Page 87 of The Devil's Daughter

Elle

Ben makes a muffledexclamation into his gag that I interpret as, “Fuck me,” when the new arrival enters. He looks familiar, but it takes a moment for me to place his scarred face as one from the flash drive Mason gave me. My stomach drops when I put a name to him. My father wasn’t wrong after all—Gustavo Delgado really is working with Corluka.

He doesn’t seem happy to see us, though.

“What the fuck have you done, Sitnik? Didn’t you think to ID Stavros’ guests? Do you have any idea who the fuck they are?”

“What do I care? The man has no friends. Whoever they are, they’re here because he paid them to be.”

Gustavo’s gaze rests on Ben’s face first, and he mutters a curse. “Where’s the other one? There are two of them. You two, go search the boat for his brother.” He jabs his finger at the men nearest the door, one of whom is still standing guard over Drake. He gives Miles a questioning glance.

Miles shakes his head. “I don’t remember another one. I saw that one at the party talking to Drake.”

“He has a fuckingtwin, you idiot.”

Miles blanches, then nods to the pair of guards, who exit to go find Baz.

I’m vaguely relieved by the order. I’ve been quelling panic all this time over the possibility that Baz is lying dead somewhere below us, but they haven’t admitted to killing him, so that must mean he’s still alive.

Gustavo’s nostrils flare when he looks at me again. He closes the distance and grabs my jaw in one hand, tilting my head back uncomfortably far. “Maybe this one’s all about the money. She grew up poor, but the Santos family are a bunch of fucking do-gooders, even if they’re under Arturo Flores’ protection.”

He grabs the corner of the tape covering my mouth and rips it off. I hiss when sharp pain lances through my chin and cheeks, then quickly fades by the time he pulls the wad of cloth from my mouth. Both Drake and Ben make incoherent sounds of protest, their eyes wild.

Gustavo glances between them, then back to me, chuckling wickedly. “Tell me, Baby Santos, do your brothers know you’re fucking both these guys?”

“Fuck you, Delgado. You know you can’t touch me.”

This is the first opportunity I’ve had to dredge up information from the flash drive I spent days studying without really knowing what it was or why I needed to know it. But I can’t for the life of me figure out which piece will do the most good, now that I’m actually faced with this monster.

“Really? I’m guessing your brother told you that I made some deal with him to protect all of you. Did he ever tell you why?”

When I don’t answer, he laughs. “Didn’t think he’d actually give that detail up. He’s still the only one who knows. Well, I’ll clue you in, Baby Santos—I’m not afraid of him, or the secrets he keeps anymore.”

He releases me and slips a hand into the pocket of his suit jacket. When he draws it out, light glints off the shiny chrome of the fist weapon he’s threaded his fingers through. Grinning skulls adorn the rises of each knuckle, dried blood caked in their crevices.

“What the fuck are you doing, Delgado?” Miles says. “I thought you wanted to kill Stavros.”

“I’m getting to him,” Gustavo says in an almost off-handed tone. “This one reminds me of someone, though—a pretty little thing named Lola Prieto, who believed she was hot shit and that the sun shined out of her pussy. She had two men wrapped around her little finger, two men who would’ve been kings, if they hadn’t let a whore like her dictate their business. I’ll tell you a secret: there’s no sharing power in our line of work. She had to go, or neither of them would’ve become who they are today. But I had a taste before I put her out of her misery. She wasn’t as sweet as they’d have you believe. She bit. Do you bite, Baby Santos?”

My eyes widen. This is the secret Mason was holding over him all this time? “You’re the one who killed Celeste’s mother?” I’m too shocked to say more, to even articulate how messed up it is that he seems to think he did Arturo and Amador a favor by murdering the woman they loved.

“I had to. They had a falling out over her. Business suffered. She was close to bringing them back together, but it would only make things worse if they fought over her again. She had to go.”

Beside me, Ben whimpers and shakes his head. At first I don’t understand why; we’re just talking. Then a prickly chill runs down my spine.

“You’re going to kill us, aren’t you? All of us. That’s the only reason you told me. You know if my father finds out, you’re a dead man. I bet if Amador learns the truth, it’ll be just as bad. Maybe worse. You can’t let this get out, so you’re going to kill us.”

I glance at Miles, who just sits there, looking impatient. “What about him? You can’t trust him to keep the secret, either. Do you think just because you’re partners, he’ll keep his mouth shut? What happens when he changes his mind and needs you out of the picture?”

Gustavo narrows his eyes and turns to Miles, who sneers at me. When he turns back, he shakes his head. “I’m not scared of your father anymore, little girl. Now that I’ve taken over the Zavala Cartel, he can’t touch me. Neither of them can. If I kill you, it’ll just be for fun. And this asshole and I aren’t partners. He’s just facilitating the exchange of goods for money.”

“You mean human beings! You need Drake’s business to sell innocent women for sex!”

“Doesn’t matter why we need it,” Gustavo says. “And I wouldn’t need this asshole if your boyfriend would just open his mind and be willing to work with me. His father started something a long time ago with Zavala. Now that I’m in control and have seen the missing profits from that abandoned venture, I’m ready to get it going again. It’s worth too much not to.”

I rack my brain for an argument to force him to let us live, but come up blank. Drake’s making loud noises of protest from behind his gag, and Gustavo turns to him.

“What’s this? Do you want to bargain? I’m happy to negotiate.”

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