Page 64 of Trapped

I creep forward behind my men. Adrenaline and anxiety stir within me. I need to find her. My speed feels like slow motion. I can’t get to her fast enough. As I move farther inside, I see the massacre left in the place. I see all the bloodshed around me. The bodies on the floor.

“Thalia!” I hear Adrian scream behind me. He pushes me to the side to dodge a bullet coming toward me. I slam into an air compressor and fall to my knees. I watch as the man who attempted to kill me falls to the floor, and I gasp. I pick myself up and look around the repair shop.

Most of the bodies on the ground belong to Claudia’s small army. Some I recognize as members of Los Bandoleros. I keep moving until I recognize the body by the entrance. His thick frame and shaved head. Suddenly, the smells around me seem overwhelming. I stand frozen.

“Ricky!” I scream. I scream his name over and over as I run to him and fall to my knees beside him. His eyes are closed and blood surrounds him. I find the wound on his stomach. I place my hands to the wound and watch as his chest slowly rises and falls. It’s shallow, but he’s still breathing.

“Help! Adrian! Help me!” I scream out. I continue to scream until Adrian finds me.

“Fuck!” he says.

“Ayuda!” Adrian screams, and several of our men rush over to help him pick up Ricky.

“Take him. Go,” I say, and Adrian stares at me. He shakes his head.

“I’m not leaving you,” he says.

“Take him!” I cry. Adrian hesitates and looks around. Almost all of Claudia’s men lay dead in the auto repair shop.

“Please, Adrian. Take him now!” I plead. He follows behind the men and jumps into the van with Ricky.

It takes everything in me to pull myself up from the ground. I wipe my eyes and search for my crew, for my husband, Osiel, and Efren. All I see is bodies. I step over them and make my way to the back, where I find Osiel loading injured men into the back of another van.

“Are you okay?” Osiel says. He looks at the blood covering me.

I’m not okay. But I can’t make the words out. My body is exhausted.

“Did you find her? Did you find Lucia?” I ask.

“No, but they’re checking the outskirts of the property,” he says, waiting for me to join him.

“I’ll wait for them,” I reply.

I watch the van take off and return inside. Fear and defeat wash over me as I take in the blood-stained building. This can’t have all been for nothing.Where are you, Lucia?My eyes roam over the large sign still intact at the front: Primos Auto Repair. I scan over the tires and empty lifts above me. Then I remember the office. The one hidden up the stairs, in the left corner. It’s where Diana was hiding out the day they attempted to kill Mireya.

I fly up the stairs until I find the large metal door. I try the handle, but it’s locked. I bang on it several times. I take a few steps back, then I rush forward and ram all my weight into the door. Pain erupts in my shoulder from the forceful impact, but I don’t stop. I rush back and slam into the door with more force. On my fourth attempt, as I rush toward the door again, it opens right before the impact. I fall forward, and my gun flies from my hand as I catch myself on the concrete. The first sound I hear isthe door slamming behind me. Then the lock. And then a click of a gun sounds at the crown of my head.

“The infamousViuda.I thought you’d never come.”

“Move, and I’ll shoot,” Claudia says.

“Where is my daughter?” I ask through gritted teeth. I’m on my knees, contemplating my next move. I watch bright red heels circle to the front of me and French-tipped nails reach for my fallen weapon.

Then I take her in. She’s tall, with long blond hair and colored eyes. She has a curvy frame, and by the looks of it, she has invested a lot of money into plastic surgery. The amount of work done to her face has left her expression stuck in a permanent smile. It is creepier than the doll threats she’s been sending me.

“I’ve been dying to meet you,” she says, her smile far from welcoming.

“Claudia.” Her name falls from my lips like a curse, a long awaited hex that could not be reversed. She nods her head.

“You know what we have in common?” she asks. I don’t bother answering her. I don’t care.

“Both of us were lied to by your father.”

Great, join the club, bitch.She continues to take me in beforestanding to her full height. She paces back and forth in her red high heels, both guns tight in each of her hands. She lets out a long sigh.

“Ivan told me this would be easy. That he would remove the obstacles, and I would effortlessly inherit the lands. We would ride off into the sunset together.”

Her hands fly up in a theatrical way as her voice heightens. Her face stays the same. Even though the story she’s recounting feels like tragedy, the damn Botox smile doesn’t falter.

---