Page 37 of Echoes and Oaths
Raven’s gaze softened as she studied her. "Even if Ortega has an army, Mateo and I would never let him take this from you."
Eira’s laugh was soft, almost broken. "Two people against two thousand?" She shrugged. "The odds aren’t in your favor."
A faint, amused snort escaped Raven. "No. You have that backward. The odds aren’t in their favor."
Eira shook her head, her eyes distant.
"What happened when Montoya was killed?" Raven asked quietly.
Eira puffed out a heavy sigh. "Chaos. The cartel imploded. The people tore each other apart, scrambling to claim territory and control."
"And what would happen if Ortega fell?" Raven asked, voice careful.
"Probably the same thing," Eira admitted. "A power vacuum. Blood running freely in the streets."
Raven was quiet for a long moment before speaking again. "So, if getting to Ortega would solve some problems … it would also cause many more."
Eira closed her eyes, her foot gently nudging the old rocker into motion. The sound of creaking wood filled the heavy air. “Problems are the way of life here.”
"Then, maybe," Raven said softly, "you should consider Mateo’s suggestion. Let me take you, your mother, and Teo out of here."
Eira nodded once, her gaze fixed on the empty road stretching beyond the fence line. "I’m not stupid. When the time comes, I won’t endanger us needlessly." She glanced at Raven. “But until that time, I need to understand the man Mateo is. What he showed me before was a mirage.”
“He showed you the best of himself,” Raven said, standing away from the post. “The other side is just his job. Some people are stockbrokers, and others clean up the messes that society won’t or can’t handle. Show me the chickens? They’re about my speed.”
Eira stood up and frowned. “Youactuallybelieve that?”
Raven looked at her. “That the chickens are my speed? Yeah, totally. They’re kind of cool.”
Eira shook her head, stunned at the woman. “No, that what you do is just a job.”
“With all my heart,” Raven said, skipping down the stairs. “So does Mateo.”
Eira watched Raven grab her pup and stroked the other dog’s scruff. Her joy and laughter were real. It was almost as if Raven were two different people. The dangerous one and the one in front of her now. Could it be Mateo functioned the same way?
CHAPTER 13
The drive into town was one Jinx didn’t want to make.
Violence for the sake of chaos had never been in his nature. But this wasn’t about chaos. This was necessity. To rid the world of two of the most heinous monsters walking the earth, war was coming whether he wanted it or not.
His hands flexed around the steering wheel as his mind replayed the moment he'd held Eira in his arms, her body trembling against his, her grief spilling out in angry, broken sobs. The weight of her tears had gutted him, carved him hollow with guilt and regret. He had done that. He had caused that pain. If he had stayed … if he’d walked away from Guardian, maybe he could have spared her the heartache.
But deep down, he doubted it. She would’ve had to come with him. And he wasn’t sure she could’ve been convinced to leave her family.
However, once a man stepped into the cartel world, there was no walking away. Not unless he lived in the shadows like Jinx did, slipping through cracks, existing between worlds.
Jinx had pledged his loyalty once, a lifetime ago, to Guardian. He’d never renounce that loyalty or do anything to harm the organization. Integrity was something each Guardian had in measures that didn’t exist elsewhere. Law enforcement worked damn hard to weed out the offenders, and the courts worked to keep them off the streets, but when they failed, when the world needed an entity wiped from existence, he and his teammates were called into action.
Loyalty to organized crime, cartels, factions, and crime families usually ended in bloodshed, death, and destruction. When the enforcers and factions went to war over Montoya’s crumbling empire, he knew the outcome would’ve been the same. He wouldn’t have bent the knee to Ortega’s regime. They wouldn’t havepulled him in, so they would have eliminated him and anyone he cared about. Probably slowly and loudly to ensure others fell in line. That was what you did to the strongest of your enemies in that region of the world.And that’s why you left.
Ortega … Jinx’s jaw tightened as he wound through the cracked streets, the sun beating down on the rusted rooftops and faded paint of the small Venezuelan town. Tomás Ortega was weak. A man like him didn’t rise to the top without someone propping him up. Someone with power, connections, or an agenda. How the hell had that piece of shit climbed the ladder? That was a question Jinx needed to answer before this was over.
The town hadn’t changed. The same cracked pavement, the same buildings leaning into one another like tired old men. A hardware store stood abandoned, its windows boarded and sun-bleached. Paint peeled from the stucco walls lining the narrow streets, and the scent of exhaust, dust, and humidity clung to everything like a second skin.
Jinx knew exactly where he was going.
The cantina at the end of the road sat in the same sagging structure, its faded sign swinging in the afternoon breeze. Right now, it was probably empty. That would change in a few hours, once the cartelboys shook off their hangovers, rolled out from under whatever woman had kept them warm, and came hunting for the hair of the dog that bit them.
