29. Maricela
“Lord Killian.” The scarred man is talking to Killian, but his eyes are on me. He recognizes me. He knows it was me.I can almost smell the tangy, coppery scent of blood. His blood.I was sure I had killed the man. I lived with the notion that I had taken a life, but I see now that I didn’t. Fuck, I didn’t, and I should have.
“What are you doing here?”Killian sounds like the king he has become—the lord of his bloody kingdom.
“Your father sent me. He’s asked to see you.” The scar I left on this man’s face moves with each word he speaks. It’s alive, just like the man himself. Still, his attention is on me. Each word is directed at me. For me. The crow reminds me of his master.
“For what reason? My father can call me anytime he wants.”
“I’m just the messenger,” the man states in his shocking voice, which is like gravel and death. He is the voice of death.
I saw this man before he attempted to kill me, I’m sure of it. He was working for the Fierro men a long time before I came here, but unlike Pedro and Marlina, I overlooked the other employees in the mansion.
That was by choice. Like everything related to the mafia, I chose to ignore them. I ignored all the abuse, the murders, and all else I knew to be happening under my nose.
It cost me everything, and now here I am, like a deer in the headlights, not knowing what to do.
“I’ll take care of it,” Killian says, but I know he won’t.
It was my plan, after all. This man is here because of what we’re doing to his father.
“Maricela.”
My name on Killian’s lips gives me a jolt. I look at Killian, this man who just minutes ago gave me such joy, while I try to hide from him the storm raging inside me.
The word is on the tip of my tongue. It starts with an R and ends with an E, but the coward in me looks at him and squeaks the word, “Yes?”
“I need you to go while I see this client. I’ll deal with this.”
I nod, or at least I think I do because my enemy’s eyes are boring a hole into my flesh.
I want to kick myself. He was the one who ran after me. I wasn’t about to hurt him. I don’t even know how I managed to do so. Ronen told me it was an adrenaline rush. He knows all about what happened that day. He’s the only one who does.
“Maricela. Little Girl. Can you hear me?” Mierda. He asked me something else.
“Sorry, I was thinking of something.” I look at Killian.
This man, who waited for me, who gives me time like no other, who stands in front of a person who hurt me. My man.
Holy shit, Killian is my man, and I will do everything for him to be with me and the children because I’m selfish.
I want him by my side. I want him to raise Connie with me and get her out of her shell. I want him to hold Amado for me because he’s getting too heavy for my frame. I want so much and can’t get it without telling him the truth.
“I know this man,” I say at last, feeling as if I’ve awakened the devil. The crow hears me and takes off down the hallway.
“Did he hurt you?” Maddox asks but then starts running after the man before he even finishes the question.
“Little Girl, speak.”
“He tried, but I hurt him back, so he wasn’t too successful. His face... I did that.”
I can see Killian’s mind turning, but I suspect that not even he, with all his quiet intelligence, can imagine what really happened.
“Stop, man!” Madd calls to him.
“You have nowhere to run. No, no, don’t do it.”
We turn to Maddox, who now has the man cornered. Madd looks horrified as the crow holds something to his mouth and bites into it. I can’t see what happens because Killian grabs me, pulls me down to the floor and covers my body.
A weird sound comes out of the man—something that sounds similar to a distant explosion in the water.
“Crazy mother fucker,” Killian murmurs next to my ear.
“The fucker killed himself. He just offed himself in my goddamn office.”
A scream of horror comes from behind me. I know it’s Lila. I’ve heard her scream like that once already.
“Don’t touch a thing,” Killian orders before pulling out his phone and calling the cops.
As we get to our feet, I look over and see the man is lying in a pool of blood. Half of his head is gone, brain matter and God knows what else splattered across the walls. The gruesome picture doesn’t affect me, though. I’ve seen worse. All I feel is relief.
Lila, on the other hand, continues to scream, but when Maddox slaps her across the face, she stares at him and then starts to cry.
“Oh, boy. That doesn’t look good,” Bertha says in a motherly voice.
I don’t get this woman. Does nothing faze her? Some of the other secretaries are crying, while others appear to be too shocked to react, but Bertha comes to stand by me.
Maddox takes Bertha by the arm and as he starts pulling her away, I hear him start to say, “The police are on their way...”
“Yes, yes. I know, I’ve seen enough movies. Don’t go near the body. Poor thing. With a face like that, I would have been tempted to do it as well. His mother must not have eaten enough meat during pregnancy.”
I can’t stop the grin that spreads across my face, so wide that my cheeks begin to hurt.
“Are you okay?”
Killian sounds worried, but I keep the smile on my face. This time, the crow is truly dead. He’s fucking dead. Blood rushes in my ears.
“Little Girl, sit.”
I’m about to pass out. I don’t have to tell Killian the truth. I don’t. The man—I don’t even know his name—chose death rather than admitting he’d betrayed his king.
I’ve seen such loyalty in many places. Loyalty is so unquestioning that death seems more logical than betrayal. Such was the man who wanted to kill me for his master. It wasn’t because he hated me in any way. It was simply because he was following orders. I can accept that.
“I’m fine,” I finally answer Killian.
“You know you’ll have to tell me everything later,” he demands, but I shake my head. It probably wasn’t the right thing to do.
“Maricela,” he tries, but I don’t allow him to continue. Instead, I do something that will surely look sick to everyone around us.
I take his finger in my hand and put it in my mouth. Killian immediately swallows. Our bodies react in morbid ways. Every touch between us becomes sexual and full of passion. That was never a problem between us.
When we first met, the mission he was given to destroy me kept him from getting close to me, and then his change of tactics had me dropping at his feet, even if I’d never admit it to him.
“You’ll have to tell me the truth eventually,” he insists in a quieter voice, covered in passion.
“I know. But it won’t happen today. It won’t happen now. He’s dead. One of my monsters is dead.” I can confess that much, at least. And Killian deserves to know that I dreamed about his face, that the memory of him horrified me.
“Ahh!” Lila screams again. This is probably the most normal reaction and the one that was expected from all of us: horror, fear, disgust, apprehension.
She’s still here. I’m sure she stayed because she was determined to wait for Killian or maybe even me. Her attempt to show she has power over me is already becoming ridiculous, but what’s even more ridiculous is that I don’t think about the body lying a few steps away from me, lying in a puddle of blood that grows every moment. Instead, the only thoughts I have now are about how much Lila annoys me.
I’m no better than any man in the mafia. Now I know it. The death of my would-be killer leaves me at peace as if a tremendous weight has been lifted from me.
So, tell him. Tell him, and he will also destroy the second shadow on your soul, the lost girl in my head pleads to no avail.
I turn to my other enemy. The one that’s become nothing more than an annoyance. “Lila, shut up. He’s dead. He can’t hear you.”
She’s so pale, she’s almost translucent. “What did you do?” she asks Killian, who ignores her.
“He didn’t do anything,” Maddox replies. “He wouldn’t do anything here, Barbie Doll. There are cameras everywhere. The guy threatened Maricela, I chased him, and the coward put an explosive in his mouth. You can see it all on the cameras. We aren’t barbarians,” Maddox states with a vicious smile.
Pulling Killian and me aside, Maddox lays out a compelling story, and that’s what we repeat when the police arrive. Even Bertha gives the same statement while Lila stands by in shock. She’s the only one who didn’t speak, and the police didn’t ask to question her because, as Maddox said, the cameras showed everything.
Killian’s law office becomes a crime scene for several long hours until the police decide they can finally remove the body, and they disappear, leaving us in peace. Or at least that’s what I thought because the next voice I hear makes me want to see another body on the floor, and this time, it’s out of anger, not fear.
Maverick stands in Killian’s office, saying, “Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to come looking for a scoop here.”