Page 66 of Velvet Deception

Then I turned, intent on doing what I’d come here for.

“I think you—Hey—Diego. Man, where you going?” Manny’s calls hit my back. I didn’t look over my shoulder to address him, and I dared him to chase me down.

He didn’t, seeming more interested in dealing with his bike.

Knowing where to go, I strode out of the garage and stuck to the shadows to reach the low building in the back.

With every step I took, it all rushed back to me. It all swarmed in like a million figments of past experiences. I’d been here before. I’d walked into that building. I’d run across that area of grass…

It didn’t link into any meaning yet, but I was firm in the belief that I’d been here before.

No one stopped me on the way. It was dark, with the afternoon turning to dusk and the rain clouds hanging low and heavy. People were inside. I heard them all beyond the walls. In the distance, guards patrolled, too far from me to stop me and ask me what I was doing.

When I reached the low building, cries, moans, screams, and wails assailed me, but I tuned them out. I had to, because if I let myself think for one second that Ramon could be in here and crying or begging for mercy, this dark urge to kill and inflict pain would take over me.

I walked up to the man in the front.

He shot to his feet, eyes open wide and brow raised high. I didn’t have the time to figure out why he seemed surprised to see me.

“Where is Ramon?” I demanded.

“Wh—” He shook his head. “What?”

I gripped the front of the young man’s shirt, picking up on his deference to me like I was someone he knew he had to listen to. “Where is Ramon?”

“I don’t know. I don’t?—”

They might not even know his fucking name. I tried again. “Where’s Sebastian?”

“Oh. He’s with the man taking someone to the back. Last opening at the end of the hall.” He swallowed hard, losing his tough-guy credo, and pointed in the direction.

I dropped him back to his feet and shoved him away. Striding in the direction of where he’d pointed, I didn’t glance at all the closed and locked doors I passed.

Seeing a large man with a huge gut lumbering along ahead, I picked up my pace. One man strolled with him, and I didn’t have to guess that they’d just put Ramon into a cell.

I walked head-on, watching the older man who had to be Sebastian lift a bottle to his lips. The younger man next to him laughed, smiling and shaking his head at whatever bullshit the drunk said.

I was yards away. Feet away.

Then I was there.

“Where is the boy?” I asked it with all the fury I could barely contain.

“Huh?” He eyed me up and down, not seeming to recognize me as quickly as everyone else seemed to. The younger guy next to him did, though. He frowned, as if he doubted his eyes.

“Where is the boy?” I repeated for the last time.

“You meanmyboy?” Sebastian replied, chortling.

I reached up to grab his bottle, smashing it on the wall. In the same motion that I used to break his drink, I spun and kicked him in the face.

“Diego—”

His buddy shut up too, falling back from a hard double hit of my fists, shoving his head from side to side until he knocked his brow on the wall.

If I hadn’t come here as the Cartel’s enemy, I would be leaving as one. I’d leave a wake of all of them lying on the ground if I had to.

Instead of leaving them in the hall, I dragged them to the nearest door. One push showed that it was empty, so I left them both in there to wake up as prisoners. I grabbed the key from Sebastian’s pudgy hand, then shut the door.

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