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Val’s phone rang, and he straightened, his shoulders rising. He quietly listened, his face a mask of granite. “Sí. Muy bien. Estaremos esperando por usted.” Yes. Very good. We will be waiting for you. Disconnecting the call, his somber expression revived with what I knew to be the promise of blood. “No,” he said, his eyes flashing. “He doesn’t have proof. But I know someone who does.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Adriana
Tlajomulco de Zuñiga, Jalisco, Mexico
A familiar dank, musty smell hit me as soon as I opened my eyes. A metallic rust that only lingered with the stain of life. Only this time, there wasn’t just a stain.
Blood.
I smelled it. I tasted it. It felt its warmth pool under my cheek.
“Finally, the fly finds herself caught in the spider’s web.” Gravelly Spanish raked over my thin nerves like fresh sandpaper.
I rolled onto my back, forcing my native language from my raw throat. “Are you the fly or the spider?”
“I’m God.”
The two words hit me like a visceral blow to the chest. “Where is he? I demand you tell me what you did to him!”
“You’re not in any position to demand anything.”
“If you hurt him, I’ll kill you.”
Shaking his head, he pulled a cigar from his pocket. “Fighting until the bitter end, just like your whore mother.” The last word was garbled as he bit off the tip and spat it at my feet, his gaze never leaving mine as he lit the end. The glowing tip sparked to life, his cheeks sinking in as he sucked a few deep puffs.
I let out a silent breath. “Where is he?”
The low laugh that followed nearly broke my composure. “You know they think you did it.” He exhaled, a cloud of smoke pluming around his face. “I couldn’t have scripted it any better. You had every privilege. Everything handed to you. You think you shined up that crown, but one apologetic text message, and you opened the door for the devil, didn’t you?”
My heart free fell into my stomach, and with my ear pressed against the concrete floor, each step he took sounded like thunder. Bending down on his haunches, he bared stained yellow teeth in a smirk I wanted to carve off his face.
“I said you were the fly, but now that I think about it, you’re more of a black widow. Men have a nasty habit of dying around you, puta,” he snarled. “You got the entire Muñoz family murdered, and now look at the web you’ve spun around the Carreras and your gringo boyfriend.” He grabbed my hair, rancid breath heating my face. “I won’t mention what you did to me.” Slamming my head back down, he sat down. “I’m all for spilling enemy blood, but you’re out of control.”
Fire rushed through my veins. “Fuck you!”
With a demonic roar, he drew his arm back and swung, the back of his hand driving into the side of my face. Upon impact, my head snapped back, but I didn’t cry out.
He wiped my blood off his hand onto his jeans, scowling with a vile hatred beyond anything I’d ever seen. Cold black eyes, soulless from both being denied and betrayed stared at me with contempt. “Shut up, Carrera whore.”
I glared back at him, ignoring the blood dripping down my chin. “Don’t ever call me that again.”
“Why not? It’s your name.” The hot breath on my neck disappeared as he resumed circling me like a lion. “You’re not a Muñoz. You’re the enemy. You proved that when you defied me, again. Carrera blood runs through your veins, and now it stains your hands.”
“Then kill me and get it over with.”
“I’ve already told you. I want Alejandro Carrera’s son to kneel before me. I want him to beg for my mercy. Killing you doesn’t benefit me yet. I need my puppet to dance for me one last time, and this time she’ll perform for an audience of three.”
I froze, each word cramming itself down my throat until I thought I’d choke. I saw the dark truth etched in his face and tattooed in his eyes, and panic erupted through my veins. He was going to use me to lure Val here.
To Santiago and to his death.
My frantic mind launched into overdrive, accusations spilling out one after the other. “You said if I defied you and didn’t bring Santi back to Tlajomulco de Zuñiga in four days, you’d expose me to Val and Brody. Your words, Ignacio. You said you’d kill your own son, ruin me, and then come after all of us. You barely gave me forty-eight hours.”
The more hysterical I got, the more he seemed to enjoy it, the dim light highlighting the sinister curve of his lips. “I knew the minute you walked out of this warehouse you had no intention of doing as you were told. That’s what a true leader does, Adriana. He doesn’t wait for shit to happen. He makes it happen.”
I fought for air. “I won’t help you.”
