Page 37 of Vicious Savage

ATTILA

The sight of her blood as it drips down her leg does something strange to me. It makes me angry. But it also gives me pleasure. It’s then that I realize I want her pain. I want it all. But I want it on my terms. By my hands. Not the hands of her useless, would be cartel leader father who is sapping all the air in the room. I’ve wasted too much energy on him and I’ve just about had it with him when Dante steps out of the shadows and puts a gun to the back of his head.

Like the coward he is, Castillo drops the knife. Even knowing nothing is going to save him from the corner he’s backed himself into. This is the moment he faces his retribution. This is where he pays with his life to avenge Caleph’s parents. Cesar’s wife. Luna’s mother And countless other innocents along the way. The man is the very definition of a monster.

“You’d shoot a man in the back?” Castillo jeers at us. Deflecting from his own cowardly ways.

“No,” I tell him. “I would never. Neither would any of my men.”

“Then what?”

He spreads his arms out as though to say, “come and get me.” If nothing, he’s a somewhat smart man, buying time with conversation, banking on his men finally coming to his rescue. But what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. His sons may not be in attendance today, but his younger brother — his right hand man — is. And he was the trigger man in Sisely Cavalho’s murder. I’ve promised Cesar free rein over him; I would never deprive him of that satisfaction.

“Let go of the girl and step away from her,” I tell him.

“I just want to know if theputa’scunt is lined with gold,” Castillo spits, his eyes sliding to Luna. He doesn’t let her go and he looks like he could lunge and wrap his hands around her neck at any moment. “What did she do to make you come all this way tosave her,” he roars. His resentment toward her is unfounded at best. He’s the fool who couldn’t be a father to her.

I ignore him and wonder at his stupidity. He has a gun to the back of his head and yet he still demands answers to questions that he knows will remain unanswered. I look at the short, pudgy man and my mind goes haywire. I’ve wasted too much time on him already and I don’t know why I continue to entertain him.

Luna is still looking at me, and she’s heroic in her efforts, but she’s fading quickly. At the end of the day, he’s still her father — in her eyes, anyway. She doesn’t know what we know. He’s still the man that raised her; the man she grew up with. I realize my hesitance to end him is because I have no idea how this will affect her. He’s still her father; she must feelsomethingfor him, despite what he’s done to her.

“Get. Away. From. The. Girl,” I hiss, but he just gives a jerk of his head and steps closer to her, his grip on her arm biting into her skin. A blaze of fury coats my eyes until I can no longer see in front of me.

My body moves of its own accord. I reach into the back of my pants and pull out a gun as I take the last few steps toward him. I lift the gun and hold it to his temple, point blank range. Castillo has a gun at either side of his head, but he won’t wipe that smirk off his face. He won’t drop the knife and he won’t let Luna go. There is no more repentance for this animal.

Dante steps away, tucks his gun into his holster and stands off to the side, his hands clasped below his belt. Waiting patiently. I have to finish this. Iwillfinish this.

“You wouldn’t…”

I pull the trigger.

* * *

This iswhat I came here for. Coyin Castillo lays in a heap on the stage, his final resting place. Cesar has dragged the body of his brother and right hand man and slumped it at his right side. I notice that the man is missing both hands. Hedidsay that once he caught up with him, he’d cut off the hands of his wife’s killer. Other men from the Castillo cartel — those that didn’t flee once they saw their leader go down — also share the stage with their one time leader.

Dante finishes sending through pictures to Caleph. This was the one outstanding matter he still had to attend to; one that’s been years in the making, and now that chapter is finally closed. He can finally move on and have a life with Ariadne that won’t be tainted with the unavenged blood of his parents.

“You might want to check on the girl,” Dante says, coming to stand beside me. I cast my eyes across the room to where Luna sits with a blanket coiled around her. It’s stinking hot, but the shock has left her shivering. She sits looking at nothing in particular as a waiter sets down a cup of hot tea on the table beside her.

“She’s better off without him,” I mutter, justifying if only to myself what happened here today.

“Still. He was her father. She has his blood all over her.”

Maria, God bless her heart, is the sort of woman I would want on my payroll. She’s done all the leg work for us, and then some. Right down to having a doctor on standby should things go south. He’s done a good job of stitching Luna up and cleaning as much of the blood off her as possible, although some things can never be erased, even with water.

I walk towards her, lift the teacup and hold it to her lips.

“Drink,” I command her.

She lifts her eyes to mine, then parts her lips and takes a sip, before shaking her head for me to lower the cup.

“You okay?”

“You have blood on you,” she gasps, frowning.

“Does it bother you?”

“That it’s my father’s blood?”

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