Page 127 of Lethal Vengeance

“Did you enjoy playing in my house?” He cackles wildly. “I couldn’t believe it. You chose my house to gut that coward, Armando. When I arrived to lick my wounds, I saw him”—he points to Cruz—"standing in the doorway. Curious, I stuck around to figure out what was going on.”

He takes out his phone and waves it around. “I have pictures of you, and those other two, staking Armando’s body in the desert. When I show them to the cartel, they won’t blame me for his death. Of course, your dead body will be in my trunk. It will be my invite back to the party.”

“You’re outnumbered,” I tell him, waving at the three of us.

“You don’t think I’d show up without leverage, do you?” he says with a snarl.

The darkness sitting beneath the surface blinks at him. “Tell me, what do you have that I could possibly want?”

“Gabriel,” he says smugly. “Armando put a tracker in him. He was always paranoid something would happen to his sobrino. I went back to the house and found the information in his study. Tracked Gabriel to their house.” He points to Zane. “He was fast asleep in his little race car bed. It was incredibly easy to pick him up and carry him out the front door.”

My blood turns to ice. “Where is he?”

“Not too far away. Will you trade yourself for him?” His beady eyes are full of glee.

Does he not think I’ll kill him when Gabriel’s safely away? What makes him think he can make the exchange without that happening?

I step forward. Cruz and Zane follow.

“You two step back,” he warns them. “Or I’ll blow up the car with the boy in it.” He holds up a small black object.

I contemplate whether the device is real or not, but it doesn’t matter. I’m not willing to chance it. “How do you want this to work?”

“You and I will walk to the car. Once you’re inside with the bomb, I’ll release Gabriel,” he says.

“Fine, let’s go,” I say impatiently, tired of fucking around with this little toad.

“Not so fast. I need to make sure you’re not carrying more weapons. Give the big guy your knife,” he orders me. Once I give it to Zane, Rodrigo motions me closer. “Turn around, arms out.”

His disgusting hands pat every inch of me down.

The only way I get through it without losing my shit is to look at Zane, who holds my gaze the entire time.

“It’s not rocket science. Are you almost done?” I ask with a chuckle.

He punches the back of my head.

Cruz steps forward, but Zane grabs him.

He grabs my elbow and pulls me along, making sure to keep me between him and Cruz.

When I get to the car, I look in the backseat and see Gabriel sleeping. The icy cold rage I thought had died with Armando flares to life. Raider’s right. There will always be a part of me that lives in darkness.

“What did you do to him?”

“Just a little injection to make sure he stayed asleep. He’ll wake in a few hours,” he says, rolling his eyes. “Get in.”

When I’m in, he jabs my arm and shuts the door.

I turn around and watch while he picks up Gabriel and carries him over to Cruz, who angrily questions him about why Gabriel’s not awake.

It makes me glad I’m not wearing an earpiece. Sterling must be losing his mind right now. My thoughts are drowsy. Raider’s face pops up by the driver’s side passenger window, but when I blink, he’s gone.

Rodrigo gets in and looks over at me. He slaps my cheek a few times. I try to slap him back, but my hand waves uselessly in front of me.

It’s the last thing I remember.

When I wake, I’m hanging by a rope, my toes barely scraping the floor below me. The tightness in my wrists tells me I haven’t been hanging long. I scan the rest of me and sigh in relief to see my dress intact.