Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I shut the door to my mother’s room, grab the chair and jam it up against the door. It doesn't secure it, but there are no locks on doors in residential homes like this, and I just need to buy some time.
"Adriano isn't here, so why don't you tell me yourself," I say pleasantly, turning around. I'm ready to brandish the scissors and coffee mug at the first opportunity.
"I'm sure he'll come for you," the man says pleasantly. He's at least ten years older than Adriano, with darker skin and darker eyes, but his eyes don't look like Adriano’s. They're chilling, soulless. I don't know who this man is, but he's absolutely one of Adriano's enemies.
My mother didn't want to see me. She can't request me. Whoever this man is he sent that message just to get me down here. Knowing that I would come. Knowing that Adriano would likely pursue me.
"Now, you have a choice. We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
"How original."
"You'll open the door and come with me. I'll help you sidestep security so you don't have to deal with that little mess. Or, I can drug you and take you out there and threaten them. Which would you prefer?”
"Bruh, option C, which is you go fuck yourself, I toss you over to security, and then I walk out of here, scot-free, after I make sure you didn't hurt my mother."
Security pounds on the door. Sirens blare. My mother stares silently, wide awake now, staring at me as if she recognizes me.
"You stupid bitch," he says. "This doesn't even have anything to do with you." I decide it's time to make my move. When he draws out a gun, I lift my hand and deflect. I quickly spin, knock the gun out of his hand, and grab the scissors. When he lunges for me, I kneel and trip him. I jump to my feet and throw my entire body weight on top of him, holding the scissors to his neck.
He's bigger and stronger than I am, but I do what Adriano taught me—I use his power and strength in my favor. In my peripheral vision, I see my mother begin to clap.
Relief and joy flood me. I'm doing it, I'm actually doing it. I am not letting this man best me.
That one tiny loss of concentration is all it takes. In one move, he leaps up, tossing me down as if I weigh no more than a sack of potatoes. The scissors clatter to the floor; the man backhands me. A metallic taste fills my mouth and pain flares on the side of my face. I'm out of breath, winded from being tossed, trying to get my bearings, when the door breaks down.
I expect security crews to come in, but it isn't them.
He's here. Adriano, in all his raging glory. He doesn't waste time talking, but with brutal efficiency kicks the door closed behind him, unholsters his gun, and shoots.
There's hardly a sound except the whirr of a bullet. A silencer, then. It hits my assailant in the belly. There's so much blood. Crimson stains. The man screams.
Adriano shoots him again, and again, enough to maim and incapacitate him, but not kill him. Not yet. I catch my breath, and push to my knees. I brace myself and stand.
"Who are you and what are you doing to my wife?" Adriano says.
"You…killed Reno," the man managed to gasp out.
"Of course I fucking killed Reno. He was stalking her." Adriano's eyes flash to mine. "You took it with you?"
And I know, right then, that the file didn't belong to Adriano. He was the one that confiscated it. Reno. Reno, that name on the piece of paper I found in his wallet. It wasn't a place, it was a person. The person who was stalking me.
I'm speechless so I only nod. The sudden rushing awareness of relief floods me.
"I have a team of men here ready to take down your entire crew," Adriano says. “And we're not afraid of dying."
"I’d listen to him, they’re definitely not afraid. If I were you, I wouldn’t fuck around with him.”
The man cries out when Adriana steps over to him and presses his foot on the man's forearm. With one yank, he rips off his shirtsleeve, revealing a tattoo of the Mexican flag.
"Fucking cartel, aren't you? Suspected as much when I found connections to Reno."
"Cartel?" I ask. "As in the one that abused and hurt my best friend?"
Eden, suppressed in a cult… a cult run and entirely funded as a front for cartel operations.
Oh my God.
Adriano looks at me, his eyes chillingly cold, but his voice pleasant and friendly. "I'll ask your permission. May I kill him?"
"Not this time, darling. I think it would be far better if you took him back for questioning first, don't you agree?"