“What’d you say to me, bitch?” he slurred, his accent so think I barely understood him as he walked toward me menacingly. “You dare to call me a cocksucker?”
“Your breath sure does smell like you just spat out your boyfriend’s dick,” I taunted. “You got a little man juice right there.” I touched my tongue to the corner of my mouth to indicate where it was, smirking at him. “Go ahead and lick it all up, Manny. I’m sure you want to get every last drop.”
He was pretty fast for someone high as a kite. Or maybe it was because of the drugs. One second, he was across the room. The next, he was standing right in front of me, his fist lifted to strike me. I let him. His hands were like ham hocks, and the blow dazed me for a moment, leaving my ears ringing. I let my head drop forward, pretending to be knocked out from the punch.
“No!’ Cali screamed. “Leave her alone, Manuel. She has nothing to do with this.”
He turned to face her. “She helped you run from me, Calista. She is the reason you got away and I couldn’t marry you when the old bastard died. All that money, and he left it to his whore’s bitch of a daughter.”
“I will never marry you,” she screeched. “I will slit my own throat before I become your wife.”
“You think I want to marry you for anything other than to get the money that should have been mine to begin with? I hate you, you stupid bitch!”
He took a step toward her, and I moved before it was too late and he was out of my reach. Even in pain, I was faster than him. Jumping up, I took my full weight onto my arms, pulling myself higher so I could wrap my legs around his neck from behind.
The pain in my shoulder was excruciating and I cried out, but Anya’s voice was in my head, commanding me to fight it. “Don’t give up, l’vitsa! Fight. Come back to my son. Kill the bastard. You can do this. I know you can. I taught you well. You are ready. Fight, damn it. Fight!”
Manuel struggled, but I only tightened my hold, squeezing the life from him as Anya’s voice grew louder and louder in my head. He clawed at my legs and somehow turned his head enough to bite into my inner thigh. I was unable to hold in the scream as his teeth sank deeper and deeper, but I refused to release him. My legs tightened even more, and I twisted, causing his bite to tear away a big chunk of my flesh. I screamed again, masking the sound of his neck snapping, but I still felt the vibrations all the way to my bones, and he went limp.
Breathing hard, I unwrapped my legs from around his neck and let him fall to the floor like the trash he was. I could feel blood pouring from the wound on my inner thigh, but like my shoulder, I had to ignore it.
“Holy shit,” Cali whispered in awe. “Y-yo-you killed him.”
“Shh, I’m busy,” I told her as I concentrated on getting one of my wrists free. It was one of the pluses of being so small. My wrists were tiny, and the cuffs were made for an adult-sized person’s hands. It was a tight squeeze, and hurt like hell, but I was finally able to pull them both free.
Bending, I found the keys to Cali’s restraints and unlocked her hands. “I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything,” she readily agreed, limping on her injured leg. I noted that the slashes on her legs were openly bleeding, just as her mouth continued to, but she didn’t whine or complain about the pain she must have been in, especially with how swollen her left ankle was.
I held out my hand to her. “Pull with all your might.” She gave me a confused look, and I explained, “My shoulder is dislocated, Cali. It has to be put back in before I can get us the rest of the way out of this hellhole.”
I grabbed on to one of her chains and held on as she tugged on my hand and arm. “Harder,” I instructed, and she pulled a little harder. The pain made me nauseous, it was so intense, but I swallowed the bile threatening to choke me. “Harder!” I yelled, knowing it wasn’t going to go back into place without more effort.
She jerked back at my raised voice, but my shoulder finally popped into place, causing me to scream yet again. For several long moments, I stood there, trying not to pass out from the shot of excruciating pain. But as soon as my shoulder was where it needed to be, and the spots faded from around my eyes, I nearly sobbed with relief.
Noises from above us told me I didn’t have time for that kind of shit. With blood still pouring from my thigh, I went back to Manuel’s lifeless body and tore off a piece of his shirt so I could wrap it around the wound. A quick inspection of the area told me he hadn’t harmed an artery, so I bandaged it up and took the knife that was strapped to his leg as well as the gun he’d had tucked into the back of his pants.
Checking the magazine, I chambered a bullet and took Cali’s hand. “Well, you know this house better than me. Which way is the bathroom? I really have to pee.”
There was a bathroom right by the stairs, and we went in together. It was small but clean. We both relieved ourselves and cleaned up somewhat, but I knew there was no use in hiding in the bathroom.
“Wait.” I stopped Cali from opening the door when a thought hit me. “Where is Ciana?”
The brunette shook her head. “I don’t know anything other than what I heard Manuel and his men saying on the cargo plane. They didn’t have her, but there was mention of some woman named Brion taking her.”
A chill went down my spine. “O’Brion?”
Cali scrunched her face in thought. “Yeah, that might have been it.”
I shoved down my fear for my cousin and pushed Cali behind me. “Do you have anyone you can trust here?”
“He had maybe five loyal men. The rest would have only followed him because they needed the job. All of the staff can be trusted. I loved them all. They are terrified of Manuel and would probably throw a party now that he’s dead… How did you do that, by the way? It was scary and beautiful all at the same time.”
“Ask me again when this is over,” I muttered. “Do you know which guards?” She hesitated and then nodded. “Okay, let’s go. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get out of here.”
* * *
Seven dead bodies lay at my feet, one of which was that of Manuel Ramirez. Six of the seven had bullets in various parts of their bodies, but they had died the exact same way—with a shot straight to their brain. One thing Anya had drilled into me when she was teaching me to shoot was that the only way to truly ensure your enemy took his last breath was to put a bullet between their eyes. When it came to her teachings, I always listened to her advice.
Cali stood beside me, dispassionately taking in the sight of the lifeless bodies the remaining guards had piled up for me in the courtyard. Around us, the staff were vigilant but silent. Everyone was tense, yet I could almost feel their relief that the tyrant who had made all of their lives pure hell was finally gone.
“Now what?” Cali asked.
I shrugged my good shoulder. “Now, you do whatever you want. Didn’t Manuel say this was all yours now?”
“It is,” an older woman in a gray-and-white housekeeper’s uniform spoke up in Spanish. She stepped forward, and I got a motherly vibe from her as she took one of Cali’s hands. “Everything is now yours, Calista. The house, the business, the Ramirez fortune. Mr. Matias left it all to you. Manuel…” She spat on his body. “He went crazy when he learned he was left with nothing. The accounts were frozen, and he was quickly running out of his own money. We all feared for you, dear.”