Page 110 of Unspoken Promises

My body flush with the barn door, I shout through, “I’m here! Let her go.”

His evil laugh soaks through the wood. “Por favor, entra…”

The SWAT team member gives me a signal of two fingers, then points inside. Only two suspects inside.

I push open the door. Ava now stands with her head drawn brutally back by Sánchez’s pull. She’s so vulnerable, neck on display, in the clutches of this demon. But her words show me she hasn’t lost that bright courage.

“Enzo! Go!”

He tugs her hair her viciously to stop her talking and directs the other man. “Restrain her, Anton. I need to focus on our guest.”

So this is Anton.

Anton wraps her long red strands around his hand like a leash and holds her loosely, but he looks like the kind ofman who could easily turn her hair from a leash to a noose. The way she described him, I expected him to be something like my dad. Luis might have been a strong, solid man in his youth, but he’s never been approaching seven feet with muscles popping out of his shirt collar. It kills me to see Ava in his grasp again. He held her for enough years.

“This ends now, Sánchez. There’s no reason to hold on to the girl now you have me.”

“I’m disappointed. You’ve come so far since that shop in Ensenada, but your negotiation skills aren’t any better than your pleading cousin’s. The problem is you have no leverage.” At that, he whips out a pistol and aims it at Ava’s head.

Instantly, I withdraw my own weapon and point it at Sánchez. I have to trust SWAT has this covered. Still, with Anton restraining Ava and a gun at her temple, this now feels an impossible out. There’s no way SWAT has a clean shot.

Sánchez tuts. “It’s not playtime,Batman.It’s story time.”

Ava pleads, “Enzo, back out now… just let him have me. You can’t take him down if you’re dead. Leave!”

Her pleas are so selfless, they batter my heart with a jarring pain. It’s not easy to stay steady.

“What the fuck do you want with me?” I growl. “You want to take down GhostEye?”

“Oh no, Enzo. This isn’t official business.Thisis personal.”

The sinister smile on his lips morphs into features burning with a searing hatred. He gestures with the gun, telling Anton to go downstairs.

As they descend, I back into the corner, allowing SWAT open space and a better shot if they can get one. I can’t be in the way of the snipers so I press myself all the way to theback wall, the barrel of my pistol following Sánchez’s every move.

But when I see where they’re headed, I’m not sure which man to cover, because now, they stand near the stump, and that ax looks as lethal as the gun at Ava’s temple.

He raises his three-fingered hand and shakes it with fury. He’s struggling not to lose control as he speaks. “The first finger I lost to your stray bullet in Ensenada.” He points to the empty space where another finger should be. “The second was taken from me to make an example out of a gangster who leaves a live witness.”

His face contorts with anger, his jaw clenches, and his teeth grind. “Anton.”

As if they discussed this torture before I entered, Anton still holds Ava’s hair, and somehow, in a deft martial arts like move, secures on of her hands behind her back and the other is pressed to the chopping block.

My heart races, my lungs are heavy, and it’s all I can do to stop the extreme adrenaline coursing through my veins not to lose aim. Sánchez still has his gun to Ava’s head.

“That was just the beginning of the torture they inflicted on me. I knew it. When the stubs didn’t heal and infection set in, it looked like I might lose my whole hand, if not my life. The boss refused me proper care. My sweet grandma begged me to desert the cartel, to save myself. It was a conundrum Do I flee and get the proper care but become a liability to the boss? Or stay and die anyway? In the end, I listened to my poor grandma’s pleas.”

Tears stream down Ava’s face. She must be flooded with fear, but still her words are brave.

“Enzo. I don’t care what he does. Just leave. If you stay, this monster has the power.”

Sánchez presses the gun hard to her head. “Shut up,bitch! It’s not your turn. Touching as this love scene is, it can wait till we return home.” Sánchez turns a filthy smile on me. “I bet lover boy taught my little virgin some nice ways to please Daddy.”

I grip my gun so hard it shakes. “Ava… he won’t take you anywhere.”

Sánchez dislodges the ax, and with both weapons in hand, he’s more unhinged than ever. “My family gave me all their life savings to flee the cartel, to stuff myself into a people smuggler’s dead cow, just to stay alive over the border where I used the rest of my entire family’s life savings to pay for medical care in a back alley with a butcher. But he did give me antibiotics and saved my life. But when the cartel couldn’t find me… they took my family instead.”

He grips the ax and wags it at me.

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