Page 49 of Vicious Savage

I lift my eyes to the house and watch as flames scurry from room to room, demolishing everything in their path. A window shatters on the other side of the house, and I know it’s only a matter of time before the house is engulfed in flames and it crumbles to the ground.

I say nothing as I lift my chin and direct her to the car. She gets in beside me, looking one last time at the house through the car window before she exhales a heavy sigh and we drive away. She’ll probably never come back here again. She wouldn’t want to; otherwise, she wouldn’t have burnt down the damn thing.

I understand why she did what she did; she wants to burn the bridge between her past and her future, but there remains the question of her brothers. Four missing brothers, and there’s not a single clue as to their whereabouts. Or how they’ll handle the situation when they realize their father is dead and Luna is with the man who killed him. We know nothing about them or the type of men they are. By all accounts, they doted on Luna when she was younger, but who knows how much they know and what has changed?

I turn to look at her as we put distance between ourselves and the wreck that is her childhood home. Her neck is craned as she looks out the window, watching the Mexican landscape as we travel towards our next destination.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, turning her amber eyes towards me lazily. I don’t know how she does that, but it’s like she has a sixth sense or eyes in the back of her head. My eyes flick to Gabriel and Cesar sitting in the front of the car, chatting in hushed tones; I wonder if their conversation will halt now that we’re chatting. I don’t want to have conversations with Luna in front of anyone. I don’t want to share any piece of us in front of others. Not until I know what this is. Not until I learn how to navigate what’s happening between us, because I find myself in a situation where I’m like a fish out of water.

“You okay?” I ask her.

She doesn’t say anything for the longest time as she searches my eyes. As though looking for something. As though memorizing something, or touching on a memory that’s been tucked away at the back of her mind.

Is she, like me, thinking about the time when I touched her and she somehow breached my soul? Is she thinking about the way she climbed my impenetrable walls and threw herself over into my world? Is this what it’s like to crave someone so much that you want more, more, more?

“What’s the measure of okay I should use?” she asks me. “Compared to being a thing on an auction line? Compared to not knowing where my brothers are and wondering if Coyin disposed of them like trash the same way he did my mother? Or worse, that they find out that he’s dead and I live out the rest of my life on the run from my own flesh and blood until they find and annihilate me?”

She is so calm as she speaks, she scares me. She’s not afraid; there’s not a shred of fear in her. Almost like she expects them to come looking for her, and when they do, she’ll be ready.

I swallow back the lump forming in my throat. The thought of anything happening to her stabs at something deep inside me, and I suddenly understand Cesar’s years long commitment to hunting down the man that killed his wife. How does one live with the loss of his other half? A limb? How do you get past losing the woman you love at the hands of another? In such a senseless way.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I whisper.

She shakes her head, sadness cresting her face.

“When they come for me, not even you will be able to stand in their way.”

* * *

“I wantyou to find the Castillo brothers,” I tell Cesar, as we close the gap between the car and the waiting jet. Caleph and Dante are already waiting patiently on the plane.

“You know they’re shadows at the moment.”

“I know that. But so was Coyin Castillo. Yet you found him.”

Cesar’s curiosity heightens as he looks from me to Luna as she walks ahead with Gabriel at her side. He’s had his suspicions, but hearing them confirmed by me causes a look of certainty to cross his face. There is no longer any doubt about what has to be done. And he’s on board. He has to be. He is the only person that could possibly understand the torment of a man living through what he has lived through. Cesar may have come from humble beginnings. He may have at one point been a straight arrow, but life — and death — made him what he is today. He came into our lives because he had to become a monster like us. And he is the best man — theonlyman — that can get the job done.

“Consider it done,” he says, finality coating his words. If he says he’ll do it, he’s as good as his word. I knew that having him on board would only make us stronger, and I’m glad that my judgment wasn’t misplaced. Even Caleph has started to take to him.

Even before we’re on the plane, his phone is out and he is typing away furiously. I know that he’s already made enquiries, but now there’s a sense of urgency, I’m sure he’s tapping into his contacts, who’ll be tapping into their own contacts. If anyone can find Luna’s brothers, it’s Cesar.

50

LUNA

Iwonder how much new and shocking information a person can digest before they implode. The punches just keep rolling until I fear my brain might actually give out on me.

Scarface is my brother.

Actually, his name is Gabriel. But for some reason, I still adore Scarface for him.

I look at him sitting across the aisle from me, deep in conversation with TJ. Who, by the way, is not really TJ. He has been known for the past five years or so as The Jekyll, but before that, he was an unassuming businessman named Cesar Cavalho. I told you — punches.

“You need to eat something,” Attila says, breaking into my thoughts. My eyes stray back towards him, taking in the fatigues and t-shirt he’s wearing. He’s a handsome bastard when he wants to be.

“How much longer before we land?”

“A couple of hours.”

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