Page 47 of Rage & Paradise
Sina’s gone and so is my woman.
TWENTY-ONE
Estrella
It’s over.
I don’t hear any more gunfire. No more screaming.
It’s over for everyone but me.
If there’s one thing my father taught me that’s stuck with me, it’s how to anticipate the next move.
It was clear that the Canos weren’t going to win just minutes after all the chaos started. If it was clear to me, then it must have been clear to Sina. She knew she wasn’t going to win this battle, and that means she would have tried to find a way to get away.
I may not have been strong enough to save her all those years ago, but there’s no way I’m going to let her get away and let the terror that my father started continue with all the girls that she has somewhere.
I have to end this now.
I stand in the shadows at the back of the clubhouse. None of the Canos have come this way, or if they have, they’ve managed to find their way into the building.
For the briefest second, I worry that Digger might not make it. I saw the way his body fell and hit the ground when he got shot. I’m going to make this right. Somehow, I’ll make this right.
I crouch further into the darkness, holding my breath. I watch as someone slides out the back window and falls to the ground.
Sina.
She looks over her shoulder, making sure that no one is following her. She has a gun in her hand. I don’t know where she got it from. I didn’t see it before.
The stakes just went up, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to back down. Even if it costs me my life, I’m going to stop Sina.
I wait for her to take a few steps closer in my direction before I step out. “It doesn’t matter how far you run, you’re never going to get away from it.”
She twirls, her eyes wide in surprise.
When she realizes it’s me, her lips pull into a snarl. “You bitch.” She raises the gun but doesn’t pull the trigger. That one bit of hesitation is all I need to know. She’s playing a part. She thinks she has to be hard, to be this evil leader, in order to be respected. She’s not going to sell me this dream.
“You fucking bitch, you just don’t learn, do you?” she hisses at me.
“I do learn. I learned a lot from my father. I learned exactly the kind of person I don’t want to be. That kind of evil has no place in this world.” I take a step closer to her. She’s not going to shoot. She’s not as hard as she thinks she is.
“Stay the hell away from me. I’ve got every reason to put your ass in the ground right now.”
“You do. Absolutely. I should’ve done more to help you. Should’ve done more to help all the kids my father brought into that hellhole. I didn’t, and I can’t change that now.” I take another step in her direction.
“So what, you expect me to believe you’re Mother Teresa now? You’ve changed?”
“No, I can’t say that I’m changed. I can say that I’m free. I don’t have to play the part my father set out for me. Neither do you. All you have to do is put the gun down, tell us where the other kids are, stop this madness you’re bringing to the island, and it’ll all be over.”
I don’t know if I can offer immunity to her after what she’s done to the club, but I’m praying.
Sina blinks a few times, and I think I’m getting to her, but then she starts laughing, and I know that I’m not.
“You think I’m playing a part? Think I’m only picking up where your father left off because I don’t know any other way? No, I’m doing this because it’s the best way. People fear me. They listen to me. They see me. I’m the puppeteer now. I’m in charge of what happens and who it happens to. I’m doing this because I’m the best choice to do it. I’m going to make your father’s empire bigger than he could’ve ever imagined.”
My eyes narrow on her. “I can’t let you do that.”
“That’s a shame. I really wanted you to see how perfectly I planned this all out. I guess you’re just going to have to see it from the afterlife. Vaya con Dios,” she says in a sing-song voice before bringing the gun back level with me.
