Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104157 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Barto’s eyes stayed narrowed on me. “You asked for me?”
“Is everyone out?” I asked Max.
“Every person. Every animal. Only we remain—Alejandro, Eduardo, Pilar, Jaz, and Costa are on the ship waiting for us. Doctor Sosa wanted to stay, too, in case she was needed.”
“Pilar should’ve gone earlier.”
“She refused,” Barto said. “She’s already lost her best friend. She has nobody else and feels safest with us.”
I nodded. I wasn’t sure this was the moment she should finally stand her ground, but there was no other option now. “Gabriel?” I asked.
“Haven’t seen him,” Max said. “I assume he went already.”
“When all this is over, find him if you can. Help him. He’s a good kid. He’ll be a good man.”
Max nodded.
“What’s this about? Why am I here?” Barto crossed himself. “To help with Natalia’s body?”
I looked to him, my ex-comrade, a man of his word, and someone who, despite our history, I could depend on in my youth and now, when I needed him most. Then to Max, my friend, my confidante, and right-hand man.
“You and I, we’ve been together a long time, Max.” I pinched the inside corners of my tired eyes. “I don’t need to tell you how the plan plays out.”
“I never truly believed it would come to this,” Max said.
I nodded. “But it has.”
I was silent a long time. There was only one option, but facing it meant coming to terms with the fact that Natalia was truly gone.
I turned to Barto. “Belmonte-Ruiz is here for blood. They won’t stop until they get it. Until someone pays—and I will. They’ll continue to hunt me. If they don’t make an example of me, someone else will. I’m no longer good to anyone—I’ll only bring danger wherever I go.”
Barto raised his chin. “Are you asking for my help to get you out of the country?”
“No.” I paused. “The Badlands is rigged so that in an emergency, it will detonate.”
Silence fell over the room. Max closed his eyes briefly but straightened his back.
Barto’s expression finally eased. “Smart. Better to perish than be captured.”
“Even better if you can take the enemy down with you,” I said.
Barto looked between us as my intent registered. “Anyone within the Badlands’ walls will go with it.”
I nodded. “Belmonte-Ruiz wants me—they’ll have to come into the Badlands and get me. And their entire cartel, plus any other faction that has joined them, will be wiped out. The explosion will completely level the town, the mountain—everything.”
My death would stop this. Belmonte-Ruiz could be obliterated, and Costa, Max, Alejandro, and the entire population of the Badlands would be safe from them.
In one fell swoop, I could end this war and make a considerable dent in human trafficking. It wouldn’t be forever, but every life held value, and many would be spared during the time it would take to rebuild the operation that would crumble with Belmonte-Ruiz’s fall.
Barto looked almost impressed. “You’d give all of this up?”
“To save lives, yes.”
Barto shifted feet, nodding slowly. “And Costa?”
“Say he was forced into this arrangement against his will. I had his daughter. He’s respected enough that once our partnership is dissolved, he’ll be left alone.”
“It will be the end of BR and their operation,” Barto said. “But it won’t finish anything. One leader steps down, and another takes his place. There are others who’d like to see you dead.”
“And they will. My life in exchange for many others. It’s a sacrifice I’ve always been willing to make. Only my death will stop this.”
Barto glanced at the ceiling, then nodded with a sigh. “How does it work?”
Max widened his stance and crossed his arms, in full strategy mode. “There are two ways to detonate. From the control center in the basement, or remotely, within half a kilometer.”
“If you can push the button from the water, why would you stay?” Barto asked.
I took a breath. Not because I was hesitating—I had no reason to doubt my decision. But because once I said it, the life I’d known would truly be over. “Without Natalia, nothing’s keeping me here,” I said. “She’s gone. I’ll die today. You were good to her—” I cleared my throat to keep my voice even. “Even after all we’ve been through, I consider you a friend.”
I offered my hand. Barto looked at it a moment. Perhaps now he finally realized how deep my love for Natalia ran, but whether he did or didn’t was no longer important. We shook.
“If you’re willing to do this to avenge her,” he said, “and to save the rest of us—then the feeling is mutual.”
“This is why I asked you here. I appeal to your logic, not your emotion, and Costa would’ve tried to talk me out of it. I . . .” The next part didn’t come easily. I wanted Natalia here with me for the end. It wouldn’t make a difference in the afterlife—if there was one, I’d find her. Selfishly, I wanted to hold her until my final breath, but I’d been greedy enough when it came to her. The right thing to do was to give her a peaceful final resting place, not incinerate her with the rest of us.