I stand with my back against the stone of the neighboring building and wait. There’s just enough illumination from the streetlights that I can see the median area. There are only a couple benches there, with one of them being a turquoise color.
A few more minutes pass by before I see anyone approach the area. It appears to be a man from this far off. He takes a seat on the red bench across from the turquoise one and waits a couple minutes. Though, he nervously checks to the left and the right. Mmm. I wonder if this is a pawn of my enemy, or if my enemy is simply a nervous one.
The man stands abruptly and goes for the planter, digging ferociously and now I make my move. Stalking my prey, I ensure to stick to the shadows so I can’t be seen until the very last moment. I walk with haste, yet not too much as I don’t want to be heard. This fucker will only know I’m here when he feels the chill of my gun pressed against the back of his skull.
I hear a sigh of relief coming from this man just as he pulls the duffel free. Though, when he unzips it, the paper won’t be the only surprise he gets. I take my gun from the back of my pants and aim, patiently waiting.
“Fuck!” He sneers while I smile.
“Guess you thought your terms would be met, hmm?” I say, clear as day. The man jumps from his shock and slowly turns toward me.
“Mmm, Dante Lopez. I should’ve known you’d come here personally and not send one of your men.” I take a good hard look at this man, knowing for a fact this is Tadeo Hernandez. I’d met him once at a charity function in Belize. He looks a tad bit different from the first time I met him, though time will do that.
“So, fill me in on the details here. Did my brother decide you were trash like your father and then you grew rageful, determined to light his world ablaze?”
Tadeo spits on my face, so I pistol whip the son of a bitch. “Angel is the trash. He is nothing but a manwhore who can’t keep it in his pants. Cheating piece of shit.”
I pull the safety back on my gun and pistol whip him again. He stumbles over his feet and falls to the ground. “Now I may not understand my brother most of the time, but I do know he is a faithful man. I never even heard your name. If you were important to him, he would’ve told me. Do you hear me, Tadeo? You meant nothing to him.”
“Your family is all the same, selfish psychopaths.”
“Hmm?” Now this piques my interest.
“The things I did for your brother . . . it shouldn’t shock me. You’re all cut from the same cloth. So, what do we do now? Is this the part where you levy me to get what you want from my father?”
I chuckle lightly, wiping my hand over my mouth. I really can’t hold my laughter back. “Did you intend to out my brother to the world in an attempt to harm him?”
Tadeo stares for a moment before his temper comes out full throttle. “Are you fucking stupid? Of course, I did.”
I nod my head a couple times, “Yes, you see that’s what I thought. Now, let me ask you this. If you could go back and change what you did, would you?”
He spits at my feet, giving me the only confirmation I need.
“You asked what happens now. Well, I’ll make it simple. Now is when you go to Hell.” I pull back the trigger without even giving it a second thought. The bullet pushes past his skin and enters his head. All of a sudden the spitting, ill-mannered Tadeo suddenly grows quiet.
I begin walking back to the alleyway, leaving his body in the street, and head back to my car which is parked another street back.
There are lines I will never cross, though when it comes to my familia I will cross every line I’ve ever set for myself. You see, they are the most important thing.
Chapter Twenty-Five
He wears the smell of blood and death like a perfume
~ Unknown
Amara
“I can’t fucking believe it.” Damon says, wrapping his arms around me. He holds me close, not letting me go, even with the rest of our siblings behind him. He doesn’t give a shit, and neither do I. My relationship with Damon has never been easy. We were the two who always fought the most growing up, and it even flowed over to adulthood. But in saying that, we were always the two who’ve been here for each other.
Damon beat the shit out of my ex who cheated on me with Alice Cummins during my sophomore year, and I was the one he bitched to when Morgan Jennings kissed the quarterback. So, Damon and I might say some rough shit, but we’re here for the other whenever we need it.
He begins to pull away, but I halt him, not letting him create more of a distance between us. He looks even worse in person, so very thin. “You need to eat more. You’ve gotten so thin . . .” I keep my tone in a hushed whisper, not wanting to alert Lyon, Ashton, or Rose.
“There’s no need for hushed voices. It’s nothing new. These three have told me the same.” He confesses.
“Did you stop eating?” I question, wanting to know a little bit, but not too much.
He nods his head. “Yeah. There was just other important shit. Eating seemed low on the totem pole all things considered.”
“Well, it’s not.
