Page 24 of Fighting for Julia (Laguna Beach Cops #6)
SOMEWHERE IN MEXICO
GENERAL JORGE ESCOBAR’S COMPOUND
Axis and Axalia
His wounded leg throbbed, and he thought Captain Pierce might have been right about the flesh-eating bacteria.
Axis’ head drooped. Snot and blood dripped from his broken nose and lacerated face.
He wondered what was happening with his sister.
Was she being raped and tortured? If she wasn’t restrained, she’d kill anyone who touched her.
And if she didn’t, if he lived, he would break their necks with his bare hands.
He’d already eliminated an orderly at Western State Mental Hospital for molesting her.
To pass the time, Axis counted drops of blood.
One. Two. Three… After twenty he lost count.
The urge to move, to do something with his hands, burned inside him, driving him nearly mad with its persistence.
When he couldn’t take it anymore, Axis opened his mouth to scream with frustration but clamped it shut as the metal door clanked open.
A bald, clean-shaven, slender but well-built man strode toward Axis. He shivered at the sharp, angular features of the man’s face, the cruelty of his thin lips, the deadliness of his dark gaze. Not to mention the scabbard that swung low on his hips.
General Jorge Escobar.
His companion grabbed Axis’ hair and yanked his head back. Axis swallowed his pain. The General examined him. His deep brown eyes dilated with recognition. He drew a broad sword from the scabbard, the kind one might find in a medieval castle.
Okay. This is it. My death. I hope it’s a good one.
“You dare, the son of the destroyer of my son, to invade my territory?” General Escobar paused. “You resemble her .”
Pigs squealed nearby.
He’s going to slice and dice me and feed me to the pigs.
General Escobar read Axis’ mind. “Sí, you will squeal like a pig. But I will mark you first.”
With quick strokes, General Escobar sliced Axis’ already shattered cheeks. Axis screamed. Blood poured in rivulets down his ruined face.
“Your mother stole my son. My firstborn. Now you are marked forever with his initials. J.E. Julio Escobar.”
Axis burst into hysterical laughter that infuriated General Escobar. He held the sword point against Axis’ vulnerable neck.
“What’s so fuckin’ funny?”
“You—” Axis gasped, struggling to control his gales of laughter. Tears leaked from his eyes and stung the raw, open lacerations on his face. “You disfigure me before you intend to kill me? Classic.”
General Escobar shoved the sword point deeper into Axis’ neck and drew blood, but he went on with his taunts. He had nothing to lose. Besides, it was likely that Axalia was dead. A feast for the General’s swine.
“You don’t know, do you? J and E are the initials of your granddaughter , my half-sister, Julia Escobar .”
The General’s eyes widened. “What did you say?”
“You heard me. Julia Escobar . Named after her father. Your son. I have more information about her that will delight you, but I’m not saying another word until you give me proof that my sister is still alive.”
General Escobar didn’t move a muscle. “Your sister is being violated by my men. By now she’s a wreck. Torn apart inside and out. Ready for the pigs.”
Though his stomach clenched with rage, Axis merely shrugged his shoulders. “If that’s true, you’d better start digging graves. Axalia has probably killed or maimed a dozen or more who touched her. Even restrained, she’s lethal.”
General Escobar’s gaze narrowed in speculation, and he snapped his fingers. His lone soldier hurried out of the room to do the General’s bidding.
“I have ways to make you talk regardless of whether your sister is alive. And if what you say about her is true, you’ll both pay the price.”
Axis shrugged again. “We’re monsters, same as you. Look us up. Axis and Axalia Anderson. You believe we’re scared of you? This is child’s play to us.”
General Escobar guffawed with amusement.
He pulled out a cell phone and began to type something, but the other man returned with Axalia in tow.
He shoved her, and she stumbled and fell to the dirty cement floor.
Her gaze met Axis’. It revealed nothing, yet a world passed between them.
Axalia’s face was swollen and bruised. Her lips were split and a little blood stained them.
At least her clothes were intact. Maybe that meant she hadn’t been sexually assaulted.
The man whispered something in General Escobar’s ear that caused his eyebrows to raise as he shot a dark look at Axalia.
“So, you’re innocent. And my lieutenant, my own grandson, has placed you under his protection.
” General Escobar rubbed his chin. “Who are you? What are you? Explain the dark spell you cast over him. Which god do you serve?”
“I don’t serve any god or man. I serve only my own desires. And right now I desire to give you what your son died to protect. Your precious granddaughter. Julia Escobar.”
“How do I know this isn’t an elaborate lie?”
Axalia grinned. “Tell the General what he wants so desperately to know, Axis.”
“You sent your nephew, Felipe, to get the baby and kill Julio and Lola, our mother, but it was too late. Julia had been left at a fire station and adopted by—” Axis paused for dramatic effect.
Axalia intoned a death knell and pounded the cement with her palms to enhance the suspense.
“U.S.A. Secretary of State Barbara Washburn, who’s now running for Presidente .”
Axalia cackled at the stunned expression on General Escobar’s face.
“You’re lying.” The General brandished his sword and hauled Axalia to her feet by her dirty, lanky strands of hair. “Be careful what you say next, or your sister’s head will lie at your feet.”
“Am I?” Axis grinned, though it felt lopsided and strange. “That’s not the best part, however. The best part is—wait for it—Julia is our very own DEA agent. That’s right. As in Drug Enforcement Agency. Don’t you just love the irony?”
General Escobar let out a roar of pure rage.
He released Axalia and rushed toward Axis.
He backhanded him so hard that drops of blood flew everywhere.
Axis heard Axalia’s sharp intake of breath.
It drew the General’s attention. Before she could react, he punched her in the stomach, and she doubled over, gasping in pain.
Then he hit her again and threw her into a metal chair next to Axis.
Quickly removing a pair of zip ties, he bound her hands and feet.
“If you’re lying to me, I will strip you of your skin inch by excruciating inch and fillet you alive myself.” He and his soldier turned and hurried out of the room.
Axalia scooted her chair so she was facing Axis. Her eyes burned with a murderous fire in their depths. “You’re pretty messed up. Your face is split wide open.”
Axis offered his strange, lopsided grin. “General Escobar marked me with the initials J.E.”
“I’ll return the favor and carve double A’s into his face so he’ll never forget us.”
“Are we sticking to our plan?”
“We stay the course. Just like Mom and Dad taught us.”
They discussed contingencies while they waited to learn their fate.
The blood stopped running down Axis’ face as it coagulated.
Axalia giggled and remarked that he resembled a Jack-o-lantern on Halloween.
He crossed his bloodshot eyes and stuck out his tongue.
Axalia burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
The heavy door swung open, interrupting their hilarity.
General Escobar, his soldier, and his lieutenant, whose name Axalia said was Alfredo Escobar, one of the General’s many grandsons, stepped across the threshold.
Alfredo Escobar shot Axalia a look that Axis understood, and he strained against the zip ties that held him prisoner.
The General’s grandson lusted after Axalia. He did nothing to disguise his desire.
“Well?” Axalia tossed the challenge and flashed Alfredo Escobar a flirtatious smile.
Axis cocked his head. So, his sister was aware of her admirer’s feelings and intended to use them against Alfredo Escobar. They could use an ally.
General Escobar wore an unhappy expression on his tanned face that bore no wrinkles given his age, somewhere in his seventies Axis assumed, from the harsh Mexican sun. “What do you want?” he demanded.
“That’s more like it,” Axis replied with smug self-satisfaction.
“First, I need a doctor to stitch up my face. I think I have some broken ribs, too. And since I’m out of commission, you’re going to help Axalia snatch our beloved half-sister Julia and bring her here, where I’m sure you’ll enjoy breaking her. And then?—”
“Why do you hate her?” General Escobar interrupted.
“Hate her? We don’t,” Axis answered. “We feel nothing for her. She’s just a means to an end.”
“What end ?” the General frowned.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Axis didn’t want to show all his and Axalia’s cards. “Now about that doctor?”
His movements lithe as a panther’s, General Escobar pulled a K-BAR from a belt around his waist and sliced through the zip ties around Axis’ and Axalia’s hands and feet. He addressed Alfredo Escobar. “Take the young lady to suitable quarters. I’ll escort our guest to Dr. Alvarez myself.”
“Sí, General.” Alfredo offered Axalia a hand up. His lips broke into a wide smile.
Axis wanted to smash his face.