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“Fine,” he grunts.
Not good enough. “Two—”
“Okay, okay.” He claps his hands against the steering wheel. “You have my word.”
“Atta boy.” I give his cheek a patronizing tap with my gun and climb out, slapping the hood as I walk away.
I have some things I want to run by Cash, as well as fill him in on the developments with Daniel. I park down the block from the Den since there’s no closer street parking. I could park in our private underground garage, but I don’t like the idea of one exit, one entrance.
A black van skirts around the corner and my hackles instantly raise, but not quick enough to spot the side door being pulled open and three masked men jumping out. The shock of a taser strikes through me with crippling pain and crumbling muscles. The last thing I remember before my head slams into the concrete is nearly biting my damn tongue off and the taste of blood filling my mouth.
Chapter 28
The Warden
Roan
Cold water splashes on top of me, and I’m jolted awake. My head throbs, an intense pounding at the base of my neck, and I try to blink the water out of my eyes while sputtering. I roll into a seated position, even with my hands tied behind my back, as I try to place my surroundings.
I’m in an enclosed space made of metal, judging by the smell of rust. My vision is blurred by the throbbing pain, but I think I’m in a shipping container.
“So, how’d you figure it out?” a bored, cold, and faceless voice asks from the darkness. I spin toward the sound, and the flick of a lighter illuminates Daniel’s face. He keeps the zippo lit after lighting a cigarette, casting the container with foreboding, flickering shadows.
I flex my hands, trying to determine what they’re bound with. Zip ties, fuck. “You were sloppy killing Ángel.”
“He got what he deserved. My only regret is that I didn’t get to make it hurt.” He takes a heavy, angry drag. I can sense he’s riled up and on edge. For him to lead this elaborate double life for so long, he must be incredibly meticulous and methodical. A wrench in his plans like me must be shaking him.
I swivel my head in a circle. “You had ten years to make it hurt. Why all this?”
He pauses, as if debating the answer, then sniffs apathetically. “I guess I can tell you. You’ll be dead soon anyway.” As if to prove what little worth I have to him, he steps closer to flick his ash onto me. “You said ten years, so you must know about Sofia.”
“That she was killed in an accident—”
“No!” he yells and squats down to my level to snarl in my face. “No, she was murdered. By Rafael Cortez.” He stands and paces the short width of the container. “He was fucking her, despite the fact that he’d known her since she was a child and was our dead parents’ best friend. And when he got her pregnant, he thought the best way to get rid of his ‘secreto vergonzoso’ was to blow her to pieces.”
I don’t waste my breath telling him he’s wrong. He heard the same thing I did from Javi. He’s too far gone with his commitment to revenge. “Why not just kill him?”
He scoffs. “I don’t want to kill him. I want to ruin him. Dismantle his organization and destroy his legacy. And to do that, I needed money and allies. You wouldn’t believe how much money people will pay to live out their most sadistic and depraved fantasies.” Oh, I believe it. I’ve seen the darkest parts of humanity, and the only thing that surprised me was how close to the surface it was.
“Speaking of which.” He tosses the cigarette butt inches from me, grinding it with his boot toe, and says with glib excitement, “The show’s about to begin.”
I try to keep him talking while I look for a way out. “There are a lot easier ways to make allies.”
“Allies isn’t exactly the right word.” I can hear a sick pleasure in his voice. I bet I’m the first person he’s ever been able to voice his evil plans to. “It will take more than a good time to convince these men to choose my side over Rafael when the time comes. But footage and documentation of them torturing, raping, and killing?” He chuckles sinisterly. “That will be quite convincing.”
“What you’re doing to these women is a thousand times worse than what happened to Sofia.” I don’t disguise the disgust in my voice. He’s a heartless monster.
I sense him bristle, but he puts on a false bravado. “Sacrifices have to be made.”
“What about your own women? What’s your excuse for killing members of your own cartel?” I know the bastard has no sense of loyalty to Cortez, but those women weren’t part of what happened to Sofia.
“Some of them were Rafael’s whores and were going to meet the same fate as Sofia. I just made it sooner rather than later. The others? Well, I needed fresh meat for the hunt. Like I said, sacrifices.” He waves his hand like he’s bored.
He snaps the zippo closed and makes his first mistake that I’ve been waiting for: Turning his back to me. I launch to my feet and body-slam into him. I fall on top of him and grapple on the dirty floor, going mostly by feel in the dark, until I get his head in a leg lock. His legs sprawl and kick repeatedly on the siding. I realize he’s alerting guards outside with the commotion, and I probably don’t have much time.
Despite my ribs still feeling like hot fire pokers in my sides, I put all my strength into twisting in an attempt to break his neck. He wriggles and lashes, and I try to use his momentum against him to help further rotate in opposite directions. There’s a moment of give when his body relaxes, and I think I’m almost there, but then a terrible, splitting pain tears down my calf.
My sight has adjusted some, and I can barely make out the cause of the pain—a knife torn down my calf. My eyes lock on the sharp metal, and I quickly release Daniel and contort my body in an attempt to grab the knife with my bound hands. He scurries to his feet at the same time the wide doors swing open, sending in blinding sunlight.
