“Good? These are the fucking Columbians, Consuelos. Suppliers don’t send an IOU to collect a debt on ninety pounds of cocaine.” I closed my eyes and cursed. “They wipe out entire neighborhoods.”
“That sucks, man.”
I opened one eye at his dismissal. “Don’t be stupid, you,pendejo! If you think they don’t know what you ate for breakfast this morning, you’re an idiot.”
His voice shook. “You mean…”
“Update your insurance policy.” I disconnected the call without another word. Callous? Probably. But I had more pressing issues than Chris Consuelos’s newly-soiled pants. I had hours to figure out how the hell to appease an eleven-million-dollar debt and smooth trade negotiations with my best supplier.
This feud had gotten way out of hand. Rivalry was one thing, but they’d fucked with my business one too many times. I’d had enough. Filling my chest with a calming breath, I released the death grip I had on my phone and started to dial the last man I wanted to talk to, when a high-pitched scream echoed from the basement followed by a clang of metal.
Warning that had built inside of me all morning exploded into a siren. Dropping the phone, I flung the door open and took the stairs four at a time, pulling my gun from my waistband.
Eden stood next to the iron bed, her cherry-red hair disheveled and wild, with a crazed look in her eyes. Bent over the mattress with her hands clasped together, she jerked roughly on the handcuff, snapping the metal into her wound with each pull.
Shocked at her ferocity, I stood with my gun pointed at her while she continued to jerk and pull, screaming like a wounded animal. Blood poured down her arm, and the food tray lay on the floor just under repeated marks and chips in the wall where she’d beaten into it. I assumed it was to get our attention.
It worked.
Unfamiliar with unbalanced females, I tried reasoning with her. “Cereza, you need to calm down.”
As if I were prey that had wandered into the lion’s den, she shifted her eyes toward me with her chest heaving. “Thisiscalm. Uncuff me…now.” Every word she spoke dripped with disgust, spoken between clenched teeth.
“You know that’s not going to happen. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you don’t calm the fuck down.”
She paused a moment before turning her eyes away and continuing her maniacal screaming. The safe house was secluded in a rural area, but it wasn’t sound proof. I had to shut her up. Letting out a sigh, I shoved my .380 caliber pistol back in my waistband and sat down on the bed.
“Sit down,Cereza.”
At my command, she quieted, the fight seeming to melt out of her. Sinking next to me, her shoulders slumped forward in defeat. “I’m scared.”
“I know.” Her closeness raced my pulse, so I increased the distance between us. “I’m sorry about your brother. I know what it feels like to lose family.”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
She inched closer, her small frame shaking. “Who did?”
“Rivals.” I needed to move away from her. That’d be the smart thing to do. I shouldn’t let her feel as if we were equals. I needed her fear to keep her on edge, but for some reason, I craved her closeness.
“Why?” The tremble in her voice gutted me.
I could give her nothing but honesty. “Bad blood.”
She glanced up with tears pooling in her bright blue eyes. “My brother died because of some vendetta between drug cartels?”
I couldn’t explain. The less she knew, the safer she’d be. “It’s more complicated than that, or you’d be dead too.”
Silence raged between us. Neither one of us moved as both of our eyes pinned to the wall in front of us. She folded one leg underneath her and sighed loudly. I wanted to relieve some of her pain, and I’d never wanted to relieve anything for anyone. It confused the hell out of me.
I didn’t know how to console her, but instinctively, my body turned inward. “Eden, I…”
With lightning speed, she shifted, catapulting herself into me. Something shiny glinted in her hand moments before it plunged into my left bicep with a searing burn I’d only experienced once in my life.
“Fuck!” Throwing myself backward, I landed on the floor three feet away from her grasp. Curse words flew from her mouth as she yanked on the cuff, screaming like a woman possessed. I pulled my hand away from my injured arm, stunned to find blood dripping from my fingertips. Shifting my gaze back to Eden, my eyes landed on a three-pronged fork she held like a sword.
The bitch fucking stabbed me. “Are you insane?” A newfound anger coursed the same veins where sympathy had just occupied.
