I swallowed a lump in my throat as Jack lumbered closer, not seeming to have noticed the blood trickling down the side of his face from a fresh wound though he had also showered and changed since the fight.
“Anyone you know?” I asked Niall and he shook his head.
“Nah. That ain’t the Irish and I’m not the type for friends.”
The car parked up a little way from the house and a huge man got out, holding his arms wide and still waving the flag. I frowned, seeing some familiarity in him and yet not quite being able to place him at the same time.
“I know you’re in there, Mateo,” a woman called out, her voice rich with her Mexican accent and recognition struck me then.
“Mierda,” I cursed while the others all looked to me for an answer.
“I just want to talk. We can leave the violence to one side while we exchange a few words, can’t we? I am family after all.”
I swallowed thickly.
“Who is that, lad?” Niall barked, demanding an answer as he twisted a hatchet in his hand.
“My cousin,” I admitted. “Carmen Ortega. She’s fucking deadly. We don’t want to mess with her.”
“I have a grenade launcher I could go get?” Niall suggested but I shook my head.
“She’s a lieutenant in the Castillo Cartel. Her death won’t be forgiven, and I don’t think we want to incur the wrath of the Castillos any more than we already have. I should talk to her.”
“What if she shoots you in the face?” Niall asked, not like he was concerned, more like he was just discussing the weather.
“Then I’ll be ready to kill myself too,” Brooklyn vowed, snatching a gun from Jack’s waistband and flicking the safety off before pressing the barrel beneath her chin.
“Stop that,” Niall barked, yanking it away from her again before glaring at me like that was my fault. “You trust this woman not to kill ya?”
“Tick-tock, Mateo. I’m a busy woman,” Carmen called from outside and I glanced between Brooklyn and the men she’d chosen to surround herself with before nodding.
“She’s true to her word. If she says she wants to talk without violence, then I trust her. Besides, she owes me. I helped her when she needed support in climbing through the ranks of the cartel the way she has. I killed men who opposed her. She was one of the only things in my old life which I lamented leaving behind.”
“Go,” Jack said, agreeing to it and Niall sighed as he nodded, reaching out to unlatch the door for me.
I stepped outside with my mouth drying up, the taste of the past coating my tongue and the fear that all my hard work had come to nothing now. This could easily be it for me. Carmen Ortega may have promised me a conversation without violence, but I had seen her talk men into taking their own lives instead of facing the fate that awaited them at the hands of the Castillo Cartel before.
The sound of footsteps close on my heels made the small hairs along the back of my neck stand on end and suddenly, I wasn’t alone anymore. A pack of heathens walked at my back, their loyalty somehow surprising and yet not so all at once. There was so much between us. So many hurts and hates and bitter resentments, but there was something else growing there too. A kinship of sorts which revolved around mi sol and the darkness which lay inside each of us. We were a work of art crafted from the messiest of strokes, coloured with brushes dipped in blood and yet somehow, there was beauty in what we were becoming.
The huge man shifted aside to open the rear door of the car and I finally remembered who he was.
“Pepito?” I asked in surprise, trying to marry the memory I had of the scrawny boy I’d fought and tussled with in the streets of our hometown with this mountain of a man before us.
He’d always been a strange boy, seeking out fights with me despite how thoroughly I beat him and seeming to enjoy the humiliation of being left to bleed on the ground beneath me. Then one day he’d just vanished. I hadn’t seen or thought of him since. But here he stood, about a hundred pounds heavier and that dull look in his eyes lighting up as he moved to do the bidding of my cousin.
Pepito glanced up at the sound of his name and bobbed his head in confirmation of it, but said nothing more as he moved to open the car door to allow Carmen to step out. There was a thick puddle of mud awaiting the press of her foot, but before I caught so much as a glimpse of her within the luxurious car, Pepito dropped down to lay on the floor over the puddle, causing Brooklyn to gasp in surprise.
A tanned leg fitted with a designer high heel appeared from within the car, pressing down onto Pepito’s spine before Carmen unfolded herself from within its depths and stepped out.
“Holy tits, Batman, she’s using him as a stepping stone,” Brooklyn hissed from just behind me as if we couldn’t all see that clearly enough.
Carmen ignored the comment, stepping lightly down from Pepito’s back and moving to stand before me, tilting her head to one side so that she could take me in. Her long, dark brown hair was styled into an immaculate knot at the base of her skull and the black dress she wore was perfectly sculpted to her petite frame, making it clear she carried no weapons, though I wasn’t fool enough to let myself believe that meant she wasn’t dangerous.
“Wow, she’s pretty,” Brooklyn said in a hiss that most certainly carried. “Like, eat your heart out Adelaide Delecta because you just lost your crown, pretty.”
“Who’s Adelaide Delecta?” Niall asked curiously, not bothering to lower his voice.
“The most gorgeous woman beneath the bridge,” Brooklyn said bitterly. “She had a crown that a magical toad had given her to prove it and everything.”
“Well fuck the bridge,” Niall growled, hearing the hurt in her voice. “You’re the most gorgeous woman beneath the sun and you don’t need no toad crown to prove it.”
“Oh,” Brooklyn replied, her voice dropping into that sultry, sexy tone which always had the three of us panting over her and I cleared my throat.
Brutus barked loudly, racing past us with a furious snarl and making my heart lurch as I yelled at him to back off, lunging towards him in an attempt to catch him as he threatened to make this entire thing blow up in our faces before it had even begun.
“Down, boy,” Carmen snapped, her dark eyes meeting the dog’s in a challenging glare, and the big bastard skidded to a halt with a whimper before turning tail and fleeing back into the house.
I cleared my throat as silence fell around us in the wake of the dog’s attack, and Brooklyn breathed a wow low enough that I could only just make it out.
“It’s been a while, Carmen,” I said, taking charge of the conversation when it became clear she was going to make me do the bulk of the talking.
“I do believe the boss has a timer tracking precisely how long it has been,” she agreed. “Marking each and every second that you make him wait for retribution, so that he can be sure you suffer for them all.”
I nodded, a hollow kind of acceptance filling me over the horror which I knew would be my reality when this ran its course.
“There’s a bit of a problem with that though,” Niall interrupted, not knowing when to keep his damn mouth shut as always. “This here fella belongs to our Spider now. And her life is bonded to his. So we can’t let you or your fancy boss be chopping him up or baking him in a pie, or putting him in a vat of acid or any of that shit.”
“Stay out of this, bastardo,” I snapped at him as Carmen’s attention shifted over my shoulder with interest which I didn’t want falling on Brooklyn or anyone else here.
“I assume the Alonso brothers are all dead?” Carmen asked casually, not seeming in the least bit upset over that fact. “And that horrendous excuse for a man, Raul Castillo, too?”
“What of it?” I asked, knowing that she could see the bodies as well as I could.
Carmen smiled slowly, a goddess surveying a mortal who amused her. “I assume you know what will happen to you if anyone finds out you are here.”