AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I GAVE THEM a head start because it amused me.
Because while my girl will never admit it aloud, I know that the death of her father hurts. To know he’ll never repent, and that things were left unsaid, would leave a sour taste in anyone’s mouth, but my little flower is moving forward.
They’ve gone to collect the body and buried him in a private ceremony at the family mausoleum. They cried, exchanged anecdotes of the early years where his humanity was still in place, and then she came home to me.
I loved her slowly.
Whispered my love.
Promised to always be there for her.
“Good evening, gentlemen.” The two in question look up from their cement boxes, expression fearful. They’ve been begging to be released since arriving. They’ve bribed my men with wealth to give them safe passage back home.
And yet, Cortez father and son are still here.
Side by side and bodies covered by the concrete box they’re kneeling in, I have access to their sun-blistered faces and a hole the size of a water hose. It’s plugged tight and with no drainage. They’re each set up with a personal watering system meant to remove the skin clean off their bones.
“How are you, Signio? Feeling better?” No answer. No eye contact. Maybe he’s lost his tongue?
“Don Cortez, how about yourself? How’s life treating you?”
This one has more life in him, his beady eyes narrowing to the points of slits while regarding me. “Why are you doing this? You already got the little slut…fuck!” His scream rings loud through the trees, echoing off the nearby grove and scaring away the birds relaxing at the top. They scatter as another pump of acid drains into the concrete box housing his near-naked body, falling over his flesh and melting down the skin and breaking down the muscle beneath.
“Go ahead. Insult her again.” It’s a dare met by silence. By tearful eyes and the horrid stench of his pain.
“Alejandro, I never wanted this. They forced me to chase and almost marry her, but my heart has always belonged to someone else.” This I know to be true, but it didn’t stop his ego from seeking revenge on a harmless woman for not being attracted to him. “Please. Please, Mr. Lucas, I beg you. Let me go back to—”
“No.” Another scream, this time from the younger, and he’s a blubbering mess by the time the three bursts of acid finished their initial harm. Signio is almost incoherent, and the area just below his jaw is raw from his struggles—the sharp cement rubbing and tearing at the base of his neck. “Again.”
Both this time. Acid pours nonstop into their forever home, and the smell of decomposing human anatomy is sour. A rancid scent that one never forgets, and more so as those pitiful eyes stare at you and beg for mercy.
From the pain. From my wrath.
“No mas.” Signio has the nerve to say no more, and I laugh. Geronimo and a recuperating Lino laugh.
It’s hilarious how someone could beg for the mercy they never had when the shoe was on the other foot. The problem for them, I have no mercy. No remorse.
The only part of me that’s still inherently good is waiting for me with my guests back at the main house. She is light and love and innocence. She’s sweet temptation and heavenly touches.
Solimar is my salvation and demise all in the same breath. Moreover, I gladly give her that power.
“Patron, Miss Quintero requested we come back at noon, and it’s fifteen till,” Lino says, holding out his cell phone where my sister sent him a reminder text. They’ve become good friends since the night he rescued Lourdes, becoming a positive influence on her. He doesn’t judge past mistakes. He supports and listens.
If anything, I see a little hope bloom in her spirit, and I’m keeping an eye just close enough to make sure neither gets hurt. The kid is one of the good ones, and I plan to keep him as my personal driver while Geronimo steps into his new role as my right-hand.
“Thank you.” Turning to take a closer inspection of my guests, I catch the look they give each other and click my fingers. This time, the flow won’t stop until the barrels feeding the line are depleted and they’re left to soak in the poisonous substance.
It fills to the brim, a little spilling over the neck opening, and it’s tinged with red. Heavy amounts of red.
Much better.
Leaning over so I’m at eye level with the side-by-side screaming men, I sigh. “I gave you a chance. I warned you to stay away, and yet you ignored me.” Lino steps up and shoves a thick piece of wood into each of their mouths. Both men bite down, gnawing their teeth back and forth to the point lips are torn open and one loses a tooth. Slowly, they are dying as the acid eats away who they are and will leave behind a mess not worth horse shit behind. “This is what happens to those who stand against me, gentlemen. May the good Lord have more mercy than I did.”
With that I turn around and walk away, leaving them to die alone and suffocating in their pain.
The ride back to the house is fast and bumpy with my cutting it so close, but the annoyed expression melts off my Preciosa’s face when I walk in with ten seconds to spare. It’s a pretty full house today as we entertain business associates: old and new. As a certain buyer comes with an offer I’m intrigued by.
Malcolm Asher sits in my outdoor terrace nursing a gin and tonic while his wife London, Mariah his cousin, and my Solimar discuss decorating the interiors for the upcoming holiday season. And while they go on and on about color schemes and what’s popular, I focus on the man my cousin calls his Boss.
