“Yep, the United States of Anarchy is all I’ve ever known. Apart from that one time when I went on a trip to England with my dad and-”
“If he was running the sale of women in this country, then I know him,” Mateo interrupted. “Describe what he looked like, mi sol.”
“He was a big man, bigger than the moon. And he had angry little moth eyes. Do you know where to find him?” I asked hopefully as Mateo nodded like he knew exactly who I was talking about, all kinds of murderous desires flitting through his expression.
“I know. I worked for him once.”
My heart stopped beating, freezing to an ice cap in my chest which was struck hard by the Titanic, making it tremble and shriek inside.
“You…worked for him?” I whispered, pain scoring through my chest. “But he sold people. He sold women like me to bad, bad men who wanted to do bad, bad things to them. They would have done those things to me, taken me, hurt me, made me shatter inside.”
Mateo flinched like those words psychically hurt him. “I was never a part of that. I only killed men on his orders or covered his tracks when he left a trail of blood behind him. I’m a fixer, Brooklyn, or I was. I was used by nearly all the Castillos at one time or another. His cousin runs the entire cartel, I was their creature to use a long time ago.”
I nodded as I absorbed those words, wanting to believe them and the honesty in his eyes made me think that I could. Trust was a fair-weather friend who hadn’t visited me often in life, but she’d moved into this house with a tartan bag under her arm and an umbrella over her head just like Mary Poppins, and she hadn’t left yet. This was the first time she was creeping over to the door, packing a few of her things and waving ta-rah. But I didn’t want her to go, because trusting these men had kept me sane, okay not sane, but it had kept me happy. And happiness was such a precious, fragile thing.
“Mi sol, I swear to you. I had no involvement with selling women. But here is my truth, because I am guilty in part. I have never done anything to stop such things from happening, because they have always been normal in my world. I’m no hero, I’m the one who got called when blood had been spilled and there were loose ends to be tied up. I have placed bullets in the skulls of men I don’t remember the names of, and it does not keep me up at night. I was heartless before you, this place in my chest hollow and vacant.” He held a hand to his heart. “But you have made something grow here, something warm and good, and it aches for you, mi sol. Only you. So if a Castillo has wronged you, I will hunt him down and cut him apart for you. I will make him scream until you ask me to silence him for good. And then I will put him in the ground, so deep that he shall never be discovered.”
My fingers trembled as I raised them to his jaw, caressing the stubble there as I bought into his words. Because I could see they were true.
“Okay.” I leaned down and kissed him hard before pulling away.
“So where can we find this armadillo?” Niall asked Mateo in a purr. “I’m ready to peel the scales from his back.”
***
“Alright then, has everyone got their outfits on?” Niall called from downstairs just as I adjusted the black leather dress I was wearing. It was super short and had metal buckles all the way up my stomach and over my tits, revealing skin beneath and only just hiding my nips. I wore my hair down and thick black eyeliner with diamantes on the outer edges of my eyes. My nails were painted black and I had little net gloves on and platform black heels, my legs completely bare.
Mateo had told us about the fetish club where Señor Castillo did some of his gross auctions and we’d done all the plans and things over the past week – mostly I’d helped pick out the outfits but as I looked at myself, I was confident I’d had the most important role of all.
We were heading there tonight to kill the monster who’d sold me to a death game and I couldn’t wait to get stabby. It was an extra special occasion too because it was the Society of Psychos’ first outing and we were going undercover to find our mark.
I headed out of Niall’s room and walked downstairs where Niall was leaning against the wall, his foot kicked up against it. He was wearing a seriously hot pinstriped suit that made him look like some kind of oldy worldy gangster and he even had a pocket watch chained to his pocket which he was gazing down at in his palm.
He looked up at me, tucking the watch away and my heart burst into song as he looked me over, desire coursing through his eyes. “Well look at you…”
“Hang the fuck on, bastardo,” Mateo snapped as he appeared from the corridor which led to his room. “Why are you wearing a nice fucking suit while I’m in this?” He gestured to the outfit he was wearing, his leather chaps assless and his chest bare with a thick leather harness criss-crossing over it. He had a gimp mask on too and adrenaline buzzed through my veins as I ran over to him and took it all in.
“Oooh.” I caressed his bare ass cheeks while he gave me a flat look, and though I couldn’t really tell through the mask, he seemed like he was all up on Angry Mountain.
Jack appeared in a spiky leather dog collar and full black latex suit which was so tight to his body it showed off every inch of his massive cock where it was stashed away down there. I stared at it for a long, long time, giving it a little wave as I was filled with the urge to write a poem about it and whisper it to the moon. His silver hair was tied into a top knot and he looked just…wow.
“Niall,” AJ growled as our boss man looked over at us in his fancy suit.
“Problem, big fella?” Niall asked lightly.
“You’re making a fool of me, bastardo,” Mateo snarled.
“This is an elite fetish club and we need to blend in. I’m yer master, and you’re all my sex slaves, got it? Good. Let’s go.” He whistled at us and I barked excitedly like a dog, running over to him and looping my hands around his neck.
“Can I do anything to please you, Master?” I wet my lips and Niall looked down at me hungrily.
“There might be a thing or two you can do when we finish up this job, love,” he said in a low voice.
“Anything,” I reiterated, batting my lashes and he grunted, lingering there for several seconds before Mateo’s hand slammed down on his shoulder.
“Come on then, bastardo,” he growled, steering him off ahead of me and I skipped over to Jack’s side, taking his hand.
“Oh wait, what about Bruty-tooty?” I asked as I looked for him, spotting Brutus on his back on the couch with his favourite boot still clamped in his jaws as he slept. I wondered how he’d feel about donning a gimp mask too, or maybe I could fashion him a coat out of colourful dildos? That would look badass with all his scars.
“He’s gonna guard the house, love,” Niall said. “He can come on the next job.”
“Okay,” I sighed then ran over to Brutus, leaning down to kiss him right on the cheek. He woke the moment my lips touched him, snapping and snarling ferociously but I was already gone, dancing back to AJ’s side and threading my fingers between his.
We headed out to Niall’s shiny new Jeep and piled inside. I hooked up Niall’s phone to the speakers, playing Cannibal by Kesha and singing along as Niall belted out the words too while we drove away into the night.
It felt like it took no time to arrive at the club in Hemlock City and we had to enter it through a door down an alleyway, falling into step behind Niall as he talked the talk to the bouncers and bragged about his little entourage of sex slaves.