Page 161 of The Slayer
The front door burst open before Chuito could even take stock of the situation. For a moment, he thought Tino had died in the gunfire, but then Tino stepped forward, his gun leveled at the Russian and Angel.
“I guess you should’ve listened to your informant,” Tino growled. “Who’s weak now, motherfucker? Do I look like I’m standing with power? ’Cause I feel like I’m standing as a man with power.”
“Don’t kill them,” Nova called from behind them, his voice low and even as if he’d had this talk many times before. “We need ’em. They’re the only ones left.”
Against his better judgment, Chuito glanced behind him, seeing the sea of dead bodies.
Chuito killed one.
Tino killed five.
Then Tino shot the Russian in the kneecap in response to Nova’s warning, as if he couldn’t help himself, and Chuito realized Tino had aim that was crazy accurate. Like unflinching, military-sniper accurate. Not quite fast enough to take out nine Russians, but confident enough to knock out five in less than ten seconds.
“Valentino!” Nova shouted over the sound of the Russian’s screaming. “Stop!”
Chuito jumped up before he could acknowledge that his original assumption about Tino had been correct. He was genuinely one of the scariest motherfuckers out of New York.
But Chuito still hated him.
He ran to the stairs, shoving Angel so hard he fell. “Save him for me.”
“Chu!” Someone shouted from behind him, but he wasn’t listening as he flew up the stairs. “Junior—”
He didn’t hear the rest. He got to the bedroom and jerked open the door because it was so fucking quiet in there. His heart was thundering, and a part of him knew he was going to find Alaine’s raped, dead body.
He had to blink at what he found instead.
One dead Russian in the doorway that he had to step over, and Alaine sitting on the bed, wearing a hoodie that she had zipped up to the neck.
“Chu!” She jumped off the bed and into his arms before he could really process the rest of the scene. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he instinctively pulled her close, feeling that she was naked beneath that hoodie.
“I’m going kill you,” Chuito announced in Spanish as he looked at that Junior motherfucker in the corner, who was holding a gun on a bleeding Russian. “And I’m going to enjoy it.”
“That’s Chu Jr.,” Marcos said behind him, also speaking Spanish. “He’s one of my kids. He told me where you were. He’s the reason we’re here. You have to put your gun down.”
“He didn’t rape me,” Alaine said quickly, her entire body shaking when she also noticed that Chuito had his gun leveled at Junior’s back. “He was helping us. Then the Russians came in, and—” She pointed to Junior. “He killed that one over there, and I sort of missed, but—”
“Why are you naked?” Chuito growled at her as he kept his gun leveled at Junior’s back. “Why ishenaked if nothing happened?”
“Chu—” Marcos started behind him.
“Why is he naked?” Chuito repeated, and he sure as shit didn’t lower his gun.
Junior tilted his head, looking at Chuito over his shoulder, and said in Spanish, “We got undressed to make it look like I was raping her. I didn’t want one of them to get her, but then—”
“I think I want you to die anyway,” Chuito cut him off.
“Chu,” Alaine said in a quivering voice, even though she couldn’t understand what they were saying. “He’s a baby. Lower your gun. You can’t kill him. He saved me and—”
“Did you like making her strip for you?” Chuito asked Junior. “Did you like seeing her? She didn’t need to be naked, cabrón.”
“I think she did,” Junior argued. “If we’d had clothes on, we’d both be dead right now. I needed the extra five seconds to get a good shot in. It gave me the upper hand. There were two of these motherfuckers. I wasn’t expecting that, and Istillgot it done. You need to step back and recognize.”
“Chu, he has been texting me,” Marcos cut in as if he sensed Junior’s challenge would just make Chuito angrier. “He protected her. He killed someone for her.” His voice was shaking as if he knew Chuito would shoot first and say sorry later. “Put your gun down. Leave my kid alone. He saved her, and you’re irrational right now if you can’t even see that.”
Chuito let out a manic laugh and turned back to his cousin. “Your kidmade my woman take off her clothes and scream at the top of her lungs. I heard her begging, and they videotaped me crying about it. I want him to die. I think I need to see it.”
Marcos put a hand to his mouth, as if he alone understood what it meant for Chuito to break like that. Finally, he whispered, “It’s still not Junior’s fault. He didn’t rape her. He saved her. Do you understand that he could’ve actually raped her and not texted me? He chose saving her over siding with Angel. He risked himself for that. He risked his family. He has a fuckload of sisters, and there is no other man in his family to protect them. He didn’t know if we were going to get here in time when he shot those Russians. That’s a lot to risk for one gringa he doesn’t even know. You wanna kill someone, kill Angel. Kill this Russian motherfucker. Kill the one downstairs before your Italian bro does it for you.”
