Page 47 of Defy

I load three pistols into my waist band, all with extra magazines. Of course, I won’t make it far with them, but if I can get back to the car, I’ll be damn glad they’re in there.

“Pollito, you wanted to see me?” Diego says pretending to be out of breath from running all over the fortress today. “I swear I haven’t ever been so popular!” he says with a nervous laugh, causing me to eye him warily.

“You okay, D?”

“Yeah, yeah, Omar has me a little on edge. I didn’t like interrogating Daniella.” My eyes flash and my fists clench when he backtracks quickly. “Question her! I meant question her!”

“Her name is Libby and I swear to God, Diego, if you laid a fucking hand on her –” I let my sentence trail off, the threat clear in the damp air and my voice more ominous than the thunder rattling the walls.

“Relax, I didn’t touch her. She’s fine.”

I won’t believe it until I confirm it for myself.

“She’d better be.” It takes all my effort but I listen to him and relax my posture slightly. I’m getting more wound up with each strike of lightening, feeling like it’s reminding me that my clock is winding down. “Look, D, I need everything you can pull on Mateo Santos. I have a plan on how to get Libby out of this mess, but I need as much information as I can get.”

“No problem. Care to clue me in to this plan of yours?” he asks while I rummage through ammo cans and he’s typing away at a laptop. I didn’t realize the room that houses the monitors was connected to the armory until he opened the wall which gives me another flashback of Richard and Bea’s.

I eye Diego for a solid minute, reading everything I can in his eyes. I’ve trusted him up to this point and he hasn’t let me down yet. “I was in the room when Mateo agreed to give everything to Omar in exchange for his daughter, but Omar didn’t go through with it which leads me to believe he thinks Mateo has something up his sleeve. If I’m right and Omar feels double-crossed, then instead of making the exchange, he’ll shoot Libby giving the message that negotiations are over. In order to ensure that doesn’t happen, I’m going to give myself to Mateo as leverage. If Omar shoots Libby, Mateo can turn his pistol on me. An eye for an eye.”

I thought the idea was brilliant when it came to me because if Libby’s gone and I can’t get out of Venezuela, then I don’t want to live anyway. I was only shocked that it took me so long to think of using myself as bait.

I’ve dreamt several times of just killing my father and brother in their sleep but the guards would potentially be a problem, not to mention with my family members dead and me gone, it leaves the door open for a lot of bloodshed while people fight over the spot at the top. The hierarchy is only respected as long as there’s order.

My new plan only really ensures that Libby stays alive. It doesn’t do shit to help us get out of Venezuela or end up together. With time running out, this option is all that was left.

I level a serious look at Diego. “If this plan goes to hell, just do me a favor and try to have me buried beside either Adriana or Libby. I hear Mateo had Adriana buried on a hill overlooking the sea. I’d like that. So would Lib, actually.”

“Pollito, I’m not burying you anywhere because we’ll figure this out.”

Before I’m done collecting ammo, I hear a drawer slide open and Diego slides a file on the table in front of me, opening the cover.

My eyebrows shoot to my hairline when I see what’s inside. I stay quiet as my calloused hands flip through the pages, forgetting that Diego is standing next to me. I can’t believe what I’m reading.

“Is this all his?” I ask unable to fathom how he acquired so much under my parents’ oppressive thumb.

“Yes,” Diego answers abruptly and then grows quiet. When I turn to look at him, he drags a hand down his face and rubs his eyes which he always did when he was stressed.

As it turns out, Mateo’s been busier than I’ve been led to believe. I’d been incorrectly under the assumption that Mateo was broke. With Catalina and Adriana gone and no way to reconnect with Daniella, he seemed to have shut himself off from the world. Looking at the paper trail in front of me now, I see that he hasn’t shut anything down, he just moved to different parts of the world. The parts my parents don’t operate in. One place in particular catches my eye because I have no idea how or why he would be interested in conducting business there.

And one name pours ice in my veins.

Nikita Orlov.

What thefuckis Mateo doing with Russian contacts?

Almost every place on the planet has their gangs, cartels, mobs, mafias, etc… but one thing is widely known: No one invites the Russians to the table and expects to win. So why is the name of one of the leaders of the fucking Bratva being floated around in Mateo’s communications?

Mateo has more land, more assets, and more cash at his disposal than he didbeforemy parents cut him off. He maintains residence at the house closest to ours, but he has homes all over the world.

“Do my parents know about all this?” I ask, surveying Diego again. The file is worn. He didn’t just pull this information up.

He shuts the door to the armory, shakes his head slowly, and inhales deeply which causes his broad chest to puff out, making him even bigger than he already is. “No.”

That one word communicates more than an entire speech possibly could.

“Diego, what’s going on?”

It’s then that his words come back to me.You weren’t the only one who loved that girl.Realization slams into me harder than Diego’s fist the day I arrived.

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