was alive.
“Parker Adair brought her and a chopper full of men. They’re mostly dead, but we brought her before the rest of our men finished the job. We thought she might be valuable.”
“Is Parker dead?” Vicente glared at the man.
He paled, making the scratches on his face stand out in stark contrast. “N-no, sir. He was still alive when I left.”
“Your men were shooting at him?”
The man dropped his gaze and didn’t answer. Of course, they were fucking shooting at him. Vicente had given the order that he wanted us placed at his feet, dead or alive.
Vicente let his gaze linger on the man as he addressed Amorette. “I hear from my daughter that you’re an attorney. For battered women. Is that right?”
Amorette didn’t answer, her gaze shooting between Vicente and me like she wasn’t sure how to handle his sudden switch of topics.
“I also hear you have a nasty moral compass. You tried to fight for the girls because you thought they were being mistreated, right?” Vicente glanced at Maikel, who rolled his eyes.
“You mean raped and beaten,” she blurted out with so much venom.
“I told you, she’s too stupid to live. She thinks she’s a white knight, even though it just got her extra time with Randall. He sends his regards, by the way.” Maikel kissed his palm then blew it to her.
Her top lip curled and her brows dropped low.
Vicente smirked as he dragged his gaze from Maikel to Amorette. “How about a game?” He slapped his knees.
“A…game?”
“A game. I’ll let you go if you dirty up that moral compass. Show me how easily you’ll fall to save yourself.”
“Fuck you,” she spat.
That only pulled a chuckle from Vicente.
“No? How about Lafe?” He pulled a gun from inside his jacket and pointed it at me. “Carve up the man who brought you here, or I’ll shoot him.”
Maikel pulled a knife off of his belt and tossed it to Amorette. Manuel started to turn for the door, but Vicente stopped him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Your sister is at the mansion, and I’d hate to think what will happen to her if you disobey me.”
He stopped and turned around slowly, closing his eyes.
Horror took over Amorette’s entire face as she turned her wide blue eyes to mine before dropping her gaze to the knife and then to the man behind her.
No . I started thrashing my head back and forth and pushing against the rope. This was everything Amorette would hate. He might as well shoot me. He couldn’t fucking ask her to make that kind of choice. She was a hero, not a fucking villain.
I wasn’t worth this stain on her soul, and she knew it.
When she met my gaze again, her eyes were brimming with unshed tears.
“What do you say? His life, or Lafe’s?”
To be continued in Killer …