Page 47 of Lords of Ruin: Savage

His body trembles. “Jefe… por favor…”

I press the blade harder, just enough to break the skin. A thin line of blood wells up, trailing down his cheek. “Give me a name, Santiago. Or I swear to God, I’ll start carving pieces off you until there’s nothing left.”

He swallows, his throat working against my grip. Then, finally, his voice cracks. “There—there are rumors.”

I go still. “Rumors?”

He nods quickly, desperate, licking his cracked lips. “That’s all I know, I swear. There’s talk… whispers about a girl.” His breathing turns shallow. “No name. No details. Just that someone—a woman—knows things she shouldn’t.”

A girl?

A cold sensation slides down my spine. Every man I’ve interrogated, every lead I’ve followed, and this is the first time I’m hearing this.

I tilt my head, watching him. “And where did these whispers come from?”

He flinches. “It’s been going around… no one knows where it started.”

I study him. The terror in his eyes is real. He believes what he’s saying.

I nod once to Matteo, and before Santiago can even process what’s happening, Matteo fires a bullet straight through his skull. The sound is sharp, final, and his body slumps forward, lifeless.

Silence fills the warehouse.

A girl.

I exhale slowly, wiping the blood from my hands. If this is true, if a woman has been feeding information to the wrong people, I’ll find her. And when I do, she’ll wish she never opened her fucking mouth.

I turn to Matteo. “Put the word out. Ten million for the traitor. Dead or alive.”

I glance at the bloodied bodies scattered across the room, at the fear still lingering in the air.

“The hunt begins now.”

The metallic smell of blood and fear stick to me like a stink that I love to be in normally. I would be more than excited, overwhelmed with the feeling and need to fuck and show more people how to depraved I can be. I would go to Vincent and tell him that I am on a high and he would bring me down. This time the thing that brings me back to earth is the lost look on Willow's face as I pass her bedroom in my apartment.

She’s staring at nothing. Her hands are folded on her lap and part of me wants to go inside and pull her into my madness. Let her know that it’s safe in all my crazy, but I don’t because she’s been covered in enough blood today. As I walk further down the hall, I bump into Damien exiting the shower. A towel is wrapped around his waist and he looks exhausted.

“Where have you been?” he questions because he’s the only one besides Vincent, who could ask me where I have been and I feel obliged to answer. Even Willow would get an asshole response from me because some of the places I have been and will be cannot handle all the light that she is.

“I have been having fun with our guards and enforcers.” The smile that digs into my cheeks is comically large, and I wiggle my eyebrows at Damien, who only gives me a scowl in response.

“You think now is the right time to have fun? I thought you were just gonna talk to them.”

I lean against the far wall, stuffing my bloody hands into my pockets. “I did talk and they all looked at me as if I’m not a monster to be feared, so I gave them a reason to be scared.”

I am the youngest Cartel leader to ever run the Castillo family; therefore, to my delight, and the terror of many, I must be the most ruthless or people will come for my head. Worse than they are now.

“One day your people will riot.”

“One day my people will not betray me the way they have now.” I growl.

The frustration of the disappearance of Ricardo still burrows in my chest, and the death of my father is still a mystery to me that eats me alive. I know there are bigger monsters to fear, and I know my crusade to be the biggest could be the death of me, but there is no other choice. There is no such thing as kindness in my world. There is no such thing as benevolence. There is only pain and death and fear and when you sign your life over to the Castillo’s, you know what you’re signing up for.

“Did you get any news worth all your death?” Damien sighs.

I flash him my Cheshire smile. “Of course I did. There is a girl that is hanging around and getting information from my men.”

“A girl?” He rolls his eyes. “Your men have thousands of women around them every day. How do we know one girl who is trying to bring you down?”

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