Hell, no. Three stories down would not end well for me.
My gaze landed back on the French doors as the same sense of dread settled in the center of my stomach and burst into tiny shards of resignation.
Swallowing hard, I ran my hand up my thigh and used my thumb to unsnap the holder on the handgun Val had given me before putting me in the Tahoe. Holding it tight, with the chamber loaded and my finger on the trigger, I opened the glass door.
“Joaquin? Are you awake?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
VAL
Silence filledthe room as all eyes stared blankly at me, then ping-ponged around from rank to rank, verifying they’d heard me correctly and hadn’t hallucinated.
And I was very fucking serious.
“Is there a problem?”
“Hell yes, there’s a problem,” Guzman yelled, standing up and slamming his fist down on the worn wooden table. The table had seen many of these same meetings take place around it over the years. It’d seen arguments, deals being made, and even its fair share of bloodshed; the evidence still stained some of the crevices. “This is suicide, Valentin.”
“For whom exactly?”
“For all of us,” he bellowed, gesturing around the table at the dozens of men flanking him. “We served loyally under your father. We have a long-standing war with the Muñoz cartel. They killed your mother, sister, and aunt, for fuck’s sake.”
Hearing him speak their names did something to me, and I pummeled my fist onto his spread hand. “I know that, asshole. You don’t have to remind me. I was there, remember?”
With a howl, he pulled his hand back, recoiling into his chair. “You’ve gone soft, Carrera. You’ve been in the states too long. You don’t remember what real life is like in the ranks.”
“The only thing soft is your dick, Guzman. Now, sit down, and shut the fuck up, before you really piss me off.”
Glaring, his eyes darkened as he held his injured hand against his chest.
“A little over the top, don’t you think?” Mateo muttered under his breath beside me, his eyes questioning my actions.
“Probably,” I conceded. “But the bastard has had it coming for years.”
Gerardo Guzman had been my father’s second-in-command for over a decade. When I joined the cartel at age sixteen, it was automatically understood within the ranks that, as the heir apparent, I’d one day inherit the empire. I could tell as the years went by, it bothered Guzman, but he wisely kept his mouth shut and his head down.
“Something else to say, Guzman?”
“No,boss. Just like to stay informed.”
If I wasn’t hell bent on getting home to Eden, I might’ve pushed the issue with him. As it stood, I was just fucking tired. I wanted a warm bed, some good tequila, and to be nestled in between Eden’s thighs. I had no time or energy to waste on bruised egos.
“As I said, there’ll be no retaliation right now, but when the time comes, it’ll be onmyterms. Now, if there are no more comments, I’ll explain why we’re twenty-two million dollars in debt, and why…” I paused and looked each man in the eye before continuing, “…four buildings went up in flames, and we narrowly escaped all of them with our lives.”
“We?” One of the newer lieutenantsasked.
“Yes, ‘we,’” I snapped. “As in me, two of my top lieutenants, and a prisoner. Shut up for a minute, and I’ll tell you about her and why I think my father was so interested in her.” Preparing myself for the bomb I was about to drop, I shot Mateo a side glance and curled my finger around the trigger of my gun under the table. “Then, I can tell you to fuck off if she interests you in any way.”
“The fuck?”
“You heard me, Guzman.”
A low rumble of voices milled around the room, and I waited for it to die down before I commanded their attention. “I’m speaking!” All eyes turned my way as silence replaced the incessant chatter. “Somehow Manuel Muñoz infiltrated a drug debt in Houston, causing my men to torture an innocent man. Afterward, Muñozsicariosexecuted him.”
“So? Innocent death happens.” The new lieutenant snorted with annoyance. “What do we care?”
My trigger finger itched to shove it under his chin. “We care, because shit is different in America, you fucking idiot. Mistakes like that could bring down our whole operation.” His jaw tightened in anger, but stopped talking. “As I was saying, the innocent man’s sister witnessed the hit.”
