Page 16 of Bad Blood
My eyes widen and I’m sitting in bed, following his rushed movements with my eyes. “How do you know we are having brunch together?”
He rolls his eyes, huffing while pulling on his clothes. “Because you have brunch together every Sunday. You are a very predictable person, Mateo.”
“If I was so predictable, I wouldn’t have let you do what you did to me.”
“Perhaps you did it to prove something.”
“Prove what, exactly?” I tug my sheets closer to my chest, suddenly feeling too exposed, even with my shirt still on.
“Prove that you’re not predictable.”
I swallow hard, not wanting to make my rising anger apparent. “I am not trying to prove anything to anyone.”
He lowers his face to mine, pressing his palms against the mattress. “Of course not,mi juguete. I’ll see you around, okay? Try to stay low. I may have taken care of things for now, but it won’t last. They will send someone else. Maybe even someone better.”
My eyes widen. “ What do you mean? The guy who tried to kill me yesterday—“
“At the bottom of the ocean. You don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
I clutch my hand to my chest, relief slipping over me. “You killed him.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes,mi juguete.If I have to, I will kill the next one too.”
“Why?”
He crawls closer, tugging my face to his until we are pressed nose to nose. “Because, you are mine. Nobody touches what’s mine.”
Shivers run down my spine. This time I don’t argue because when he says it, it sends me on a new high. Maybe I don’t know him well, but when he calls mehisthis time, nothing has ever felt more right. With Santiago, I feel like a thing he is trying to own, but with Gabriel I am something precious to him and he feels like mine just as much.
16
Gabriel
As difficult as it’s been, I keep my word and stay away. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about seeing Mateo or touching him. It becomes too much. It’s distracting and I never get distracted. My hate for him has become nonexistent and when I couldn’t stomach the idea of someone trying to kill him, I knew I let things fall down into the deep end. I am trailing deep waters, and if I’m not careful, I will be drowning my brothers along with me.
“Did you hear a single thing I said?” Carlos’s eyes grow small and he scrutinizes me with his glare.
“Yes, I heard you. I’m sure you will repeat yourself anyway. You have nothing to worry about.”
He throws his hands up in the air and his brows furrow. “Who even are you? It’s not like you to be this careless. You don’t think they will find out it was you who killed their runner? You were sloppy and messy. This wasn’t a job, this was personal, and it shows.”
It’s been over a week since I’ve made Gilbert Alverez’s main runner disappear. My brother was right, I let my emotions get the better of me, and what for? Some enjoyable lay? A job I’ve allowed to become something more? I was fighting a losing battle when it came to Mateo. It was no longer about revenge, but I wanted to remain in denial. I told myself going to see him was part of the plan, that was until there no longer was a plan.
“There are many people who could have killed that man. It could have been Santiago or Miguel Jeventino. They would be the first people they think of. Not me.”
“And why is that, Gabriel? What do either of them have to do with this? You aren’t fighting someone else’s battles are you? What do their enemies have to do with us? I thought they were our enemies. So who cares if they all kill each other? Better them than us.”
“Nothing. It has nothing to do with them, but they have more of a motive than anyone else. You know what’s been going on lately. Miguel thinks it was Gilbert who sabotaged his precious drugs.”
“Was it? Or was it someone else?”
Only Angel knew what I did, that it was me who started this new war. Carlos would lose his shit if he knew. Carlos never wanted anything to do with the drugs Angel produced or sold. He said it was drugs that killed our father. I never did understand how he thought what he did was safer. We killed people for a living. Not just any people, but important people. Gilbert had been after Miguel’s territory for years, so it was easy to point everything back to him. I made sure Teo left behind a trail that would get traced back to one of Gilbert’s men.
Carlos’s voice grows loud. “Did you have something to do with those drugs being tampered with? Please tell me you didn’t.”
I shake my head. “No. I told you, it was pointed back to Gilbert’s men.”
“Was it because they actually did it or because someone made it look that way?”
