Page 35 of Brutal Empire

I kept going until I was directly in front of all the trucks, then parked the motorcycle sideways and turned it off.

“Stay back,” I told Cam as I got off and put on my best smile. As I began to walk toward the small brigade, I did it with my hands in the air.

“Gracias por venir.”Thank you for coming,I said to the only man who didn’t have a gun pointed at me.

Julian Rivera Jr. smiled at me. He looked older and rougher than when we’d first met in the Columbian jungle. Since his father went down, he was now the one in charge of the cartel.

“I was curious,” he replied with a heavy accent. “I got a call from your boss.”

I was going to die before I could sink my dick in sweet wet pussy again. Fucking Damian was going to make sure I died a born-again virgin.

“How lovely,” I told him. “Are you twocompasnow?” I asked playfully. Out of everyone in the Sekt, I had been the one to deal with Julian the most. I didn’t exactly hate the guy. I thought he was a better fit to run shit than his father, and his father getting locked up was when I was allowed to leave Mexico.

“Answer me one thing, Sebastian,” he said as he pulled out a Glock from his back and pointed it at me.

“It’s just Bastian.” My smile widened, taking this as a good sign. He had said omitting the first two letters of my name was a pompous thing to do.

“Did your boss want my father to take the downfall for what happened in that warehouse?”

Usually, I would have lied to protect the Sekt, but since Damian had already called and was putting dirt on my good name, telling him the truth was the only hope I had.

“Damian sold him out,” I confessed. The trafficking operation they had was like a well-oiled machine. Any fall had to come from deep inside. Julian Sr. was a problem to Damian, and he wanted him gone.

“And you’re okay to sell him out like that?” he asked with a raised brow, gauging my reaction.

“You’d rather I lie to you?” I bit out. I took another step forward and added a bonus confession. “What went down in Colombia was also a setup.”

His eyes flared. I had been the one to go back, and my goal was to get Gideon, and while I looked for him, I helped him get out of that war zone alive. It was why I was invited to hang back with them and be the ears the Sekt needed.

Just then, his eyes went to my shoulder, where a bullet had almost grazed me as I got him out to safety.

He looked past me, and I saw him smile.

“Your bitch is ready to kill me.”

Fuck. Tell me Cam wasn’t crazy enough to pull a weapon out when we were outnumbered. I turned my neck slightly and glared at her. She was going to pay for that. Fucking hell, now that I looked around, I noticed that everyone’s guns were aimed either at her or me, but hers was solely aimed at Julian.

“What can I say? I have that effect on women. They love me.”

“Why should I help you?” Julian asked.

This would cost me, but I figured I could live first and rectify my mistakes later.

“Because I can get your father extracted from over here.”

His brows rose in surprise.

“No me quieras ver la cara de pendejo,” he muttered.Don’t try to take me for a fool.

“Hide me until you get your proof, and then take me to the other side once you have it.”

He seemed to think about it, and I knew he would go for it. They had denied Mexico the right to keep his father. The US had him in a maximum-security prison. It was a power play because he didn’t rat anyone out. The US intelligence needed that one piece of concrete evidence so they could declare war on Damian. Julian Sr. refused to hand it over. In his mind, he wanted to get vengeance against Damian alone. If I got Julian Sr. transported over here, his cartel would do the rest.

“Lobo,” Julian called for his right-hand man. “Llevalos a mi casa.”

I felt relieved when he instructed Lobo to take us back to his house. When Lobo nodded, Julian turned around and began to walk to his plane without giving me a second thought. I almost sagged from how tired I was feeling from all the curveballs life was fucking throwing at me these past few months. Once the men began to clear out to their trucks, I returned to where Cam was still perched on the bike.

“Are. You. Out. Of. Your. Damn. Mind?” I seethed.

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