21. Cruz
CHAPTER 21
Marco quietly shut the door behind him before taking the empty chair and turning it to face me and Javi.
“She’s okay?” I asked.
“Sleeping. Derek’s staying.” He rolled his shoulders while rocking his neck back and forth. “I was getting sore.”
“You didn’t wake her, did you?” Javi pressed.
“No, we were careful,” Marco assured him.
The best thing for Em right now was rest. When she was awake, she was a mess. Crying, doubting herself, asking if there was any way things could have gone down differently.
This morning, after the dust settled and she accepted she was safe, the survivor’s guilt settled in.
She watched a good friend die and couldn’t do a single thing. Who knew if this was the first time someone she cared about was killed? She kept her heart so locked up I doubted many managed to get close.
But Ama did.
Nothing any of us could say would make it better. Nothing that she hadn’t already told herself. This was a part of the mission. She knew going in that all Dias’s family members and associates would be killed by the end. When we walked away, no one would be left in his organization.
Ama didn’t get the death she deserved. We planned to use a sniper while she was sleeping. No panic or fear or even pain. Just a last breath.
That was the least we could do for his mother. We issued the order last night after Em’s request, before news of her daughter’s death could reach her. It was a mercy kill; the best we could offer.
We left no trace, and Alessio attributed the attack on his men and mother to Brazzi, fueling the rage he already felt. It shook him. The thin shred of sanity he clutched to after Ama’s death and Em leaving snapped when he got the news.
He raged like there was nothing left to live for, reacting without thinking. He sent a crew to the gang’s territory to get a shipment, and they were killed on sight. He sent another group deeper into Velez land in Mexico. They were taken out, and the cartel burned his villa there to the ground, leaving no survivors.
If I were him, I’d lose it too.
“What happened overnight?” Marco rubbed his hand over his face.
We took shifts, two on and two off, so someone was always with Em, which usually ended up with two of us cuddling her.
Derek still had a few hours until he relieved me, but Javi looked tired and rough.
“Dias is getting more desperate.” I relayed the news of Dias’s erratic behavior. “He’s pressuring his crew to get rid of Brazzi and his men, but they don’t have the numbers to do that.
Marco nodded. None of this was a surprise, but he needed to know.
“They’re getting more restless,” Javi continued. “The divide is now up to about seventy percent against him. They’re pissed because they blame all of this on Dias’s obsession with Em, not his poor business decisions. It’s a personal problem he’s forcing on them. Two of his top guys came to him around two a.m. to report on the unrest, but he doesn’t care. Brazzi is now enemy number one.”
“They don’t care that Ama was killed by Brazzi’s men?” Marco scoffed.
“From what it sounds like, they sympathize and hate that she got caught in the middle, but they still blame Em because she was there too. None of the drama between him and Brazzi was that bad until she was involved,” Javi explained.
Marco blew out a breath. “She can’t go back there. It’s not safe for her.”
I agreed. “He told them to bring in as many men as possible from Cuba and Mexico too.”
“Is anyone left in Cuba?” he asked.
“No. They sent a few guys to check in since Dias couldn’t reach the guards or his mom. That’s when they found the bodies. They’re stuck there, getting things in order,” I explained.
“I’d run if I were them.”
I exchanged a look with Javi. We already discussed that. If we arrived to find the boss’s mom and all her security dead, I’d get as far away as possible.
“How many are left in Mexico?” Marco’s brows furrowed. “How many are left at all?”
“From what they said, about twenty in Mexico, if they stuck around, and seventy to eighty here.” Javi glanced at me to double-check, and I nodded.
“That’s it?” Marco blew out a breath.
“Yeah, they’ve taken a lot of hits recently.” I couldn’t help but smirk.
That was an understatement. When we arrived, his numbers were in the two hundreds. Some left on their own, but most were killed.
“That’s another thing his men pointed out. Alessio’s made some very bad calls lately. He’s gotten his men killed unnecessarily, and those left are on the verge of revolting.” Javi paused. “They have the gang, Brazzi, and the Velez breathing down their necks. He can’t ignore the position he’s put himself in anymore. His men won’t let him.”
Marco shook his head. “One woman upset the entire Miami underworld. No, Florida.” He chuckled. “Maybe the entire South’s and East Coast’s underworld.”
“That’s our Em.” I grinned and caught Javi yawning. “Go sleep. We’ve got it.”
He stood and stretched. “Wake me if anything happens.”
I waved him out, and Marco scooted his chair over to the second laptop. I flipped through the feeds and trackers we had set up. Brazzi was at his house, and his men were spread throughout the city at his businesses. All normal.
Dias was slumped over a chair in his living room, two empty tequila bottles on the table and a glass in his hand. Only two guards patrolled the house. One of his warehouses was operating as expected. The other was on a skeleton crew. Deliveries were running behind, and it would only take a couple of days for his business to start hurting. Very few people cared about where they were getting their supplies, so long as they were getting what they expected when they expected.
If Dias couldn’t deliver, they’d move on to someone else.Like the Velez supplier moving into the area.
Our Pack didn’t waste a second now that we’d thinned out the threat. Rod didn’t need to say it. We saw the signs. We knew how the Velez worked better than most. They bought up the warehouses, one by one, until they owned entire blocks. They slowly pressed their rivals. Today, they surrounded Dias’s remaining two.
We didn’t know if he was aware. It didn’t matter. He’d know as soon as they wanted him to, if he lived that long.
“Who’s that?” Marco leaned forward, squinting at the screen.
I leaned over to watch the feed from the gate of Dias’s house. A car went through a moment later and parked. Then, a man got out of the backseat.
“Martin, the old second.” I recognized him immediately.
“What’s he doing there at seven in the morning?” Marco questioned as we watched him enter the house with a key.
He sighed when he spotted his boss and crossed the room, taking the glass from his hand and setting it onto the table. Dias didn’t move.
“Wake up!” he yelled, and Dias jerked.
“The fuck do you want?” he slurred.
“What the hell is the matter with you? Your entire world is crumbling, and you’re drinking yourself to sleep?”
Dias tried to sit up but slid to his other side. “Get out.”
“You need to pull your shit together, Alessio! Things are falling apart. Your men are ready to walk!”
He rubbed his face. “Stop yelling.”
Martin fell back on the couch. “You’re a pathetic excuse of a Dias. Your father would be ashamed.”
“I’m aware,” he grumbled.
“Your sister is dead. Your mother is dead. More than half your men are dead, and you do nothing!”
“What can I do?” He threw up one hand. “Everything is shit.”
“You rise! You clean yourself up and regroup. You call your trusted men together, and you make a plan. We did not make it this far—” He stopped, gasping. “Your father and I did not sacrifice everything for you to throw it away within a few years.”
“Huh.” I had to hand it to the guy. Even I was motivated. Too bad Dias was too far gone to do anything.
Martin stood and moved to the kitchen. “I’ll make you coffee since your staff is missing.”
“Everyone’s gone. They left.” Dias dropped his head back.
“Because they see this is a sinking ship. They jumped to save themselves.”
Another point to the old man.
“We can get them back. We can rebuild everything, but you must pull your head from your ass and get to work!” He removed the mug from under the machine and brought it to Dias. “Drink. Then shower. You cannot rest until things are right.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
Marco jerked his gaze away from the screen, eyes wide.“Damn. Did he just admit that?”
“Either he’s drunker than we thought, or he realizes he’s in too deep and needs help.”
“You listen to me.” Martin leaned over him. “I will get us through this. Trust me.”
Dias didn’t argue, and all we could do was sit back and watch.
About twenty minutes later, the door opened, and I swung in my chair to find Em coming toward me. She offered a tired smile as she climbed onto my lap and wrapped her arms around my neck.
“Hey, what are you doing up?” Marco asked.
“Javi was snoring.” She leaned her head on my shoulder.
“You can go to my bed,” I offered, but she didn’t move.
“I don’t want to be alone.”
“I’ll wake up Derek and move him to the other room.” Marco started to stand.
She stopped him. “No, let them sleep. I’m not very tired anymore.”
Marco studied her but nodded. If she was going to stay in here with us, I didn’t want her to watch the feeds. I turned her back to the monitors and rubbed my palms over the shirt she borrowed from Javi.
“How are things––”
“Did anyone ever tell you the story about the pond behind the boys’ home?” I didn’t want to talk about what was happening and how badly Dias was spiraling. I wished a different story came to mind, but it was the first one to pop up.
Marco snorted.
She smiled at him, then faced me. “No.”
“It wasn’t super clean, but being young boys, we didn’t care. It was the only way to cool off in the summer when the supervisors sent us outside so we didn’t bug them all day. There was a cracked, uneven half of a basketball court with a hoop that was missing the backboard.”
“One tree with large enough branches to climb,” Marco added.
“Yeah, and dead grass. That was it. The older boys would strip down to their boxers and swim in the pond, playing Marco Polo, chicken fighting, and racing. Derek and I begged to join, but they said we were too little and not allowed.” I shot a glare at Marco, who just laughed.
“You excluded them?” Em’s eyes were wide.
“Hey, back then it was every man for himself. Javi and I were just barely let in by the others. If we tried to get them to change their minds on Derek and Cruz, we would have lost pond privileges too.”
She frowned. “That’s rude.”
He shrugged. “No regrets.”
“Anyway,” I started again, waiting for her to look back at me. When she did, I kissed her forehead. “One day, Derek and I came up with a plan to wake up super early, before anyone else, and get into the pond before the big kids so they couldn’t tell us no. We figured they would let us stay once they saw us and realized we were big like them too.”
She cringed. “What happened?”
“Well, I forgot to mention to Derek I didn’t know how to swim.”
“No!” She put her hands on my chest.
“Don’t worry. He survives,” Marco teased.
She waved him off. “So?”
“So we ran into the water. At first, it was fine because I could touch the ground, which was disgusting, by the way. Thick mud that burst between your toes and sucked you in.” I shivered, making her giggle. “Derek kept going, swimming to the center and calling for me to hurry. I’m not sure what I expected to happen. I’d never learned to swim, but no one else had ever mentioned being taught either. I guess maybe I thought it was just something people could do. Like walking or running.”
“Because you didn’t remember learning to do that.” She scrunched her nose.
“Right.” I nodded and resumed rubbing her back. “So I kept trudging through that vile mud, and the water rose higher on my body, to my waist, then chest, then neck. I just kept going.”
“Derek didn’t tell you to swim?” she asked.
“No, he was on his back floating.” I closed my eyes and remembered the scene. “Finally, the water was to my lips, and I started skimming my arms over the surface like I’d watched the other kids.”
“And going deeper?”
“Yup.” I chuckled at her amused expression.
“Didn’t think anything was wrong with the situation?” She poked my chest.
“Not at all. The mud was keeping me submerged, and I remember thinking at any second, I would start swimming.”
Marco leaned back in his chair.“But you didn’t.”
“No. Around the same time, I realized my body didn’t know what to do, I needed to breathe.”
Em’s eyes widened. “Oh no.”
“Yeah, at least I knew breathing underwater wasn’t something I could do, but I panicked. I was stuck to the bottom of the pond, mud up to the middle of my calves because I was sinking, and my fingertips were all that made it out of the water.”
“Did Derek see?”
“Yes.” I kissed her furrowed brow, smoothing away the worry. “He realized what an idiot I was before I did and swam over to me. He pulled me free and dragged me back to the edge, where I could stand.”
She hugged me. “I’m glad he was there to save you.”
“Me too.” I held her tight to me. “He told the other boys, and they teased me for weeks after that.”
She pulled back and glared at Marco. “You didn’t.”
He grinned. “Only for a few days. Then Javi and I took him out after dinner one night and taught him.”
“You did?” Her eyes were practically hearts.
“Not that it mattered,” he grumbled. “A few weeks later, the Pack arrived and took us from the home.”
“They didn’t have a pool or something for you guys?” she asked.
“No. It wasn’t until we moved into our own place in an apartment complex that we had the chance to swim again.”
“Well, you’re a great little fishie now,” she teased me.
“Getting him to float was a battle.” Marco chuckled. “I swear he’s a rock.”
“You mean solid muscle?” I flexed my arm.
“Don’t hurt yourself.” He smirked.
“Wouldn’t want to pop one of those. They are pretty nice to look at.” Em winked.
They went back and forth, teasing me while I soaked it in. They could go at it all day. All that mattered was that Emilia was happy, smiling, and not thinking about what was coming next.