Page 38 of Bad Blood
“What do you mean?”
“Your father has it covered.”
Someone’s footsteps are loud behind me. “Hey, you two, how about you kiss and hug later. We are kind of in the middle of a shootout, in case you haven’t noticed.” Angel smiles, handing me a gun. “You’ll need this.”
I turn to Gabriel. “I’m not leaving. Not until it’s over.”
He nods. “Let’s finish this then.”
We press our backs to each other, shooting at each person who comes our way. Breaking apart, Gabriel runs toward the house, reloading his gun. I run behind the altar, the perfect blind spot. I take down two more men and run toward the house searching for Santiago.
Someone sneaks up behind me, holding a knife to my throat. I drop my gun to the floor and he kicks it away from us. “How about we see just how much a Jeventino can really bleed?” He presses the blade tighter against my skin.
I lift my knee, stomping my foot hard against his. He releases a yelp and I elbow him in the throat, making him drop the knife. I hit him one more time, sending him to the ground. I recognize his face from all those years ago. The guy who got away. His smile has my stomach turning. It’s the same one that mocked me as he and his friend carved me like a pumpkin.
One guy died with a bullet in his head from Gabriel’s gun and the other ran like the coward he was. My father never found him. I snatch the knife off the ground and land on my knees beside him, ripping off his shirt. My hands are covered in the man’s blood and he thrashes against the floor as I carve the word coward into his skin. “Now when they find your lifeless corpse, they will know how you died. Like the spineless pig you are.” I spit in his face and run the knife over his skin, slicing his throat.
He gasps, spitting up blood. Blood squirts from his neck and he attempts to reach for his gun, I stop him by quickly grabbing it from the floor and putting a bullet through his knuckles.
“Looks like someone is finally becoming a man. All it took was for some asshole to give him a gun. I believe this belongs to you.” Santiago lifts up the blue pistol in his right hand. “I think it’s time you come with me now, little prince.”
I cringe at him using the name Gabriel uses for me. I didn’t think I could ever hate hearing it until it comes from Santiago’s lips. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He laughs and a hard slap comes to the side of my face, knocking the wind out of me. The next heavy blow to my face sends me flying to the ground.
34
Gabriel
Ilose sight of Mateo. A tinge of panic squeezes at my heart and it’s almost as if everything’s moving in slow motion around me. It gets quieter as more bodies hit the ground. I’m not even sure who’s winning anymore. All I care about is finding Mateo. I run toward the house, passing Angel who’s in the middle of snapping a man’s neck. “Where’s Mateo?”
He shrugs, dropping the lifeless body to the ground. “I thought he was with you.” I shake my head and my gaze drops to the open back doors. Angel’s gaze shifts from me to behind him. “Go. I’ll finish taking care of things out here.”
He doesn’t have to tell me twice. I hurry through the pile of broken glass. It crunches beneath my heavy feet. My heart pounds in my chest when I spot Mateo’s gun on the floor. The one I saw my brother give him earlier. If his gun is here and he isn’t, that must mean Santiago took him somewhere. The asshole disappeared when Miguel’s men went after him. No telling where the slippery bastard took Mateo. Screaming comes from the basement.
The high pitched sounds are familiar and have me pounding down the locked door. I don’t know the password. I type in a bunch of numbers, but none of them are the right ones. The screaming grows louder and I am pounding my fists against the locked door.
I take a few steps back and jump forward, slamming my body into the door. After the second time, the door begins to budge and slip off its hinges. I walk further away this time and barge toward the heavy barrier. This time the door falls forward, breaking off a part of the white trim with it. It tumbles down the stairs. When I reach the bottom of the steps, Santiago has Mateo by the throat, with a gun pressed to his temple. “Come any further and I’ll pull the trigger.”
“Then you’ll get nothing. Wasn’t part of the deal that you marry the son of the Jeventino’s first?”
He laughs. “Yes and it’s already been taken care of, hasn’t it, Father?”
In the far corner is the priest standing quietly with eyes wide in fear. “Yes. They are both now officially wed in the eyes of God and the Catholic Church.”
Tears spill from Mateo’s eyes when Santiago’s fingers squeeze tighter around his throat. “It’s a shame,mi amor. We could have been so good together, but you had to go and ruin it and give yourself to another. You are no good to me now.”
Mateo heaves and gasps, trying to break Santiago’s grasp with his desperate fingers. The more he cuts off his air supply, the weaker Mateo becomes. “Please. Let him go. You don’t need to do this. Kill me instead.”
He cocks his head to the side. “Oh, I plan to. Maybe I’ll even feed you to the dogs out back and let your brothers watch.”
Mateo’s eyes close and his body goes limp. This is what real pain feels like. This is what it’s like to have your heart ripped from your chest. Suddenly, I can’t breathe and I’m suffocating right next to him. Santiago points his gun at me, releasing his grip on Mateo’s neck and holding his limp body up. “Do me a favor and feel for a pulse. Don’t try anything funny.”
I move forward reaching for Mateo’s wrist, not liking the clamminess and coldness of his skin. Relief floods over me when there is a pulse. It’s slow but not faint. He must be sleeping. I shake my head, lowering my brows. “There’s nothing there.”
He stares down and Mateo and back at me. “You’re lying.”
“Why would I lie about something like that?”
