by K. L Mann
“You’re not going to call me Cariño anymore Kitty? Shame, I always enjoyed your accent when you’d speak Spanish to me.” He sighs, looking at me carefully. “Anyways, straight to business then.” Gustavo slides the gun up my arm playfully and lands it with the barrel at my temple. I don’t flinch, no weakness is acceptable. “You see baby, I’ve got a problem.” He sighs. “And I’m thinking, you’re the only solution.”
He pauses, that’s my cue to answer.
“Yes, sir. How can I help?” My voice is quiet.
I hate myself for being so compliant with him, I only know how to survive when it comes to Gustavo Hernandez.
“Damn baby, if I didn’t hate you for what you did… I’d drop all of this and show you a real good time right now. Take you out of that dress and let you ride me until you scream, thanking me like you used to. The thought of consummating your marriage for that pinche pendejo is almost too sweet to imagine.” His eyes turn dark.
My stomach turns and I hear Nicole scoff quietly.
What I did, leaving? He didn’t give me much of a choice.
“But you left me; you left my son. That wasn’t very nice of you, mi amor.” Anger eats me up, but I don’t let it out. “And now, you’re one of only two García’s left breathing. You see, that’s a bit of a problem for me. Blood loyalties and all that.”
“You want to kill me?” My voice cracks, damn it.
Gus smirks, he likes breaking me down; scaring me in the wrong way.
“Not so much want, as need. Here’s the catch though, you’re loaded and that money can’t very well go to waste now, can it?”
“All resources are good resources.” I repeat his own words to him again.
“Very good. So, what I need from you Kat, is the money. Also, if your heart could cease beating after that would be helpful as well.”
“You can have the money, but I don’t know how to get it. I’ve never touched the account.”
“Bullshit.” Nicole scoffs.
Gustavo and I both turn to her. Now that I know he needs me alive at the moment, I’m not biting my tongue anymore.
“Nicole.” I warn. “I mean what I’m about to say with the utmost sincerity. I’m going to kill you and every person that’s ever been stupid enough to love you. And it won’t be because you’re a desperate skank, it’ll be because of the perverse amount of joy it will bring me to end your existence.” I bare my teeth at her.
Nicole hides the worry on her face with a brushed off laugh. Gustavo must have found it entertaining because he laughs genuinely.
“I’ve always enjoyed your devilish tendencies, so refreshing.” Gustavo smirks at me. “Anyways, I figured we would have a few options. I had my boy James all set up to get the money in a few months. But marrying a fucking Vitale? That threw a wrench into most of the options.”
He knew James? Of fucking course, he did. Drugs? Human trafficking? Why wouldn’t I think of that? Stupid! Don’t react to that part, that’s what he wants, Katherine.
“I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.”
“Choices seem to be the bane of your existence, don’t they?” Gustavo tisks. “So, the marriage was arranged then? Classic.” He chuckles. “I bet you still fucked him though, didn’t you?”
Nicole looks eager for this answer, like she still somehow has a shot if the answer is no. As if Lorenzo would touch her after everything she has done.
“Yes.”
“Yes what?” Gus presses the gun harder into my skin.
I wince unintentionally.
“Yes, I still fucked him.”
“Of course, you did Kitty. Such a bitchy little whore, huh?”
“Only him?” Nicole jumps in again.
My eyes shoot to her and glare.
Gustavo raises an eyebrow at me, curious.
“No.” I admit, Gus smells lies and he can read me like a book. Lying is useless here.
“Times have changed a bit then.” Gustavo laughs. “You were always the faithful one.”
“I am faithful.” I pause. “I fucked Luca, Gio and Lorenzo at the same time. It was great too; they work well together.” I hiss at Nicole, bragging.
Gustavo’s eyes widen and Nicole’s mouth falls open.
“That’s enough.” Nicole whines like she's in charge. “Please, kill her already.”
“You let second rate whores tell you what to do now? This is who you’re going to live the rest of your life with? This is supposed to be Pedro’s mom?” I hiss at Gustavo.
His free hand wraps around my neck too tightly. My legs kick, panicked.
“Don’t talk to me like that, and don’t say my son's name. He doesn’t need a mother anymore.” My lungs struggle for air.
“I’m not killing her without the money.” He growls at Nicole.
Little choking noises escape me and Gus lets go. I gasp for air and my heart is racing. I catch my breath quickly, hoping to smooth over talking badly to him.
“Just take the money and let me go. I have zero fucking interesting in running a cartel, I’m not even a Garcia anymore.” I plead.
I can’t tell what my hands are wrapped with, but they aren’t cuffs and they are far too tight to dislocate my thumb and escape. I can’t tell if my knife is still on my thigh either. I’m running out of hope.
“I thought about offering you your life back, coming back to me. But your father took that option from you.” Gus grumbles.
“What? How?” I’m curious, I wouldn’t take the offer either way but I don’t understand.
“The account has a bunch of safeties in place. One of which being that if you marry me, the money goes away. Bastard never liked me.” Gus shakes his head
“So, what–”
I hear distant gunshots and stop speaking. Glass breaking and distant yelling is followed by more gunshots.
“Your cavalry has arrived.” Gus looks pissed off. “Good thing I’ve prepared for them.”
“Wait what?”
Gustavo cuts off my hand restraints and pulls me to my feet. He locks my neck with one arm and holds a gun to my head with his other hand. Nicole stands behind him and Gus faces the door. More gunshots go off and Gus tightens his grip around me.
Is this a trap? Who’s dying out there? Is my knife still on my thigh?
“Just kill her.” Nicole pleads.
“When all of your blood is puddled around your corpse later, remember how pathetic you are, la puta.” I hiss back at her.
Gustavo chuckles.
My skin goes cold.
The handle of the door explodes and then it’s kicked in. Lorenzo, Gio and Vito burst inside guns blazing. Gio is front and center, and Lorenzo is at his left. Seeing his face doesn’t help my anxiety, it makes it worse. I don’t want him to get hurt, not while trying to save me.
They don’t seem worried like I am.
I don’t know if I should be relieved, Gus sounded like he was confident. He has me covering most of his body and his gun is tight on my head.
“Let her go, Hernandez.” Lorenzo is the first to break the tension.
“I had her first, Vitale.” Gus smiles like a clown.
He’s actually gone insane.
“You’re outnumbered and outgunned.” Gio speaks furiously.
There’s blood splattered on Lorenzo’s face.
Where’s Luca?
“But I hold all the cards.” Gustavo pulls me tighter to him and I wince.
He’s nearly choking me out. None of them have a clean shot from their angle.
Lorenzo won’t look at me and I know exactly where he’s holding his focus. He’s watching Gustavo’s trigger finger like a hawk. I’m overwhelmed with fear, I don’t want to die. I don’t want them to get hurt either.
“I love you.” I rasp through Gustavo’s hold. I don’t know if Lorenzo hears it, but I refuse to die without saying it.
“Aw, Kitty Kat.” Gus coos. “Of course, you’d fall for your kidnapper, so mentally unstable…”
&nb
sp; The room feels heavy with quiet until glass shatters behind me. Suddenly Gustavo's grip isn’t tight anymore. My ears ring and I realize he’s been shot. The remnants of his head are plastered everywhere. Nicole screams and backs herself into a corner. Lorenzo and Gio try to come to my side but I hold my hand out telling them not to.
They pause.
I’m laser focused on Nicole.
As my hearing returns, I lift my skirt to find my dagger perfectly in place.
They didn’t even search me, fucking idiots.
“Remember what I said Nicole?” I twirl the blade around in my hand playfully walking toward her. She’s in tears already. “I’m doing this, not just because you deserve it, but because it’ll be fun. I bet it’ll even make me wet, watching the blood pour out of your throat and coat that awful excuse for a dress.”
“Please don’t Katherine.” She screams and begs for mercy.
“I’m curious though, how did you think this would work out for you? Did you think in all his grief Lorenzo would fall for you? Or did you seriously want Gustavo? Because both of those mindsets make me look like a mentally sound preacher's daughter next to you.” I laugh. “Actually, I don’t care what your answer is. To be completely honest, I’m itching to see the life drain from your eyes.”
“Wait!” Nicole chokes.
“Enjoy hell, princess.” I grin, making my first move.
My cuts are swift, wrists and throat. But my stabs are pure rage, I don’t know how many I do. My arms are slippery and warm covered in red. I think I feel specks of blood fly on my face too. I don’t want to stop; this is where I’ll let everything out.
A heavy hand on my shoulder pulls me out of my trance. The hand feels familiar.
“I love you too.”
My heart races. My hand lets the dagger fall out of it; Nicole is clearly dead. I stand up and throw myself into his embrace.
“Say it again, so I know it’s real.” My breath hitches.
“Te amo, mi pequeño demonio.” Lorenzo strokes my hair.
“Non posso vivere senza di te.” I whisper my declaration, pulling out of his embrace.
Arianna taught me it, I asked her too.
Hot tears fall down my face, reality sets back in.
“Who the hell shot him?”
“Luca. We’re at Nicole’s father’s estate, he’s on the top of the guest house.” Lorenzo answers.
“How did you find me?” I don’t let him go, I can’t.
“Tracking chip in the dagger.” He admits. “It was a precaution; I didn’t think we’d have to use it. Did he hurt you?”
“Only mentally.” I huff. “But, I’m fine.”
A dangerous thought crosses my mind.
“Where do you think Pedro is?”
Lorenzo pulls me back in, tighter.
“He’s gone, love. I’m so sorry.”
“What? What do you mean?” I scramble to ask.
I must have misheard him, I must have. That’s ridiculous.
“Gustavo really did go mad. He killed him, baby. He’s gone.” Lorenzo tells me slowly.
“How could you know that?” I pull away, tears are coating my face.
“We just found out.” Gio defends his friend. “A contact of ours was interrogating Gustavo’s right hand today in New York. Gustavo killed him last year, no one said anything. They couldn’t believe it, he did it pretty publicly, to prove some fucked up point.”
“But… but he was his son. He was supposed to be safe here.”
My heart thumps in my chest, guilt washes over me.
“I know Katherine, I’m so sorry. If I thought he was in danger here I would have stepped in when we first met. It doesn’t make any sense.”
That would have been too late, this is my fault, not his.
“Earlier Gus said that Pedro didn’t need a mother anymore…” I choke. “I thought he meant he replaced me.” My breathing shakes. “He… He really killed him?” My eyes hurt as hot tears burn in them.
Lorenzo nods.
He grabs my bloody hands and holds them tight. “We have to go now, there’s nothing more for us to do here.”
“Okay.” I shove every pain into the back of my mind like I’m so good at.
My head feels numb as Lorenzo puts me into the SUV. He sits in the back with me. Gio drives and Luca sits at his side. Vito takes another car with some other men.
“Did any of our people die?”
“No.” Lorenzo answers.
“Where’s Nicole's dad?”
“Probably on a boat somewhere far away.” Gio answers this time.
“Well, when we find him, let me know. He’s mine.”
Epilogue
2 Months Later
Lorenzo has slept in my bed with me every night since our wedding. I think he’s worried I may try to kill myself. He doesn’t listen when I tell him that I’m fine. He wants me to see a shrink and I refuse. I will not be analyzed by some shmuck who doesn’t know the first thing about suffering. Though his efforts to make me feel better are nice. I didn’t ask him to sleep with me, he just started doing it. But regardless, it feels nice having his body wrapped around mine and drifting off to sleep.
Lorenzo tells me stories at night now. I love every single one of them. He doesn't tell me to stop asking questions anymore. He says romantic things and takes me to fancy dinners when I’m having good days. He buys me flowers and he runs with me now. He’s hard to keep up with, but our runs usually end with messy, dirty and exhausted sex that I can’t get enough of.
He finally admitted why he’s covered in tattoos and why he doesn’t have pets anymore. A fire took all of his animals from him when he was eight. Gio saved him, he pulled him out of the barn. Lorenzo has light burns splattered around his body from trying to save them all but the tattoos conceal them perfectly. You can barely feel them. Gio only has one burn on his right thigh that he covered with a large skull tattoo. They’ll be bonded forever because of that day. They don’t like to talk about it, but now I know about it too. I think he dreams about it sometimes, but he never says so. He just wakes up sweating some mornings and earlier than he normally would. I can’t really worry about him though. I, more than anyone understands how annoying it is to be pitied.
The fire is also why Gio and Luca were in utter shock that Lorenzo watched a movie with me. He stopped doing anything normal like that after the fire. It was like life was sucked out of him by the flames. He’ll still watch them with me, but sometimes I feel bad for asking him to. He assures me that it doesn’t bother him anymore. Maybe it doesn’t.
Luca and Gio do live in our house, there is a floor below the main floor of the mansion. Another secret I wasn’t privy to. They each have half of it to themselves since they constantly have to be there anyways. All of the extra security has lightened up, but Vito is still around. He drives mostly, and sometimes I see him at the training center.
I see Marco sometimes too; we drink together like our liver health doesn’t matter. Lorenzo admitted why Marco is treated differently. He’s seventeen and hasn’t done a challenge night, he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to be like their father and Lorenzo can’t defend him. It’s not up to him. Marco was trained as a child just like Lorenzo was, he could win challenge night if he tried. I get why he might not want to. Maybe one day he will do it. Maybe one day I will too.
Two months have passed since I learned that my son is dead. I’ll never get over it, but I’ve learned to live regardless. I have Lorenzo and friends who keep me off of the ledge. The night of my wedding was the worst best day of my life. Lorenzo and I said that we love each other, words I thought would never leave my mouth directed at him. I killed Nicole and Gustavo, meaning the source of most of my nightmares was killed as well. But I was also filled with the guilt of leaving my son with a monster.
I know now that I couldn’t have done any more than I did. I would have died trying to save him and when I met the man who could have pulled it off, my son was already gone. I feel
healed in a way, but I never know if the feeling is a false promise.
I killed Nicole’s father last week. Lorenzo and Gio watched me do it. They didn’t interfere, I think Gio even laughed at a few of my comments. He knew about Nicole’s plan to join Gustavo. She couldn’t have Lorenzo or Gio but she was hungry to marry a boss and her father was hungry to climb the ranks. Torturing him was cathartic in so many different ways for me. I think when I killed him, it felt like retribution for Pedro.
Most days I spend at the training center with Luca, Gio or Lorenzo. They take turns sparring with me. It feels so fucking good to hit them. They usually win, but I don’t care. Winning isn’t the point, turning off my mind is the point.
Gio is the most difficult. Lorenzo has a soft spot for me so he’s easier to trick. Luca likes to mess around so our fights are less serious. Gio is all business, and I’ve never beaten him. I think he likes teaching me new things though, he corrects me and gives me advice every time. I tease him about Arianna to get an upper hand but it never works. But, after two months of training, depression and sulking, Lorenzo decided I needed a break.
He is taking me on a proper honeymoon today. We’re going somewhere tropical, but he won’t tell me where. I didn’t have to pack for it or anything. Caterina did all of that for me.
Arianna moved her classes online and is hiding out at our house for the next three weeks. Her parents don’t know, and I made Lorenzo swear his secrecy. She doesn’t like campus and I understand why. She can’t make friends with our last name.
We’ve been on the private jet for an hour and I’ve been drinking wine like it’s going out of style. It calms the pain in my ears and makes my body warm.
Isabella is working this flight; I’ve finally seen her face. She could be a swimsuit model. Her hair is long, wavy and black and her skin is sun kissed. Her eyes are a sexy green color and I’ve been ogling her since we got on the flight. She’s returned a few glances, but my gaydar is embarrassingly rusty.
The wine is making me feel confident, I want to touch her. I want Lorenzo to touch her too. I can’t tell if Lorenzo sees me watching her, we’ve been talking casually but he hasn’t mentioned it.
“Isabella, how old are you?” I sip the glass of white wine in my hand.