Page 51 of One Rule

“Keep going,” I say, but I’m calculating how long his hands have been under now. At the very least three minutes. “What were the obstacles.”

“Joaquin Armas and Liliana Armas.” At the mention of her name, my lip curls over my teeth but I don’t say anything. I’m biting back my ire as he continues to talk, explaining how Mr. Wilburn gave the go-ahead to do whatever they wanted to the Armas family, and that meant putting their hands on Liliana. “He made a promise to his nephew that includes her somehow. That she’s in the way, and we were to scare her into signing over some work and then disappear.”

“Disappear how?” I grit out, and from the corner of my eyes, I catch Amado shaking his head. He’s a problem easy to fix and I release my hold on Joseph long enough for Isaac to step in. He’s not to be removed until he passes out; I’m keeping him alive as a gift for my in-laws.

Lionel is owed his pound of flesh. All of them are.

Within seconds I have the gloves off and I’m reaching for the gun in Isaac’s back pocket, pulling it out and firing a single shot. It’s a clean one, too. Straight in and out, but the spray of blood and matter reaches Ricardo who now wears a horrified expression.

Amado hangs there limply without ever having a said a word in his defense, but I’d already read his information and he was scared, not remorseful. Given the opportunity to do it again, he would without a second thought.

He’s killed before, something Ricardo hasn’t done, and because of his stupidity and desire for easy money, I’ll make sure he never sees the next sunrise.

“I won’t ask again. Disappear how?”

“Please don’t kill me.” He’s fighting against his bindings, gagging between his cries for help. No one can hear him. No one will save him. “Let me run away. I won’t tell anyone what you did to us.”

“That’s not what I asked, Mr. Vega. Answer the question.”

“I can’t. Please, let me go.”

“I never quite understood why people like to make things difficult for themselves,” Isaac interjects, laying on the ground a passed-out Joseph. His hands are destroyed—yet he still has full function—but the skin’s completely melted off and the acid has begun to eat some of the tissue and muscle beneath.

It looks very painful.

“Agreed.” My next shot also hits its mark and embeds itself on his left toe. It takes the big one clean off, his foot bouncing up from the impact. “What were you going to do to her?”

“We could do anything we’d like to her, but ultimately she needed to die.”

“And that was your biggest mistake. She’s always had me to protect her.” The last bullet to dislodge today mimics the wound left on Amado’s forehead. Like his cousin, the kill shot ends Ricardo’s short life while I calmly walk over to the fishing equipment and pick up what I need before donning a new pair of gloves. Latex this time.

It was only ever going to end this way.

Thiago also knew this much when he watched me stand behind them inside of his family’s restaurant, and then knock them unconscious with a single blow to the head from the butt of this same gun. Ligo had been quick to spot them following her earlier in the day and he let me know immediately, earning himself a nice bonus from me.

They’d been cocky and so full of themselves to walk into a mafia family’s place of business and not expect consequences, especially when there’s a familial tie between the victim and them.

Not that De Leons had to lift a finger, because she’s mine.

To protect. To love. To claim.

Threading the hook with the line, I begin to sew their mouth then eyes shut. It’s a simple catch-stitch. The pattern is easy enough, and while the cleaning crew begins to rid the scene of the mess we created; Isaac helps me remove the bodies.

They have separate destinations for now. One will be held as a prisoner until the time’s right, and the other two will deliver a clear message to Rodolfo and his son.

You don’t look or touch at what’s mine.

Chapter20

Liliana

Ican’t stop thinking about the information Lionel and Thiago gave me.

It’s been days now of me going over it in my head. Trying to make a rational decision, but all I’ve done is spend days and nights staring at my computer screen until finally giving in to my exhaustion around six a.m. each day. Four of them to be exact.

To go or not to go, that is my conundrum.

My initial reaction was to get home and start accessing Dad’s files, see if there’s anything on the financials for his subordinates to go on, and start digging without me having to hack a government office, but then I sat back and just stared at the screen. To access his files, I’d need to go to his house, and I’m just not ready to do that.

---