Chapter Nine
Arielle now went on as her eyes looked overly bright and her adrenaline was spiked, “Would you like to watch the video I took of your dad getting the news?” she asked as if she was doing him a nice favor.
“Just a second,” she commented casually as she dug her phone from her pocket and scrolled through her videos.
“Oh yes, here it is.” She hit play and turned the cell phone around to face him.
Ricco leaned closer as he could hear his father’s voice telling the police that they had to be wrong about his son.
Then he heard the strange howl his father had made upon hearing them confirming it.
He saw the silhouette of his father in the doorway.
He visibly shivered at the sound and she was right, it was almost unholy.
Looking unsteady on his feet, he stumbled over to a chair and sat down hard.
The whole room heard the scene play out just as she described.
They all watched as Ricco seemed to shrink in the chair and finally after the video stopped, he had tears running down his face.
“Ay dios mío, what have I done?” he whispered softly.
“Lo lamento. I’m so sorry Gabreiel. I didn’t mean to hurt you.
I would never hurt you.” He looked up at Arielle in a lost confusion. “What did I do?”
She was only too happy to answer him, “You killed your own brother and now your father is looking for you, dumbass. He vowed to peel the skin from your bones, cut out your heart and burn it while you watch. Sounds gruesome, actually.” She cocked her head to one side and seemed to ponder aloud, “I wonder if he’ll actually do that, you know seeing that you are also his son. ”
Ricco went completely grey. He knew his father and yes, he would really do it.
Gabriel was his eldest son and they shared something Ricco never had with his father.
Gabriel was the pride of his family, the eldest born, the first son.
He had just turned his entire family against him and he knew when they realized what he’d done, who started that fire, they would all hunt him down and they would relish killing him.
They would make it last as long as they could and they would feed on his pain, his screams and before they killed him, they would all curse him.
His family history told of how cruel they could and would be and he would deserve it all.
He had killed his own brother and they knew of ways to make his retaliation well deserved.
He looked up and said, “I am a dead man walking.”
Arielle just glared at him as she had now gone silent.
Ricco frowned as he stared at her. “Do I know you, chica? I have seen your face before, haven’t I?”
Arielle nodded. “Oh yeah, and I’ve seen your sorry ass face before too. It's been awhile but yeah, I remember you.”
Ricco’s frown deepened as he asked, “Where? Where did we meet before? I’ve seen your angry eyes before.”
“Fourteen years ago, you were in the street whaling on a man who refused to join your group. You were hitting him and swearing dire results if he failed to show up at your place the next day. My mom and I were out on the sidewalk in front of our house, she tried to tell you to take your business off the streets as you were scaring me, an eight year old child but you rolled your eyes at her, took out your gun and shot her in the head for daring to not mind her own business. You shot an unarmed woman with her child next to her in the street and you didn’t even care that she was innocent of any wrongdoing. ”
Ricco stared at her. “You were there? You saw me shoot this woman?”
“I was a child but I did and I was there,” Arielle admitted.
Ricco shook his head. “I do not remember this at all.”
Arielle cried out with a guttural sound.
“You don’t remember the day you ruined my life and took my world away?
You just shot her and then you looked at the man and threatened him with the same thing.
You put the gun away, walked over to your car and drove off.
My mother was laying there in the street bleeding.
But you just didn’t give a shit. You took her life over nothing and you didn’t even fucking care. ”
Ricco shook his head and said, “Chica, from what you say that was years ago. I just don’t remember it, that’s all.”
“Becuase she was so unimportant and you are so fucking vile. It will always seem like just yesterday to me.” Arielle grabbed Jep’s gun sitting on the table.
She cocked it and pointed it at his head.
“Well, maybe this will remind you. You left a dying woman behind as you walked away, a dying woman and a broken hearted little girl, and you just didn’t give a shit.
I sat there with her in my arms for what seemed like hours before the cops got there.
They had to pry my arms from around her neck.
We were both covered in her blood, you sonofabitch!
I had to be taken to the hospital. They had to sedate me.
When they told my father she was gone, a part of him died too.
You took away my whole family the night you murdered my mom.
Now you are gonna lose your family and I have been waiting for that for as you said.
..All these years. And I hope to hell you feel every tiny cut they make.
I’ll even join them in condemning you to the fires of hell. ”
Ricco just stared at her. Shaking his head, he prayed she would shoot him. His life was over anyway.
Jep slowly stood and took a few steps toward her. “Don’t shoot him, Arielle. It will do you more harm than it will him.”
She stood with both hands gripping the gun, pointing it at Ricco. “No, his brains all over the floor will harm him, Jep.”
“Girl,” Titus cut in. “There will be no murders in this compound.”
“Murder?” she scoffed. “This would be a favor to the whole fucking world.”
“Arielle,” Jep tried again. “Give me the gun.”
With her hands shaking and a tear rolling down her cheek, she lowered the gun and let him take it from her grasp.
Ricco glared at her as he growled. He then snatched something from his boot and stood from the chair. “You are gutless!” he exclaimed as he came barreling toward her, a knife in his hand as he held it in the air.
Before Ricco could reach Arielle, the gun in Jep’s hand went off. He was forced to stop the madman with a knife and a deathwish.
The bullet hit Ricco in the chest and he dropped down face first onto the floor.
“Well shit,” Titus grumbled.