He hesitates before growling at me, “You keep your puta ass there and do as you’re told. I need to know his next move.”
My mind jumps back and forth over everything that I heard or read in the last few days, a map of the Battle Born territory and the date for today. Matias is planning on taking them all down today.
I steel my nerves and respond like the perfect little soldier he wants to sacrifice for his greed. “Sí, Papa. Were you able to find any dirt on the man I asked about the other day, Juan Cervantes?”
“He gambles and owes a debt for cock fighting. Also, he has a thing for young girls. You want proof? Send me something fucking useful on your husband, and I’ll email it to the account on your phone.”
“I’ll be in touch,” I say softly and hang up the call, hoping like hell that part of Matias’ plan is to kill the son of a bitch. I power off the phone and tuck it with the other stuff that I had hidden away.
I pull out every black piece of clothing that I have and pack it all into a backpack along with the credit card and knife that I stole from the security guard. Matias has several handguns hidden around the house and I pluck a couple from the lesser obvious locations, leaving mine in my nightstand, as usual.
I take all the supplies that I packed in the bag with me to Matias’ office where I grab the papers that I printed the other day, tucking them into the bag as well. I sit down at his desk and stare at the closed laptop, knowing that I have about three password attempts before I’m locked out, and about three minutes to get what I need from his laptop once I do log in, if I even manage to do it at all. I find a thumb drive and flip it around in my hand, steeling my nerves for what I’m about to do.
A few deep breaths go in and a few deep breaths come out. I look around his office for a clue as to what his password could be. Maybe it’s my name? I highly doubt it. What is he more in love with than me… His money, and greed, and power.
While I think about it, I rip a small piece of tape and paper off a notebook he has on his desk. Barely opening the laptop, I cover the camera before opening the device the rest of the way.
I power the machine on and stare at it. Three guesses, that’s all I get. Matias means “gift of God”. Okay, my second guess would be, “money is power,” and, my last guess… Shit, could it be my name after all? I can't think of anything else. Fuck.
I quickly stick in the thumb drive and then type in the first password I came up with. Failed Attempt pops up in red. “Shit!” I whisper shout and try again. My heart is pounding from the adrenaline when I type the second one and fail again.
My hands are shaking in fear. I look again across the room at a picture that has words scrolled across. It says “Reyes Malditos, Cursed Kings have all the riches but no souls”. I quickly type in just Reyes Malditos. And I’m in.
My fingers fly over the keys and click on any and every doc I can find. I save everything while I keep an eye on the clock.
Movement catches my eye in the hallway. I rip the thumb drive out and stuff it into my bag, peeling the piece of paper off the camera and turning the laptop off just before closing it shut. Korina calls my name and walks into the office.
Matias sent her as a distraction, I’m sure, until he could get here himself, to keep me talking and distracted. She doesn’t live far from the house, so it’s not a surprise.
I start thinking of all the visits and shopping trips we went on together. Was she ever my sister and a friend? I smile at her now, acting as if her presence is completely normal, and pick up my bag.
“Morning, sister.”
She hesitates at the door with a scowl on her face. “I’ll be happy when he kills you, maybe then he will let me be free!” she screeches, not willing to hold back anymore.
“It was never my fault for what he did to you, Korina.” I shoulder pass her and she follows me through the house.
“No, but every single person in our lives always chooses you over me.”
The bitterness in her voice is alarming. In the last few weeks she’s grown into someone I didn’t realize she had become. My enemy.
“That’s not true, what about Esteban? Does he know you fuck his boss, too?” I question, because, really, who the fuck does she think she is, acting all innocent. “You chose Matias over me, Korina.”
I stop for just a moment and turn to look at her. “Come with me, we’ll escape this together,” I try one last time, just to see if there is possibly any ounce of the old Korina left buried under all this hate.
“Everything has been your fault for a long time. I grew to hate you for pulling me into all of this. At first, I loved him too, you know, Matias, then I learned what I was to him, a puppet in his game to get to you. Just like Papa, he uses me to control you. I hate you. I hate that even though you look like me, you are always the better one.”
She pants out a breath and finally takes her last dig at me. “I was there when Papa killed Mama. He killed her because she was trying to protect you from him. He shot her in the head with no tears in his eyes because of you. She was going to run away with you, and he caught her.”
Her icy glare penetrates my soul, but I don’t even have time to think her words over. “I’ll praise the moment when you stop breathing on the same earth as me, and I’ll tell Papa or Matias whatever I need to in order to make that finally happen.” She looks down at the bag in my hand and then back up into my eyes.
Hate spreads deep in my heart like the veins of poison she injected me with. I despise this life and her for spewing her venom at me for it all when all I ever did was try to protect her.
“Hmmm,” I decide to play with her. “What will Matias do when he finds out you’ve been fucking Esteban?” I ask, tilting my head to the side. “If you want to play this game, Korina, you will lose.”
I set the bag down at my side and take two steps to stand in front of her.
“The fucking my husband part, I get, because I know the devil himself, and that I could forgive. The plotting behind my back, that I cannot.”
She looks away, then up at the windows, and I know I’m out of time. I grip the long and thick gold chain necklace from around her neck tightly and maneuver myself behind her. Then I pull it back as hard as I can while she struggles. She scratches at my arms and kicks at my feet before falling to the floor. I pull up and quickly slam her head down, hard, onto the tile floor. My arms and hands are on fire from her claw marks.
She lies there, lifeless, with blood pouring from her nose. It was either her or the child I’m carrying, and besides, she was waiting for them to come and kill me.
I grab the backpack and toss it over my shoulder while I wait around a corner. I count down slowly to calm my nerves, like I was taught. Two guards come running in through the foyer, yelling and screaming at seeing Korina lying ghastly still on the white tile floor. I pull the nine-millimeter from my back and aim with both hands on the handle, steady, straight arms. I set one in my sights and send a bullet into his skull.
The other guard whips his head up, and, just as he spots me and begins to raise his gun, I pull the trigger and hit his shoulder first and then pop two more bullets into his lungs.
I don’t dare to move. I take in deep breaths and listen while the chaos settles. Walking up a little closer, I keep my ears observant over the gurgling noise from the one guard I shot in the lungs.
I pick up their tossed guns and run down the hallway with adrenaline flooding my veins. I reach the car that’s parked in the garage and toss in the bag through the passenger seat, then jump in, starting the engine. The garage door creeps open, and I pray to the heavens up above that there aren’t any armed men waiting for me on the other side.
Putting the car into Drive, I steadily move forward, looking around for any traps. When I don’t see any, I gun it as fast as I can down the long driveway, nearly hitting another vehicle when I emerge into traffic.
At the nearest busy street, I park the car, leaving the engine running. I hope to God that someone takes off
in it. The GPS will keep them looking for a few hours. I walk inside a building and then straight back out through the side entrance and down the alleyways.
I walk for blocks until I come across a bus station and hop on. I take as many busses as possible to get across the large city before nightfall. I purchase a hat from a vendor on a street and go into an electronic store to purchase a cheap laptop. I pay the cashier with Juan Cervantes’ credit card which I then drop on the floor in the store, once again hoping that someone will pick it up and use it.
The sun is setting already which means that every moment that passes at this point is critical.
Every breath I take, a gift.
Chapter 12
Matias
“What the fuck do you mean she got away?” I roar into the phone at one of the men that arrived minutes after she left. He sends me pictures of the dead bodies on the floor and explains to me that Katherine, my wife, is nowhere to be found. Today of all days she pulls this shit on me. “Keep looking for her and tell no one.”
I disconnect the call and fight the urge to run after her, find her and choke her myself.
There was too much at stake with the business when I got the call that someone logged into my laptop at home. I knew it was her right away, and that shit surprised me. It changed everything between us in ways I don’t even understand. Why now?
I pull my thoughts together and get back to work, placing a call to our contact over in Las Vegas. After I finish business, I am going after her, and she will regret the day she betrayed me and our marriage.
“What’s the update? Did you get the cargo truck that Cobra’s men were hauling?”
“Sí, the truck is stored and ready for Angel when he gets down here.”
“I’ll transfer the money as soon as the second part is done, like we discussed. Two bodies are to be found, one Battle Born and one of Cobra’s men, sí?”
Done with him, I hang up and call Cobra. “Hola, Cobra, we have a fucking problem, pendejo, mis drogas are missing at the drop. I made it pretty fucking clear that we had a deadline to meet, not to mention millions of dollars are fucking missing in drugs and diamonds.”
Cobra’s deadly silent. “What the fuck!” he then roars into my ear.
“The pinche policía I pay off to monitor the roads said that he thinks Battle Born was hauling my truck up there, but it never showed up,” I inform him calmly.
“Stryker, that motherfucker, wouldn’t be so stupid,” he growls back.
“You better get this shit handled before I get up there, Cobra,” I warn and tap off the phone, then wait.
Shortly after, my father, the seventy-year-old man, comes in, sweating bullets. “Que pasó, if we don’t get that truck up north, this…” He trails off, knowing the implications of what this looks like among his associates. He guaranteed them the transport in that area. It looks as if he stole his own cargo to rip off the men who had already payed for it.
Soon, we are surrounded by the many men we contract with, very displeased with my father, the Cartel boss, who looks like a liar and a cheat, all because I have been lying to him. He turns to me and doesn’t say a word because the damage is done. And he knows it.
I would like to think there is some pride in his eyes when he realizes the way I’m about to take over his empire. It is, after all, an honorable death to have your son mercifully put the bullet in between your eyes and take what’s rightfully his, the throne to the Cartel.
We are merely a few feet away from each other. My hand grips the handgun and I point the barrel at his head, smiling right before I blow his brains out. The man who raised me and made me into what I am today lies on the floor in front of me. He stares up to the heavens with his eyes wide open.
Today, I become the boss and king. In this very moment, I feel unstoppable.
No turf wars, because his men have been my men. And it’s all mine, except for the fact that my queen is missing.
I apologize to all the men and hand out large stacks of cash, promising them that I would settle this.
I sit in my office and act as if my home is not a mess with dead bodies lying around and Katherine still missing. I am rooted to the spot, never having felt the sting of betrayal like I have from her, unable to go home and not have her there waiting for me. Ten years, just gone.
I pour myself a drink while the sun sets, and wait for any word from her, but nothing by the time the sun comes back up. There’s no sign of her, and a piece of me breaks at why she would do this to me. A part of me realizes the weakness in me for her, and the demon rises.
Fury overcomes me, so intense that even her death would not calm it. She fucking betrayed me after all I have done for her.
My phone goes off and I see that it’s Cobra finally calling me back.
“Those fucking gringos stole the truck and killed my man. Stryker believes we killed his club member. It’s a fucking mess, Matias. And we are going to war.”
At least this has gone to plan. I am the boss of my own empire, but my queen is gone.
My greed has turned me into a cursed king.
Chapter 13
Tank
War.
The mother Battle Born chapter has declared a war on the Mexican MC. At least that is what Cobra thought when he found his man dead and being eaten alive by the animals in the desert. I’m secretly sad we didn’t do it. Stryker found the truck, but the men were long gone.
We have, however, declared lockdown. All the women and children are locked up tight in the clubhouse while we load trucks with men and ammunition. Maddox is holding Harley to his chest, and I overhear him promising her that he would bring their son back home to her.
When he kisses her one last time, he whispers, “In this life and the next, baby.” He leaves her standing alone, and the woman looks as though she could crumble.
The Ol’ Lady of the house, Moxie, Stryker’s woman, rushes over to keep her from falling apart. Her strength is unwavering, although, I bet that inside, she is shattered. But she holds her shit together for her man because she has a fucking job and she does it well. Moxie is a tough bitch, and pride like I’ve never felt swells my chest.
I walk over to Harley. “They both are coming the fuck home.” Her teary eyes search mine as she sees my promise. I will die before they do.
We ride over to our meeting point into the desert, away from the border patrol where we find an impressive caravan set up before us of the Los Reyes Malditos, the Cursed Kings MC. Ice and Fuego also brought their men down.
Cuervo is standing off to the side like a crazed man, chomping at the bit to be let free. He is wielding two machetes in his hands, pacing back and forth behind Fuego, his brother as well as the Prez of the California chapter.
Out of all of us, Cuervo wants Cobra dead the most for killing his wife, years before. A debt that has been left unsettled between the two for a decade or more. A bloody and haunted past still paints the future red because of greed, drugs and betrayal.
Stryker yells out, “Save your men, Cobra, and step out in front of them. We only want your fucking head.”
Cobra’s menacing laugh echoes across the wind. “Matarlos a todos.”
“Kill them all!” Cuervo bellows, repeating him, then starts running at full speed, aiming for Cobra, but doesn’t get far with all the men that stop him.
Fuego covers his brother with gunfire, shooting and killing any man that gets too close or points a gun in his direction. The Vice Presidents cover the Presidents and aim for any possible threats.
Gunfire lights up the darkening sky like fireworks along with screams from the dying, carried through the howling winds. Ghost, Fuego’s VP, the creepy motherfucker, starts working from the shadows, veering off to the sidelines to gain a sniper’s advantage.
I stick to Axl’s side and cover him through the chaos and whizzing bullets that buzz past us. We aim and fire, and, as a team. Standing side by side, we walk forward, spraying bullets.
A man lying in the dirt
lifts his hand and raises his gun to Blade. On reflex, I pull the trigger and shoot the man in the head before his shot goes off. Dust and smoke coat the air like fog, making it hard to see who’s left.
Cuervo yells, “I’ll kill you, pinche pendejo.” We all turn towards the shouting as Cobra jumps into the van with the rest of his men that start to retreat. Being outnumbered from the beginning, they didn’t stand much of a chance.
We take the few fallen men back with us right before leaving. We make a pile of Cobra’s men and light them on fire with diesel fuel, then haul ass out of there before the Feds and their helicopter find us.
For the next week, it is blasted all over the news about the drug deal gone wrong, and how the Feds are still investigating, looking for suspects.
Ghost made a call into his military contacts before we left. No one is looking into shit; one less trafficker for the government to worry about. We should send them a bill for cleaning up these pieces of shit.
What’s next is on all of our minds. How many more need to die before Cobra is the one to pay his debt?
Chapter 14
Katherine
On the dark streets in the slums of Mexico City, I am in search of a coyote. A man that will help transport me over the border, safely. It must be done now while Matias is busy with his war games and drugs. God only knows what else. It can’t be any jump the boarder coyote either. I need someone to smuggle me over completely undetected.
Unfortunately for me, everyone knows who I am. My body has grown so tired. The only place I can think of where I could possibly be safe for a handful of hours is the hospital for which I saw a sign a few miles back.
After riding on yet another bus and thirty minutes later, I am walking the hospital hallways, looking for a room where I can lie down and catch a few hours of sleep.
Escaping From Forever: Tank & Kat's story, Part 1 (Battle Born MC Book 5) Page 7