Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 116046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Downing the glass, Leo sucked in a ragged breath as he stared at the floor. “She can’t stand the sight of me. She hates me.”
I bit my tongue, knowing Leo was right. Hannah did hate him and with good reason. Before Manny and his thugs had beat the fuck out of her, she’d discovered that Leo was part of the Cordova cartel, and that his job was as our torture master. For a young, sweet, sheltered girl with no criminal background, it had to be quite a shock. I wasn’t sure if her love for Leo was going to be strong enough for her to forgive him.
The venom in Hannah’s voice when she was screaming at Leo to go away struck even a cold bastard like myself.
While my father guided Leo into a chair near the grass green marble fireplace, filled with white pillar candles instead of wood, I moved to the one across from my friend, unsure how to comfort him. What the fuck did you say to a guy whose world had just imploded? A tight feeling pinched my chest as I struggled to find the words to take away the haunted expression on my friend’s face. I almost sighed with relief when my dad spoke up, knowing, as always, the right thing to say.
Giving Leo his space, my dad sat in the chair next to mine. “It will be all right, my son. I promise. Just give it time. Judith has been mad enough to try to shoot me more than once, and yet here we are, over thirty years later still happily married.”
“I can’t live without Hannah,” Leo said in a rough, broken voice. “She’s my everything.”
Fuck, it really bothered me to see him so despondent. I lamely echoed my dad, “Give her time.”
Diego entered the room, still weaving his damp long, black hair into his customary braid.
Rubbing his face hard, Leo leaned back in the leather chair then stared at the cold fireplace before his dead eyes flickered to Diego. “Did you learn anything else from Manny or Doug?”
Of the three men that had attacked Hannah, Joy, and their fucking useless drug addict roommate Kayla, only one was still alive. I’d accidentally killed Ray during my questioning. Usually, I wasn’t so sloppy with my torture, but the hatred I felt for a man who’d hurt Joy was so intense, it reduced me to an animalistic rage. I’d slowly beaten him to death with a baseball bat. By the time I was done with him, he was a useless flesh bag of broken bones and smashed organs. As satisfying as it had been to release my rage on that evil fuck, I’d screwed up by not questioning him more before I killed him. We’d suspected the Santiago cartel had something to do with the working girls that the Cordova cartel protected, and I should have questioned Ray about it.
When the Santiago cartel found out about the deaths of Manny, Doug, and Ray, they would retaliate. For years we’ve been almost enemies—not openly combative, but constantly fucking with each other. The Santiago’s were criminal scum, devils in human form. Yeah, the Cordova cartel ran guns, drugs, and worked in the sex trade, but we didn’t kill innocent women and carve them up for sick fucks on the internet to jerk off to. When I thought of all the ways they could have hurt Joy, abused and degraded her before killing her, I wished I could beat Ray to death all over again.
Shaking his head, Diego sighed. “Manny lost too much blood from where Mark shot him. He died before I could learn much. Wouldn’t admit to taking our girls, but he did let it slip that there’s a warehouse outside Sedona where they film some of their fucked up shit. Doug gave us a little more before he died, but he was a low man on the totem pole and didn’t anything useful.”
My father’s nostrils flared with anger. “I’ll contact your Aunt Doris and see if her men can find anything.”
“Good idea.” Diego’s gaze shot to me, and his dark expression melted away as he smiled with a big, shit eating grin. “Thought you might be interested to know there’s a pretty chiquita having lunch with Mom. I’m on my way to join them. She sure is a sweet little handful. Those blonde curls, and her big, round—” He dodged me as I lunged at him. “Eyes.”
“Fucker. Stay away from her.”
His mocking smirk had the muscles along my upper back twitching. My older brother was a pain in the fucking ass and loved to irritate me. He knew Joy was my weak spot, and in typical brotherly fashion, went right for it. “Why? You going to join them for lunch? If you’re not, I am. Mom really seems to like Joy. She says she’s going to make some man very, very happy one day. Wouldn’t mind coming home to a woman like that. I mean, I don’t usually go for blondes, but in her case, I’d make an exception.”