Page 66 of Echoes and Oaths
Dead silence swallowed the room. Esteban stood smoothly, brushing dust from his sleeves. He turned, meeting Jinx’s eyes across the wreckage.
The smile he wore wasn’t cruel. It was welcoming.
"Now," Esteban said, voice calm and steady. "It’s just you and me. So, you aretheMateo Rivas. I havehad the most wonderful reports about you, your abilities, and your connections."
Jinx stood in the haze of gunpowder and blood, boots planted in the wreckage, body loose but coiled. He hadn't moved when Esteban pulled the trigger. One less life for him to take.
He glanced at Tomás's body lying crumpled near the desk. A crimson stain spread beneath him. His last gasp of outrage and fear was already lost to the night. Jinx hadn't lifted a hand to stop it.
Tomás was inconsequential. Weak. A loose end better severed by someone else's blade. And his end was one less obstacle between Jinx and his true target.
“My name is Esteban Ortega, his brother.”
The man turned from Tomás's body, brushing a bit of dust from his jacket lapel, and smiled at Jinx as if nothing remarkable had occurred. As if his brother’s life hadn't just been extinguished at his feet.
Jinx just stared at the man. No reaction, which Esteban seemed to love. He smiled. "I always knew you'd see the reason for my approach, Mateo," Esteban said, voice rich with satisfaction. “You had to have deduced this moron wasn’t the leader of anything but peons.”
Jinx's gaze was a mask, betraying nothing. Inside,his mind mapped Esteban’s movements, timing, and the feel of the razor-sharp blade hidden beneath his sleeve. The silence stretched between them, thick and electric.
“He was pathetic,” Jinx said in a deadpanned fashion. “It was only a matter of time before I killed him rather than listen to his whining.”
Esteban gave a wide smile and took a slow, measured step forward, hands loose at his sides. "He was weak. Emotional." Esteban shook his head, almost mournful. "He could never see the bigger picture." Esteban gestured to the burning world outside the shattered door. "This …" he said, voice growing brighter, "this is an evolution. We aretheevolved. The top of the hierarchy."
Jinx said nothing. His tension wound tighter. He held his poise as the tension strained to the breaking point. Mistaking his silence for agreement, Esteban waved a hand toward the guards lingering beyond the doorway.
"Leave us," he commanded, not looking back. Instead, he looked at Jinx and rolled his hand in a royal wave. “We are of one accord. We are the same person, the same intent.”
The guards hesitated.
“Now!” Esteban's authority cut through theirdoubt like a whip. They withdrew into the smoke, leaving the two men alone amid the wreckage.
Esteban moved closer, his steps slow, almost reverent.
"You understand, don't you?" he said, voice low. "You and me, hermano. We are not like them." He circled Jinx slowly like a predator savoring the moment before the kill. "Lesser men have wasted your talents," Esteban said. "Sent you to kill, to bleed, to bury yourself in someone else's wars. But you were made for more. I see myself in you. I see our kindred spirit. You understand death, don’t you?"
Jinx tracked him with his eyes, the gun still in Estaban’s hand, loose but ready. “Better than anyone.”
The man before him lifted a finger and moved it back and forth in a cautionary gesture. “Not better than me.” Esteban stopped before him and removed a glove with a slow, deliberate motion, letting it fall to the blood-slick floor. He placed the gun down and took off the other glove. “That is a symbolic shedding. There will be nothing between us,” Esteban said. “Complete transparency.” He stepped into a thin shaft of moonlight slashing through the broken ceiling.
Esteban smiled wider, almost indulgent. "You’vebeen turning into me without even knowing it," he said softly. "It’s only fair you finally see the man you could become." He paced the ruined room, movements fluid, unhurried. "You’ve been a tool all your life," he said. "Following orders. Killing for causes that were never yours." He stopped before the broken table, hands open in invitation. "I offer you something more. Something you've earned.Power.Impunity. Wealth and the respect of everyone." The man chuckled. “Whatever your vices, you’ll have a bountiful buffet of extravagance. The only thing I need to make it happen is your connections. Your influence with the people in Europe. Then, we take over America.”
Esteban leaned against the wreckage, casual and confident. "No more missions. No more lurking on the sidelines. No more men who see you as disposable. With me, you are an equal. A king."
He gestured toward the burning world beyond the windows. "The old order is dying. We will build the new one.” He stepped closer. "I see you, Mateo. I see what you can be." He extended his hand, bare and unguarded. “Join me."
Jinx looked down at the offered hand. He thought of the blood soaking into the marble. He thought of what Esteban had destroyed and of whathe had built on lies and corpses. Slowly, Jinx relaxed, and he took Esteban’s hand.
Esteban’s smile widened, triumphant. "Iknewyou would see sense," he said.
Jinx took a single step forward. An almost there smile on his lips. Close enough to strike.
Esteban's eyes gleamed with triumph. Insane triumph that encapsulated the feral sickness that lived within the man. Esteban squeezed his hand. "You and me," he whispered. "Unstoppable."
Jinx’s voice was low, almost gentle.
"Never."
The blade slid free from Jinx’s sleeve, a whisper of steel. He drove it into Esteban’s side with brutal precision. Esteban gasped, body folding around the blade, hands clutching at Jinx in shock.
