Val signals to Roni to head for the back of the restaurant. Stunned men begin to pull guns and fire back. I frown, hoping the music is enough to muffle the action in here, but not banking on it, I follow Roni and Val to cover them once they make it out back.
Uri is right beside me, probably thinking the same thing. I don’t have time to marvel at Roni and Val in their stilts as they drop bodies left and right. We wanted to make a scene; we’re making it.
Roni
The closer I get to the back of the restaurant the more my rage builds. The answers to everything are back there. My revenge, my freedom… yeah, my freedom. I hadn’t realized that I’ve been looking over my shoulder until I watched Natasha—or should I say Indigo, don’t ask long story—do it for months.
That stops. I won’t be free until I set a blaze to my past. I fire, wanting each bullet to release the tightening in my chest, but it never comes. Every bullet carries more fury with it. I reload and keep moving.
“You should have just let me torch this motherfucker, none of these fucks deserve to live,” Brax says through the earpiece.
I bare my teeth. That’s when something in my gut calls my attention to the right side of the room. Once again, like the day on that roof, time slows. Water from the sprinklers has been triggered leaving us all to get soaked beneath them.
When I turn toward the feeling pulling me, my ponytail whips with the action, sending water across my vision. On instinct, I move both arms in the direction I’m now facing—one across my front, bent as if I’m pulling a bowstring. A second later, my target comes into view.
“Bingo, motherfuckers,” I murmur as both Richie and Darius stand staring at me. “I bet you didn’t get what you wanted this time.”
Shocked expressions mixed with recognition cover each of their faces. However, it’s Richie that acts fast to pull a gun. He never gets the chance to fire. I send a bullet through both of their skulls. The satisfaction from their bodies dropping at the same time sends a roar from my chest as my knees almost buckle.
It’s like I’m giving a praise dance, with my hands clenching my pistols in front of me in triumph as I release another scream. Val spins to wrap around me and fires at someone behind me. I’m shaking as I look up at her through my lashes.
“We’re not done. Pull it together,” she growls. “They’re not who you’re here for.”
Her words sink in and confusion keeps me frozen for a second. It’s clear she knows a lot more than she’s told me. I quickly snap out of it as John shields us both with his body and fires as three guys came out of nowhere.
“Channel it, use it, La rabbia della morte,” Val says.
I brush one hand under my nose and nod. John turns his gaze on me. I reassure him with my eyes I’m fine. Not wanting to see the worry in his eyes, I’m in motion for the back door again.
“I have a party of ten at our final destination. They’re in the back building. It’s the brick structure. When you step outside, make a right and you’re going to find two guards as soon as the building comes into view,” Felix says. “That leaves you eight inside.”
I nod to Val as we head for the back exit. With a swiftness that speaks of my hours of training and preparation for this, I drop both empty clips and reload again. Once we’re all clear, we step out of the exit, Uri and John are right on us. I follow the path Felix has laid out.
First thing I notice is that the doors to the building sit partially open. If we fire now, those inside may see the two guards fall. We all take cover, Uri signals for Val to follow him and for me and John to wait.
We nod and watch as they circle the building. “John get the one closet to you to start in your direction,” Uri’s voice comes through the com.
“Got it,” John replies.
John pulls something from his pocket and tosses. The sound vibrating through the night. I tuck my guns away and pull a blade from my thigh. We wait for the guard to get to us.
When he’s right up on us and out of the view of the entrance, I saunter from the shadows, bringing a grin to his face. At the same time, I can see Val doing the same thing with the other guard.
However, she moves faster, and her guard’s gurgles catch the attention of the one I have in my sights. He goes to turn, but I grab him around the throat and hold him to my chest as I pull the blade clean across his neck. I drop his body and step right over him as John places a hand on my back and kisses my forehead.
I clean the blade on the side of my dress and put it back away before I draw my pistols again. We move flush to the building and meet at the entrance. I have the better view from my side. I can partially see a table as I cautiously peek my head in.
The first thing I note are the two guards that come into view. The next thing that stands out to me are the pale well-manicured hands folded on the table. Lastly, the sight that makes me stifle a growl and the bitter taste in my mouth, my dear aunt Grissel.
However, it’s the voice and words that are barked inside the room that send me into a blinding rage.
Eliam Pérez
“I should kill you with my bare hands,” I snarl as my sister sits across the table with a smug grin on her face. She thinks the Krupin family will keep her safe from me.
“I did exactly what you asked me to,” she says with no remorse or inflection. “If you ask me, I tried to do her favor. If she would have married Darius, I could have done this nicer way. You wanted her to fall into enemy hands and make her way back.”
“I wanted you to use her brain to get her out of a tough situation. Not be tortured for years and forgotten,” I fume.
“All the same to me.”
I don’t know what made me trust my sister with this task. She is as cold as my father made her, exactly what I tried to instill in Cherone. The ice queen sitting before me was an ice queen way before her betrayal, I only took too long to learn this.
“Estúpido, I was so focused on trying to prepare Roni for things like this, it backfired. You meant to allow me to rot in that prison and you wanted to ruin her. I never should have trusted you and your little boyfriends. I was betrayed by my own sister. How could you do this?”
“You wanted a seat with that Alliance. I told you it would make you look weak.” She makes a disgusted face. “You want to hand over everything my father built. Over my dead body.”
“You know I can arrange that,” I seethe.
“With what army? You have no power,” Grissel says through her thick accent. “I have been running this family since I got rid of all of you. If I would’ve known you were not incinerated like I ordered, I would have come to that hell hole to kill you myself.”
“You betray everyone around you, your own daughter? The walls have ears. I know about Indigo, Grissel,” I say.
“What about her? She was a causality of war as was your brat,” she replies.
I shake my head. “I have been cold to Roni for her own good, to make her strong in this world. Love makes weakness, I couldn’t afford to show her affection. Unlike you, you are simply callous, sin corazón.”
“You think you’re better than me? Mamá told me how you treated her. Made her cry for your affection that you never gave,” she tosses back at me.