Be careful what you wish for (closed)

[Curious_Muse]

Valentina threw her phone on the large bed and turned towards Leon, using her most seductive smile on her bodyguard. Luckily her dad, interrupted by some business associate, had cut the call short. She knew that he had been furious, and that it would require a lot to convince him of the brilliance of her and Chewy’s plan, but that could wait.

“Finally alone,” she said softly and as if nothing had happened, pulling him close by his belt. “I’ve missed you.”

She was angry that Inez had mentioned the assault in front of Leon, and in a manner that would force his hand somewhat. That made it even more important to distract him, make him forget why he had been so pissed moments earlier. Valentina was used to getting what she wanted, especially from staff, and what she now wanted was to get off, and she simply ignored his earlier request to come up with excuses for this botched evening. Why would she owe the driver any explanation? She’d fuck him instead – what more could he ask for? The risk of Lucia and the others being so close by only added to the thrill. She looked him right into the eyes while stepping out of her silk panties but leaving on her summer dress.

“Didn’t you miss me?”

***

“What a shitshow,” Inez steamed, once she and Chewy were alone in one of the guest rooms. “Who the fuck does he think he is? And who the fuck does she think she is?” She turned on Chewy, her eyes blazing. “And what’s your problem?” She shoved him against his stomach, putting as much strength into it as she could. “Did you have to humiliate me like that in front of everyone, pendejo? Did you think that the scene Leon made wasn’t mortifying enough? Or that Valentina didn’t screw me over enough?” She folded her arms and said in a voice that mocked Valentina’s: “’You should apologize to Leon.’ What a bitch! Fuck! Did you really have to carry me out of there to make me look even more like the jerk everybody seems to think I am? Seriously, what the fuck?”

She shoved him again, full of rage that didn’t seem to find an appropriate outlet. “I’m tired of everyone treating me like a little girl! Why is it too much to ask to be taken seriously?” Inez walked over to the floor-length window that oversaw a dimly lit terrace and beyond that, nothing but the black sky and the rocky desert. Her small body was shaking with rage. “What do I have to do to prove that I deserve some respect?”

***

Bethan came with a silent shudder, and her head fell back against Lucia’s shoulder who was sitting behind her in the pool, tenderly cradling the pretty redhead in her arms, one hand still below the surface of the water and the other idly caressing Bethan’s naked breasts. Coked up and resigned as the English girl now was, it had not been difficult to convince her to loosen up and enjoy the night, and to try and forget the camera.

“Did we look good?” Lucia now asked, smiling at Olivia, who nodded silently and put the Nikon aside.

Olivia had been relieved to find out that Lucia’s favorite room in the house was not some gruesome torture chamber, but in fact a tastefully decorated master suite that had its own private large terrace with a pool, and a breathtaking view over the mountains in the distance that were now little more than a shadowy silhouette against the night sky.

“Why don’t you join us?” Olivia sensed that this wasn’t a question, but an invitation she was not allowed to turn down. She warily pulled her dress over her head, aware of Lucia’s appreciative smile when she revealed her slender body.

When Olivia stepped into the pool Lucia pulled her close, cradling now both her and Bethan with one arm. Oliva noticed the tattoo on Lucia’s inner wrist: four identical crosses. “A reminder of why I owe unwavering loyalty to Mr. Lopez Castillo,” Lucia said, following Olivia’s gaze. “Of the best gift anyone could grant a wronged woman,” she added. “Revenge.”

Lucia was not about to share the memories of that horrific night with two gringa teenagers, and the ringtone of her phone prevented her mind from wandering. “Yes? Miguel. Yes. What is it?” Olivia strained to hear what was being said, but it was impossible to make out any words that were spoken on the other end of the line. All she understood was that whoever it was that was talking to Lucia, he seemed to be very angry.

When Lucia closed the phone, she looked almost apologetic. “You two have put us in quite a bind here. Mr. Lopez is very unhappy.” Her gaze turned to Bethan. “He doesn’t think that a few pictures will deter your mother from seizing the chance to interfere with our business.” Bethan sat up straight in alarm. “I’m sorry, kiddo.” Olivia and the English girl stared at each other, suddenly terrified. Lucia turned towards Olivia, looking bemused. “And you – it seems that Torres has been a bit naughty.” The dark-haired woman pulled Olivia closer, one hand possessively cupping a naked breast. “I can see why he wanted to keep you to play with, certainly,” she said. “But he was supposed to get rid of the treacherous accountant and his family, and not squirrel away the leftovers.”

Her arm still firmly around Olivia, she pointed towards a small wooden box by the edge of the pool. “Can you get that for us, dear?” Bethan, trembling now, complied. Inside the box were two syringes.

“What’s that?” Olivia asked in a terrified whisper.

“The very best on the market,” Lucia volunteered. Then she looked at Bethan. “We have two problems on our hands, and Mr. Lopez had an idea of how to rid ourselves of both of them at the same time. Killing the welp of a cop is risky, you see. However, what if we make her an accomplice instead?” Olivia struggled in her grip, but Lucia was much stronger than one would have guessed. She had wrapped one arm firmly around her midriff, pinning her left arm to her body, she grabbed Olivia’s right arm and held it out above the water, wrist up. The girl winced in pain but was unable to pull away. “You need to hit a vein,” she told Bethan casually. “We don’t want her to suffer now, do we?”

As the reality of the situation started to sink in, Olivia thrashed in Lucia’s grip. “No, please no,” she pleaded. Bethan peeled a syringe from its case, her hand violently shaking.

“An overdose is not the worst way to go, darling,” Lucia whispered into her ear. “And who will blame you for such a desperate act? Your mother is a sad whore, your father a money launderer who skimmed off the accounts of a dangerous drug cartel.” Olivia was frozen in her grip, fear and confusion making it impossible to even try to struggle. “And your lover a sadistic killer for hire…” “Diego…?” Olivia stammered. Lucia laughed softly. “Yes, Diego. One of the best. Sometimes he scares even me.”

What the hell was this woman talking about? Bethan still hesitated, awkwardly holding the syringe above the water. Lucia kissed Olivia’s neck. “Stop struggling, it’ll all be over soon. And if you’re good, I’ll let you cum while the heroin works its magic. I’ve been told that a climax on a heroin high is better than anything you’ve ever experienced.”

“Bethan, no,” Olivia cried, unable to move away in Lucia’s grip. “Don’t do that, please!” The redhaired girl cried softly. “I am sorry…,” she whispered. Olivia’s plea rose to a shout: “NO, please, no!”

***

Amanda was barely coherent at this point. Hector had been fucking her for what felt like an eternity, and she did not think that she would be able to take it much longer. He had fucked her up against the wall, slamming into her until she came for the first time, screaming and bucking in his grip. He had not stopped, not even paused for a second, but lowered her onto the floor and bent her limbs to his will, battering her abused little pussy mercilessly, and Amanda, fired up on drugs, booze and adrenaline, had gone crazy beneath him, urging him on, her head thrashing from side to side, begging him to fuck her harder, assuring him how much she loved his big cock, how she had never had anyone so good, like a good little whore should.

If he liked fucking her, he surely wouldn’t kill her. If she was his obedient little slut, he would protect her against the others. Through the haze of her fear and the violent pleasure she felt, all she could think of was of how to save herself, though his massive cock made any clear thought near impossible.

After he’d pounded her to another powerful orgasm, he’d flipped her around to fuck her doggy-style, going really deep and controlling every thrust with his hands painfully digging into her hips. Amanda moaned enthusiastically and came on his cock again, prompting him to pound into her even more forcefully. His fingers were wrapped around her upper arms for leverage now, and he pulled her slender body into him, making her cry out with each brutal thrust. Utterly exhausted, her whole body shaking, she would have collapsed if he’d let her. “Ye…yes…oh g..g..god, yes, please,” she panted, barely able to form words. “Pl…please gi…gi..give me your cum, give it to me, give it all to me!”

***

It hurt. Blaire opened her eyes and groaned. Every muscle in her body seemed to be on fire. She was extremely thirsty, and her stomach felt as if she had been punched. She blinked and tried to understand where she was. It felt like she was lying on a bare mattress. The walls around her were windowless. It was very quiet. Her brain desperately tried to piece together the shreds of her memory. Blaire pulled herself up on her elbow, and almost threw up. “What is wrong with me…?,” she muttered, unable to make sense of her present state. Was this some shit Olga had pulled on her? A joke? “This really isn’t funny at all,” she whispered hoarsely in her usual sneer.

Blaire noticed that she was still wearing the bathing suit she had worn at Emily’s party, but her skin had broken out in goosebumps. She was cold. Where the hell was she? As she looked around, the shape of a person came into focus, and Blaire frowned, trying to recognize who it was. “Where the fuck am I?” she inquired in an annoyed tone. “And who the fuck are you?”

***

Did she accidentally overdose, was she maybe already dead? Because surely, this would be someone’s idea of hell. Olga had lost all sense of time, and even the various forms of intense pain she felt all seemed to bleed into each other. Her stomach was still heaving, even if there was nothing left to sputter up. The guy behind her was pounding her ass with such ferocity that her teeth rattled with each violent thrust. It hurt like hell, and she screamed each time his massive cock bottomed out in her tight asshole that, until now, had never had to accommodate anything even nearly as big as his rock-hard meat. By now she would have given much to be allowed a little more of that powder they had fed her earlier.

“Please…oh my god, please stop,” she sobbed, mucus, tears, and her ruined make-up running down her face. “Why are you doing this to me? Please stop…!” His words had chilled her to the bone, and even if Olga had the vague sense that the Mexican bitch from the party had something to do with her present predicament, she was unable to grasp how things could have gone south so very quickly. Did these people not know who her parents were? Surely it wasn’t that easy to simply disappear someone like her? But none of that mattered, not now. Olga tried to turn her head back to face him but found that it was impossible to move out of his grip.

“It hurts…please…it hurts so much,” she cried, knowing full well that the pain was the point. “If you let me go, I’ll pay you…I’ll pay you a lot of money, I promise!” Another thrust slammed her so violently into the wall that she briefly felt like she would faint. Winded, panicking, she tried again to convince her assailant to stop. “You’ll be rich…just please let me go….”

***

“Well, Mrs. A, I think I’ll better go and follow him to make sure Olivia is alright,” Emily said finally after Diego had left them in the car. She searched for something reassuring to add but fell short.

She had stuffed the collar into the back pocket of her jeans for the time being. As tempting as it was to be Diego’s willing little fuck toy, she didn’t want to be rash. First she needed to find out where on earth he had brought them, and what the deal was with Olivia. And, she admitted, what else this intriguing party pad might have on offer. After all, if Diego was this taken with her best friend, she wondered how much time and enthusiasm would even be left for her, and, despite the stellar fuck he had given her in the pool house, Emily was unwilling to settle for only scraps. She stepped out of the car and stretched, before grabbing the two backpacks from the back bench. “I guess I see you inside.”

Kate, now alone in the car, turned the horrible mask around in her hands. Looking out the window, she watched as first Diego and then Emily entered the compound. What was this place?

She was taken aback by the fierceness with which Diego had defended what he called his love for Olivia. It seemed laughable that either of them would have gotten to know each other well enough for such deep feelings during one party, but what if she was falling prey to her own bitter cynicism? Maybe years of an unhappy marriage had made her blind to what was possible? And she knew very well what a shock of intense emotions a teenage girl was capable of. But Diego? A hitman, a killer, a rapist, and for all she knew, a sadistic asshole – how on earth had he fallen this hard and this quickly for her daughter? Too many anxious questions, she decided. What was important now was to get Olivia and get the hell out of there. Get her away from Diego.

Kate sighed. Diego! The arrogance of that man! Did he really think she was that addicted to his cock already? She traced the hole for the mouth on the mask absent-mindedly, wondering for a second what it would be like to be faceless, nothing but an anonymous whore, a choice of holes for anyone to fuck. It was a thought that filled her with a complicated mix of horror, excitement, and disgust. But had she not, from time to time, secretly fantasized about something like that? Being an uninhibited cum slut for men to use and discard? Kate shuddered. What had she turned into?

***

“This feels so good,” Hanna purred, and it did. Whatever hesitation and shyness had been left by the time she was alone with Double A had been taken care of more of that fine coke and the scotch. The dimmed light and the low music added to her relaxation. She smiled at him. “I would say this party is a success,” she whispered. Leaning forward, she dragged her teeth softly along his earlobe and kissed him down the side of his neck. Now completely naked, she moved slowly, deliberately in his lap, eager to draw out the sensation of riding his cock. A low, guttural moan escaped her lips each time she ground herself against him. “You feel so good.”

Hanna arched her back, dragging her tight little pussy up along his cock, before plunging back down again, grinding her hips against his. She was too distracted to even notice that someone had entered the room behind them, all she was able to concentrate on was the blissful sensation of her fast-approaching climax. Her movements accelerated as she pushed her perky little tits up against him. “I’m going to cum,” she panted, oblivious to anything but to the man in front of her. “And I want you to cum with me!”

 

[UnHolyPimpHand]

Crossroads

“Yes,” Double-A sighed as Hanna’s tight, little pussy gripped his shaft on her way back down into his lap, “yes, yes!”

It was even better than he’d imagined the first time he saw her, Hanna’s pussy gripped him like a fist and as his hands moved up her tanned thighs to her pointed hips, she arched her back and ground that impossibly tight, warm, little clencher back and forth around the base of his cock. He probably wouldn’t have been able to stop himself if she told him not to cum—but instead she wanted it. She was cumming and wanted his inside her. If he knocked her up, he wondered if he could convince her to keep it.

Double-A’s thick, veiny cock jerked and spasmed against the ferocious grip of Hanna’s inexperienced, teenage cunny. His cum glutted forth from his cock against Hanna’s deepest parts, pushing hard to escape from the airtight grip of Hanna’s pussy. She was flooded out in an instant, there was so little spare room inside of her and his cum was dribbling down his balls before the first shot even finished. After his cock sprayed cum for what felt like two uninterrupted seconds, it jerked like a heaving drunk and then sprayed again. They were making a puddle on the floor between his legs.

“Holy fuck, you’re incredible,” Double-A sighed, genuinely awed by this foreign-born goddess.

*-*-*

“Hey, calmate loca,” Chewy smiled, grabbing Inez by the shoulders to force her to look at him, “if you’re going to play the game, you need to be able to follow the action. Your friend Valentina just shit the bed in a major way, she had the chance to step up and she stepped in shit instead. Now, the situation has changed. I no longer consider her a stable partner, but you might be if you can go long enough without convincing some hard-ass Sicario to beat your skull inside-out.”

Without hesitation, Chewy leaned forward and kissed Inez deeply and passionately, his tongue moving along her bottom lip for a moment before he pulled back to look at her again.

“You think you can do that for me? Pretty, pretty please. Things are moving quickly now and they probably will from now on. If Valentina isn’t ready to usurp her father, you need to be ready to usurp Valentina. You’re the only one who can convince her to take this without ending up in a pine box.”

Chewy now tossed her backwards onto the king-sized bed.

“I’ll bet you’re more used to being tossed around than you admit. But if you stick with me, you’ll be doing the tossing real soon.”

*-*-*

Diego could scarcely hear it over the sound of Hanna having perhaps her first orgasm, but he heard it. Olivia screaming for help. Even as faint as the sound was, Diego felt it, like his heart being wounded in a way it would never fully recover from. He broke out in a sprint from the main room, down the hall toward the sound. He lowered his shoulder into the door without even trying the knob, smashing the bolt through the frame and out the other side.

He only got a moment to assess the situation before he had to act, Olivia was being held in the pool by Lucia, the redhead… who’s name Diego couldn’t remember, was holding a syringe, readying to inject the restrained girl who clearly didn’t want it.

Diego charged into the pool, his knee casting a splash over all three as he threw himself against Lucia, wrestling Olivia from her grip. Before Lucia got a chance to recover, he grasped her forearm in both hands and turned her arm over, locking her shoulder and elbow with her elbow pointed upward. He then used his powerful hand to lock her wrist, his thumb doubling her tattooed hand over the wrist until all the bones of her hand pressed together.

With Lucia’s arm locked in an agonizing grip, Diego simply lifted up on her arm, the series of locked joints forcing her head under the water and holding it there, handling her like a mop. With Lucia silenced by the water, Diego easily took the syringe from the redhead’s trembling fingers. There was a brief silence, aside from water dripping somewhere and the bubbles from Lucia’s struggle popping on the surface.

“Are you girls alright?” Diego asked, looking almost exclusively at Olivia, “I’m so sorry. I’m going to fix this.”

Diego continued to hold Lucia under water until he felt her fight drain out of her body. Then he lifted her head back above the water and slammed the base of his fist into her chest, forcing her to cough up what seemed like a gallon of pool water.

“You stupid fucking bitch. I can’t trust you to sit on some fucking teenagers for a few hours without crossing me? This wasn’t even my fucking move—I’ve done my job seamlessly. I found the fucking money! It was never that worm accountant, he hasn’t got the balls!”

As soon as Lucia finished coughing up water, Diego twisted her arm over itself again and dunked her back in. This time, he uncapped the syringe with his teeth and slid the needle into one of the veins on the back of Lucia’s hand. He pulled the plunger faintly, sucking a single crimson curl of Lucia’s blood into the yellowish heroin mix. Then he pushed down, the plunger moving fast down to half way. He was almost certain that this was intended to be an overdose, so he refrained from using all of it.

Diego slid the syringe out of her skin and lifted her head again.

“Did Lopez order this, or was this your dumb ass idea? Answer smart, your life depends on it,” Diego looked up to Olivia next, “check the closet and the bedstand. There are guns around here. Find some.”

Lucia was taking too long to answer so he gave her another dunk under the water.

“Emily, are you out there?”

*-*-*

“Of course I missed you, amor,” Leon’s rage melted as he slipped into Valentina’s embrace, she felt so good against him, “I was just so worried.”

Leon shed his slacks and shirt, climbing naked onto the bed in advance of Valentina, urging her with his hands to straddle him. His hands moved up under her dress and gripped her soft, round ass cheeks in his large, fight-scarred hands. He lifted himself up from the bed, kissing the nape of her neck while he steered her ready pussy toward the head of his cock.

“If you need some distance, just let me know—I can make sure you’ll never see me. You just can’t ditch me like that. It puts both of us at unnecessary risk. Now tell me I’m right and it won’t happen again.”

Leon scarcely waited for compliance before lowering her onto his hard cock and pushing his hips up from the bed to bury himself further. Deeper. Establishing a rhythm.

“Some day you’ll be in charge, amor. Then we can both do as we please, but for now—”

Leon was both mid-sentence and mid-thrust when the door crashed inward. Diego shoved Valentina off of Leon’s cock with the bottom of his foot. Leon was left exposed and shocked, splayed out naked and defenseless as Diego invested four rounds into his body with the silenced Beretta that Olivia found in the closet. Left lung, right lung, heart and forehead. The Santa Muerte Cross. A signature of his unique faith.

The silencer made the gunshots into a muted Thwap! like a paint can being dropped repeatedly on concrete.

“Get dressed, we’re leaving,” Diego commanded of Valentina before continuing his sweep.

*-*-*

Double-A was still relishing the feeling of his cock growing soft inside of Hanna’s body when Diego approached him from behind and whispered into his ear, in Spanish to try and keep Hanna in the dark. Double-A just nodded, sending Diego on his way into the back yard.

Muzzle flashes lit up the curtains from outside like a lightning strike as Double-A gently tapped Hanna’s thigh.

“Go meet up with the other girls. I’ve got work to do.”

*-*-*

The “plan” if it could be called such, had come together remarkably well. The Sicarios around the compound were focused on the outside of the compound which left them vulnerable from within and the help of Double-A and surprisingly Emily had been vital.

The compound was now engulfed in orange flames with nearly a dozen bodies burning inside. Ignacio, Hector and Ortega had taken control of the hostages, which now included Lucia. Chewy was sharing a vehicle with Valentina and Inez—truly a hell of his own design. Diego was driving Emily, Olivia and Kate while Double-A pledged to bring Hanna and Bethan back to the Tres Seis safe house where they would cut them loose for good and all.

While Diego followed the hostage car into the neighborhoods of South Central LA a new day was dawning while he conversed in Spanish through speaker phone.

“…you want it on a timer?” the unknown voice asked in Spanish.

“Too unreliable. Use an altometer. 35,000 feet should be high enough.” Diego answered, bringing the car to a stop.

The cars all came to a stop in front of a row of run-down houses that served as a base of operations for the Tres Seis Mafia.

 

[Curious_Muse]

“Kill him! I want you to kill him! They’ll be finding his body for weeks after I am done with him! Remember that you fucking owe me, Chewy!”

Inez sat next to Chewy in the car and tried to ignore the shrieks coming from her cousin in the backseat. At least Valentina had calmed down enough to form coherent sentences – a measurable improvement.

“This hijo de puta will beg me to let him die. I swear I’ll make Torres pay for this!”

Inez turned around to face her cousin. “Puta, you understand that this is a palace coup, right? Torres is smart enough to realize that you fucked up so badly that the Lopez Cartel might never recover! This vendetta of yours? Your inability to take care of your own fucking mess? Your bad judgement? He saw all that and came to the correct conclusion! Jesus Christ – after everything that happened your first thought was to fuck Leon right there under our noses! Bitch, you brought this onto yourself. You’re to blame that he’s dead, and nobody else!”

Valentina glared at her. “If you’re not careful I’ll have Chewy off you first!” Inez laughed dryly. “You still don’t get it, do you? You’re not in charge anymore! Torres and his new buddies here are. You have started a goddamn war!”

Her cousin sat back and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Dad will end him. All of them. You don’t think that this sorry gaggle of gangsters can take on the entire operation of Miguel Angel Lopez Castillo?”

Inez just sighed and turned towards Chewy who had been ominously quiet so far. “She does have a point,” she stated. “And you had no idea that this was coming, did you? Your compadres switched sides, and you had no clue, did you?” It seemed that he was as shocked as they were, which was not at all reassuring. Inez watched the cars in front of them, wondering when exactly this evening had taken such a disastrous turn. Taking the track team rich bitches hostage had been bad enough, but this was a nightmare. She had watched the compound go up in flames after dragging her screaming cousin away from Leon’s corpse, and seen Chewy’s associates push a delirious and handcuffed Lucia Del Rio into one of their cars. She assumed that all the other sicarios were dead. Either Torres was completely insane, in which case they were all fucked, or he really did have a plan to go against the Lopez Cartel, in which case they were also fucked. Papa Lopez was not known for his merciful streak, and they’d all be in for trouble by association. What on earth had driven the fixer to take such a mad decision?

“Do you think that Torres knows what he is doing?” she said, to neither of them in particular. “Because you know what they say: If you come at the king, you better not miss.”

***

Blaire sat huddled into the right corner of the backseat and eyed the dark-haired woman across from her in horror. What the fuck was wrong with her? Her hair was wet, she was somewhat clumsily dressed in dark jeans and a T-shirt, her wrists and ankles were tied with plastic ties, and it looked like she was high, or somehow caught in a terrible fever dream.

“No, no…por favor…,” she stammered, thrashing against the car window as if trying to get away from some invisible attacker before uttering another high-pitched scream. It made Blaire’s skin crawl in fear.

“I…I think this lady needs help…,” she said to the man driving the car. It was the guy who had been in that horrific cell with her, back at the compound. Blaire had seen how two of the other gangbangers had shoved Amanda and a grotesquely dressed-up Olga into another car and the whole were now driving ahead of them back into LA. Lucia moaned as if in severe pain. “Is this withdrawal or something?” Blaire asked nervously, trying to back away from Lucia as much as possible in the confines of the car. “And where are you taking us now, anyway? Hasn’t this horror show gone on long enough? I told you – if you let me go, I’ll make sure you’ll be compensated.”

***

Olivia sat in the back of the car and stared out the window. She had been extremely quiet. Emily sat in the front now, next to Diego, and Kate sat next to her daughter, trying to find words of comfort. But how? When Emily had run back towards the cars with Olivia, her daughter had been almost apoplectic with fear. Her best friend had helped her change into jeans, a shirt and sneakers, had made sure that all the girls were safely evacuated form the compound while Diego and his newfound associates went on a killing spree of the guards. Kate noticed that Olivia’s hand, limply lying in hers, was still shaking. How was she to comfort her teenaged daughter after what she had just witnessed?

Emily had told her that Diego had saved Olivia’s life, and Kate was deeply grateful for that. But she also couldn’t help but think that Olivia would not have needed saving, if it had not been for this cursed man. The killer.

“You really know how to show a girl a good time,” Emily said to Diego, but this time there was no snark in her voice. She was worried about her friend. “But what is the plan now, anyway?”

 

[UnHolyPimpHand]

Parking was a larger concern at the Tres Seis’ neighborhood, which meant that Diego would have a long walk with Emily and the Andersons through one of the worst neighborhoods in LA—as preference needed to be given to those transporting hostages. Diego was more than a little dismayed as he parallel parked the car.

On the ride over, he’d been silent, setting an agenda of impossible tasks in order from most to least urgent. When he set the parking brake, the silence became too heavy and Diego felt compelled to say something. He turned around in the driver’s seat, gently laying his hand on Olivia’s shoulder while he addressed her mother and best friend.

“Kate, I owe you an apology. I told you I wouldn’t touch Olivia and I broke that promise. I didn’t anticipate what I actually felt—what I feel still. But I still went back on what I said and I’m sorry. What’s worse is that it’s far from over now. I need you to get in touch with your husband, tell him to get somewhere safe before someone comes after him to get to me. I need you to trust me that this is for your sake, not mine. Your objection to my relationship with your daughter has been noted—now I need you to get over it and work with me, because I’m the only one who cares about keeping your family alive. And people are going to keep dying.

“Emily. You actually impressed me back there. You kept your cool, you did what you were told and you didn’t flinch. I respect that. But you need to decide if you’re all the way in, because if not, you need to get all the way out before some of these people place us together. If you’re holding out for someone higher up than me, you should reconsider—because when this is over, I’ll either be in charge of the whole operation or everyone close to me will be dead. So don’t make this choice lightly. We had fun, but if this isn’t ‘life-or-death’ for you, you should go home. Play time is over, for now.

“Olivia. I thought that I had every angle covered,” at this, Diego turned to her and took her hands in his own, “I’m known for being the one who is never caught off guard—but you are the first person I’ve ever met who I couldn’t plan for. It breaks my heart that you’re in danger, but I wasn’t the one who first placed you in harm’s way. I sacrificed a lot to save your life, but you owe me nothing.

Diego got out of the car, feeling sick. He didn’t want to lose her, but he couldn’t see a way to have her… there was just too much between them. He could risk his life, but he couldn’t ask it of her—not of any of them.

He produced a loaded .32 Snub nosed revolver from inside his coat, one of several “throw aways” that he carried. He handed it over to Emily, handle first.

“I need you to take care of them. Nobody knows about you yet, so you can still go home if you want. First, though, I have one last thing that I need from you. Make sure that they and Paul make it safely into a hotel. List them under your name so that they can’t be found under their name. Hopefully, they’re going to come after me—but I can’t risk losing them. Can I trust you to do this? Once that’s finished, you can go where you please. You all have my number if you need it.”

With that, Diego left the keys in the ignition and exited the car with a heavy heart, heading toward the run-down house which was to be his new base of operations.

*-*-*

Chewy found himself in a rather perplexing moral quandary. He’d pledged to support Valentina, but before that he’d sworn to support Diego—who now seemed at odds with one another. It was tough to discern where his loyalties should lie, but Valentina’s tantrum in the back seat didn’t do much to promote a partnership with her.

“I know things have gotten a little… messy, but I have every confidence that Diego knows what he’s doing,” Chewy muttered, parking close by the house on the street, “just give it a moment, Valentina. He’s not going against you—at least not yet. If he was, you’d be looking more like her right now.”

Chewy indicated the car in the driveway where Lucia was being somewhat forcefully dragged out of the car by Double-A.

“My room is on the second floor, near the end of the hall on the left. Please, make yourself comfortable and excuse the mess. I’ll talk to Diego and then we can all straighten this out.”

Chewy hoped that there was more to this bluff than words—but it was the best he could do to try and calm Valentina. Nothing positive could be negotiated with her in a mood like this.

“Come on, you’re still alive and still in charge—but you don’t want to place yourself opposite Diego in a death struggle. He’s Santa Muerte. Death isn’t the worst thing that can happen to someone.”

Truthfully, Chewy knew almost nothing about Diego’s faith—except that men much harder than him spoke the name of Santa Muerte in whispers. It was tough to parse what was real and what was fiction about the devotees of the grim matron—but the OG’s were afraid of her and he hoped that some of that had been passed down to Valentina.

“Let’s just talk this out… if it calls for blood after that, we’ll have blood. But let’s just hear him out first… please?”

*-*-*

Double-A was fairly pleased with how most of the hostages, with the exception of Lucia accepted being ushered down into the dusty basement to await their fate. Hanna and Amanda had come around to be useful allies in the now almost-routine process of shuffling hostages from one location to the other. When the hostages were downstairs, Double-A reassured Hanna and Bethan that this sudden turn of events was in their favor and they would doubtless be let go soon. Which he hoped was true.

What was the use of keeping the daughter of a detective if they were going to war against the Cartel—or whatever the hell Bethan’s story was. Double-A hoped that he would see Hanna again, but she couldn’t stay if they were going to ready for trigger-work—which it seemed inevitable that they would.

Ignacio was hard at work, bringing the men who were at the house when they arrived. Double-A could tell from his tone that Ignacio was not amused with this whole circus. Worse yet was the fact that things seemed sure to get worse before getting any better.

 

[Curious_Muse]

Emily looked down at the gun in her hand. “It’s been life or death since you came to my house, am I right?” She put it in her backpack. “I am almost flattered that you take me for a capable accomplice in this totally fucked-up scheme.”

A group of young men wandered past them, clearly intrigued by the strange sight. It was time to get out of the neighbourhood. Emily wondered if Diego had thought this all through. And had he really risked his career, his reputation, and indeed his life to safe Olivia? She didn’t yet understand what the stakes really were, but despite the choice that Diego thought he was giving her, it was much too late to pull out.

“I think you forget that all this shit went down at my house, Diego. Valentina was at my party, and Inez and I are friends, sort of. We take AP Algebra together. We share the occasional joint. We’ve fucked the same guys. If these people want to connect this to me, they easily can. So a hotel under my name is not safe.” She looked back at Olivia and her mother, thinking. Then her face brightened up. “I have a better idea. I can put the Andersons up in my uncle’s ex’ house. She’s away on a shoot in France, so the place will be empty. I’ll text you the address when we get there.”

Emily threw her backpack onto the passenger seat and was about to get behind the wheel when she remembered something.

“And by the way, who did you talk to earlier?” She gave him an inquisitive look. Like Olivia, Emily’s Spanish was passable enough to understand what Diego had said not the speaker phone, but she’d be unable to make sense of it. “If you trust me enough to go all in, you need to tell me what’s going on. I’ve had enough curve balls thrown at me tonight.”

Then she smiled. “I’m mainly doing this for Olivia. But I like playing with you. It’s been fun.”

***

“Go ahead, make yourself comfortable,” Valentina said to her cousin in a voice dripping with sarcasm. She picked up an unwashed T-shirt from the bed with two fingers before sitting down. They had made their way past some junkies and a few tired gangbangers who were hanging around the house and found Chewy’s room. “A little messy” was an understatement. There were empty beer bottles, beer cans overflowing with cigarette butts, dirty clothes on the floor and on the bed. Magazines and some old flyers advertising pizza deals were strewn across the floor. Instead of curtains, Chewy had draped a sheet over the windows.

“These are the guys that Torres chose to go against my father? What a fucking joke.”

Inez said nothing. She sat down on a wobbly chair across from her cousin and tried to think. Valentina was calmer now, but not less furious. It was interesting that she seemed to think of Leon’s death as more of an insult than an actual loss. Interesting, but not very surprising.

“Chewy doesn’t need to bother,” Valentina seethed. “There is nothing to straighten out. Torres killed Leon and nine of my dad’s men before torching the whole compound. He’s a dead man. My dad will have him skinned alive.” She angrily threw her arms up. “Torres is a fixer! A…a subordinate! He stepped so far out of line that he missed the cliff he just walked off of. He’s finished. There is no stone he’ll be able to hide under.” Her face broke into a grim smile. “I want to be there to watch when they’ll rip him to pieces. He fucked with the wrong people. He is…”

Inez, who had been quiet so far, cut her off. “Are you done?” Valentina stared at her, too surprised about her cousin’s tone to reply.

“Don’t you see the situation you are in? That we are in? Did you not see what Torres is capable of? What makes you think that he won’t come in here an put a bullet in both of our heads? You said it yourself, he already walked off that cliff. What does he have to lose now? He might as well kill the little cartel princess, just to make a point.” She paused. “It’s not like your father ever hesitated when he went on his power grab. When he went against Bautista? The things he did to his daughter? You've heard the stories.”

Valentina, a shade paler now, shook her head. “All lies. And besides…Torres wouldn’t dare…my dad would never allow it.”

“That would maybe be true if we were in Mexico. But your dad cannot just come waltzing across the border to save you. How many different federal law agencies are looking for him, what do you think? Probably the entire alphabet soup. As soon as your dad steps on American soil, they’ll come for him like hungry vultures. For now, Torres calls the shots. You’d be smart to keep that in mind.”

Inez thought about the deal Chewy had offered her earlier, but no matter how pissed she still was at Valentina, she wouldn’t just throw her under a bus. At least not if she was smart enough not to get them both killed.

“So I suggest that you make nice. That you bide your time. Listen for once. Revenge can wait.” Valentina was quiet now. Frowning, her hands balled into fists. But quiet. “Nobody says that you have to give up on it altogether.” Then she handed her cousin her phone to show her a picture of Olivia on her Instagram feed. “What about his little girlfriend? Maybe there is a way to hurt him that has nothing to do with cutting off his body parts.”

***

Blaire stood next to the basement wall, trying as best she could not to touch anything. There were some dirty mattresses on the floor, empty cigarette packages, some plastic wrappers, and numerous stains of unclear origin. It smelled of damp and stale air. She could hear a faint thumping bass playing in the house above. There was a window high on the wall that was taped over with a newspaper, allowing in streaks of dim, grey light. Blaire found all of it disgusting. She drew her arms tighter around herself. Thankfully Emily, whose role in all of this she didn’t quite understand, had given her a pair of running pants and a tracksuit top that she had zipped up all the way over the bikini she was still wearing underneath.

“This is all fucked up,” she muttered to no one in particular. The Swedish girl was sleeping, wrapped in a smart sports coat. Olga, who sat curled up on a mattress on the other end of the room only winced. She looked like shit. She was still wearing the grotesque cheerleading costume, and her face was smeared with runny mascara and make-up. Blaire was convinced that this all happened because of Tom fucking Dylan, and what a joke that was. It was only because Olga looked like such a sad mess that she didn’t share her thoughts out loud.

“How is this even possible?” she continued. “By now somebody will have realised that all of us are missing. How hard can it be to track these guys down? There is private security all up and down that street, did nobody see us being kidnapped? There was a green lowrider, for fucks sake. You’d think the camera images of that would automatically launch some sort of alarm!”

“He’ll take care of it,” Amanda piped up. “Hector will take care of it, he promised to keep me safe if I do as he asks, and I did.” She looked around defiantly. “I did.”

Blaire rolled her eyes. Though it would have been nice to be blessed with Amanda’s naivete and her dumbness right now. It would have made this somewhat easier.

The dark-haired woman she had shared a backseat started to stir in the corner. She was the only one whose hands and ankles were still bound. “What’s her deal?” Blaire asked the others. “Was she at the party?” Nobody replied. After a moment’s silence, Bethan whispered: “It’s the heroin. They shot her up.”

A terrified silence followed this comment. Even Blaire didn’t know what to say. “He’ll take care of it,” Amanda said softly. “We’ll be ok.”

***

When Olivia came out of the bathroom, she looked much better. Towelling her hair, she plopped down onto the bed and let out a long sigh.

“Thank you, Emily. I feel like you are in this mess because of me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. And who would have thought that your dad has it in him to work with the mob? I am impressed. It really always is the quiet ones.” Olivia laughed, for the first time since she had found her curled up in a ball in the desert compound. It was a start.

“You’re safe here. The fridge is fully stocked, the beds are made, the pool heated, and don’t hesitate to plunder Gabrielle’s wine cellar. I bet you could do with a glass now.”

“What will you do?”

“I’ll go to check if my house is still standing. And I guess I’ll have to alert security to be extra alert? How does one deal with being on a cartel hit list?”

This time, Olivia didn’t laugh.

“Look, we will get out of this.” Then she placed one of Diego’s throw aways on the duvet. Olivia flinched and shook her head. “Just in case. Diego wants you to have one, just in case.” Emily nudged the gun towards her friend. “I know this sounds cheesy, but that man would travel through hell for you, Olivia. You dad fucked up, but you have Diego on your side now.” She placed her friend’s smartphone next to the gun. “I want regular updates. Pictures of you enjoying your time in Beverly Hills. And I bet so does he.”

 

[UnHolyPimpHand]

Diego returned to the house feeling oddly optimistic, in spite of the fucked up situation. Emily was proving to be a worthy accomplice, in spite of her dubious loyalty and Olivia seemed to understand that this was all for her sake and that everything he did from here out was to protect her. He felt confident that the three of them would be safe.

The house was about how Diego would have imagined—once intended as a suburban, single-family home, it was utterly trashed. Empty beer bottles and cigarette butts littered the carpet that was so stained it seemed impossible to discern what color it had been when it was clean. It seemed a fitting setting for the ugly work Diego was left with.

“Where’s Valentina?” Diego asked Double-A, interrupting a conversation between him and one of the gang members who hadn’t witnessed any of the events leading up to the arrival of this harem of hostages.

“Upstairs with her cousin. I let them use my room, it’s cleaner than the rest of the house,” Double-A answered, accepting a cold beer from another Thres Seis coming in from the kitchen, “the rest are downstairs. Hector wants to bring his favorite up to his room but I told him to wait for you. You might want to check in with Ignaco first though, he’s running low on patience and good faith.”

“That’s understandable. Tell Hector to enjoy himself and you can cut loose the redhead loose. Do whatever you want with yours. Where’s Ignacio?”

“Kitchen.”

“Thanks. You all have big promotions on the way.”

“I’m on your side, amigo. Ignacio’s not so convinced, though. He wants to entertain other offers.”

“Thanks. I’ll try to deal with it.”

It was bad news that Ignacio was wavering, but not surprising. This little “favor” had taken more than a few difficult turns which now set Ignaco and his gang against the Lopez family who they’d intended to help in the first place. The first of several neigh on impossible negotiations.

“I understand you’re justifiably irritated with me,” Diego addressed Ignacio after pushing past several gangsters he hadn’t met yet, all of whom stared at him with hateful malice, “I was hoping to assuage your concerns as well as convey my gratitude for your help up to this point. I’m also afraid that I must ask for your continued support until the transitional period is over.”

“Transition, huh? So you’re really trying to knock Lopez off the top of his own organization?”

“Not at all, I’m simply facilitating a changing of the guards. It’s Valentina’s time now. She decided that when she employed your man to start this kidnapping, trafficking and laundering scheme. She just needs me to seat her.”

“She’s on board with this? She seemed… uncooperative when we brought her in.”

“I needed you on board first.”

“Ahhh, so she’s more of a figure-head. You need me and my boys to be the ones to do the dirty work.”

“Not at all, I have no aversion to doing the dirty work myself. I just need to count on you not to do his dirty work.”

“Meaning kill you and your little girlfriend.”

“Yes, that’s what I mean.”

“And in return?”

“In return you’ll be in charge of all of the U.S. and Canada. You’ll be the sole, North American distribution arm of our drug empire. You’ll go from paying dues to the Cartel to receiving dues from your current rivals. As far as anyone will be concerned, you will be the American Cartel.”

“I’ve learned not to put too much stock in what someone says when they will say anything.”

“That’s fair but know this. I just want to get out of here with Olivia and not have to live looking over my shoulder. I trust you, you’ve proven trustworthy. Give me the chance to prove my trustworthiness to you.”

“For now, we’re with you. But if I were you, I wouldn’t trust me too far.”

“I’ll work on providing a demonstration of my gratitude.”

“Do that.”

Diego smiled and patted Ignacio’s shoulder. It was a tenuous truce, but it was as good as he could hope for in the situation. Chewy’s involvement was likely a key piece of Ignacio’s decision not to slit Diego’s throat—then again, he could just be waiting for the right time. Diego made his way upstairs after a little guidance from Double-A, he knocked on the room Valentina was in, opening the door a moment later.

“I think you and I should talk. I understand that you’re upset, but what was done was done for your sake. Those men, Leon in particular, would never support your leadership. It’s time to supplant your father and I’d like to endorse your succession.”

Diego braced for blowback. He was glad that Inez was there, hopeful she might be able to make Valentina see past her emotions.

 

[Curious_Muse]

Olivia sat on the bed in the guest room and looked around. What now?

At first, the house had been fun. Emily’s aunt had a huge record collection, a library full of great books. A full fridge. A fantastic infinity pool that overlooked the bay. She had followed Emily’s advice and sent Diego a few, and as she thought rather cute, selfies. She had even sent one in her bikini, agonized for a little bit if she should add one without the top and decided against it.

Now she was getting restless.

So far, there had not been any news from either Diego or Emily. The selfies remained, as far as she could tell, unseen. Her friend had left her car in the driveway and taken a cab to her own house to tend to the mess the party guests had surely left behind. Thankfully, her parents were not expected to be back for at least three more days, which gave Emily ample time to tend to all possible damage, including the fallout of the unpleasant incident of a bunch of drug dealers kidnapping Olga and her friends. Their parents, and pretty quickly afterwards, the police, would have questions and Olivia wondered which ones were safe to answer. Emily knew people, people who would be able to spin and fix this for her, at least for a little while. But the kidnapped girls’ parents would pull strings of their own, as soon as they started to be suspicious about the tale of their daughters having taken off to Mexico with some random dudes.

And what about her own parents? The sound of muffled bickering and nervous pacing downstairs made her wince. There would be no answers from her parents. Not from her father, who had apparently laundered money for a Mexican drug cartel for years, and who was out of his mind with fear, and not from her mother, who, like the proper WASP that she was, refused to talk about any of the things that had happened last night. Olivia groaned. The insanity of it all gave her a headache.

Reaching for her phone, she sent Diego another text.

“Is everything ok?”

It seemed a silly question to ask, under the circumstances, but she needed to talk to him. If nobody else was going to explain to her why she was hiding from the murderous hitmen of her dad’s employer in the mansion of Emily’s aunt, he had to.

Diego. It was hard to believe that she had met him less than 24 hours ago.

Olivia stretched out on the bed in her room and closed her eyes. The cool, soft cotton of the duvet felt good against her naked arms and legs. Outside she could hear the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks around the small beach. It was easy to conjure up Diego now, the faint scent of his perfume, his lips brushing against her ear. God, how she wanted him.

One hand slipped into her unbuttoned shorts and inside her panties. She imagined that it was Diego. That it was his finger now slowly circling her clit, making her squirm on the bed. Olivia arched her back, moaning softly, her thighs spread wide, chasing her orgasm. “Fuck yes,” she stammered, wiggling first one, then another finger into her weeping pussy while grinding her thumb against her slippery nub. It felt so good, it was just what she now needed.

She came bucking on the bed, screaming her pleasure into the pillow. After everything that had happened last night, everything she had learned and seen, all she now wanted was to be with Diego now, to have him all to herself. She wanted answers, she wanted explanations, but she also wanted him to make love to her, to make her scream, to never leave her again.

All she wanted was Diego.

Olivia looked at her phone. Still nothing. Her text to Diego was unread, just like the previous ones. Her fingers hovered over the screen, wondering if she should try and call him. It was ridiculous, and she knew it, but part of her also wondered if he had already forgotten her. If his hurry to get her and her parents to safety had been an attempt to get rid of her.

“I’m coming to you. I need to see you.” It was all she wrote before she crammed the gun in her backpack and ran down the stairs, glad that her parents were too busy fighting to notice her slipping past them to her car.

Olivia took a deep breath and turned the key in the ignition. She knew where to go. This was a terrible idea, but she didn’t care. If none of the grown-ups around her managed to act the part, why should she?

***

“Upset?” Valentina got up from the bed she had been sitting on to face Diego from across the room. “You think I am…upset?” She slowly walked towards him. To Inez it very much looked like she was a preparing to bounce on him, likely to severe his jugular with her bare teeth. Valentina came to stand right in front of Diego. “You know what kind of things upset me? When I mess up my nail polish despite paying extra attention no to. When my favorite torteria is closed. When I really need to use my phone and I realize that I have left it in another purse.” There was a pause. Inez held her breath. Would her hotheaded cousin provoke the fixer into killing hem both, right there and then?

“But when one of my father’s employees goes rogue and decides to off several men, including my own trusted bodyguard before setting fire not only to one of our properties but to the entire organization? That doesn’t upset me, Torres.” Her voice was still dangerously low. “That fucking enrages me. It drives me fucking crazy. In fact, I don’t think I have ever been this insanely angry in my life.”

Then her cool façade began to crumble. “You shot him! You fucking shot him…!” She shoved Diego with her outstretched hand. “Because what? Because you have dreamt up some insane plan about a change of leadership?” Another shove, a punch almost. “What makes you think I want leadership? How dare you decide this for me?”

Valentina’s face was pale with rage. “Everyone seems to be so very scared of you, of you and the skinny lady you worship. She won’t save you, pendejo. My father will rip you into pieces, and trust me, I am not paraphrasing.”

Inez cleared her throat, and Valentina fell silent. She looked utterly exhausted.

“Why don’t we all try to work this out?” The smaller girl approached them. “It’s been a long night. Let’s try to have a conversation about this.”

Valentina did not object. Inez knew that this was not, or not only, because she was about to give in. Her cousin probably thought that gaining some time would be helpful. It would help the men they had alerted to Torres’ weakness to find Olivia. And Olivia, like nothing else, would give them leverage.

“Sure,” Valentina smiled coldly. “Let’s talk.”

***

“You, in the track suit…help me.”

Blaire stared at the woman who awkwardly held out her bound wrists, on her knees and with her back turned towards her. Lucia had finally woken up and didn’t have a moment to lose. “Untie me.” Her head felt like lead, her mouth was dry, and she felt extremely nauseous. Lucia didn’t know where she was, and the memories of the past hours were still somewhat patchy.

But she had to get out of these ties.

“Even if I knew how to untie these…how can I be sure that you won’t hurt me…hurt us?” Blaire had not moved.

Lucia smiled. “I can promise you that I will hurt you if you don’t untie me.”

The girl still hesitated. Bethan shook her head. “Blaire…don’t!”

“Look, if you untie me, you’ll have another air of hands to help you against these thugs. A very capable pair of hands.” She shot a look at Bethan. “Tell them how talented these hands are, Red.”

Blaire knelt down in front of Lucia.

“But I have nothing to cut these with.”

The other woman indicated an empty beer can in the corner.

“That might help. But hurry, before they come back.”

 

[UnHolyPimpHand]

Venom.

Diego had expected this negotiation to begin this way, but even anticipating it did little to minimize the sting of Valentina’s tirade. She was right, out of everyone she’d been most wronged by what Diego had to do, though he’d never intended her as a target. She was right to suspect him, he’d set about unseating her family from the position that her father and grandfather had both bled for—he’d done so by murdering her lover while he was in bed with her. She was justifiably pissed off.

“I understand what you’re feeling and from the bottom of my heart, I want to apologize. I realize that the actions I had to take superseded your wishes—but I want you to know that you were never the target of my ire—nor your father, in truth. But when he made moves against me, my hand was forced,” Diego took a seat in the threadbare armchair that sat opposite the bed in the room that barely let any light in past the nailed-up sleeping bags in the window, “I don’t wish to disrupt your family’s legacy.

“I never wished to cross anyone, but I also never intended…” the words caught in his throat like the jagged edges of broken cliché, “to fall in love. It sounds strange, I know—unprofessional, at a minimum; but this is one of a handful of things in life that is non-negotiable. Olivia is mine…”

Diego’s phone buzzed for what seemed like the hundredth time, he extracted it from his pocket just long enough to see a photo, shot near vertical down the angular front line of his amor’s body—between those luscious breasts—down her sculpted torso…

“I have no desire to assume control of the Lopez organization,” Diego said at last, the words seeming to lift a burden from his lungs, his next words coming more confidently, “I want you to be El Lopez. I wish only to unseat your father and replace him and his backwards thinking cronies with an all-female Dream Team, capable of elevating the Lopez empire into the 21st century and beyond—this could mean big things for you and yours as well.”

This last bit was directed at Inez, who he had not overlooked in her role as Valentina’s whipping girl. Inez saw the big picture and could get through to Valentina—that made her a very important person for the next six hours.

“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, Valentina. I truly am, but your father is already dead—just like Leon,” Diego took a breath to let this sink in before resuming without allowing a word in edgewise, “but it shouldn’t be the end of El Lopez—nor should it be the beginning of a long and bloody war. Leon was loyal to your father, he would never have backed you as a successor—the men further down the pecking order are another story, especially if there’s room for advancement.

“I’ve fallen for a white girl, I’m a full-blown cliché, I’m off the board for good—but you could preserve the supremacy of the Lopez name, but not without my help. So, what I offer you is the entirety of the Lopez empire—I will unseat your father and his inner circle and replace them with you two and perhaps even Pantera if I can talk her down from trying to kill me.

“But that’s for later since you could have me killed easiest of all. It may seem like the Tres Seis are taking orders from me, but the truth is, they’re still trying to demonstrate loyalty to you—whatever you did to Chewy, it worked. You could run the whole organization, Inez would be your second and Lucia would be your International liaison to Chewy and the Tres Seis—which would benefit mightily from being closer to their Mexican cartel connect.

“It may feel like giving in here and now, but you can spin it any way you want—you’ll be the one who secured my unconditional surrender and avenged your father by regaining his legacy. I just want to get free with my woman. That’s my only motivation. You can even retain my services as needed, making you the exclusive connection to me and what I do.

“Your father forgot the cardinal rule—you let your contractors do the job you contract them for. He tried to take it upon himself to meat out justice which he should have done in the first place if it was what he wanted. When he hired me to get to the bottom of this, he invested in my discretion—he can’t just change his mind after I’m already involved.

“I intend only to complete the job I was hired to do—regarding you as my employer now that your father has violated the terms. I’ll root out the thief from this side of the border and bring them to justice. I’ll furthermore ensure the success of your… spontaneous foray into sex trafficking and international currency laundering. In return for all that, I only wish to be left free to leave.

“If you find me unable to live up to these terms, you’ll have ample opportunity to kill me. The only non-negotiable term I have is Olivia’s safety. Her father isn’t clean, but he’s not the thief. Her mother is a whore, but she’s paid for sins that weren’t hers. Olivia is innocent and doesn’t deserve to be mixed up in this.”

Diego stopped to take a breath. He became aware of his phone vibrating urgently in his pocket. He retrieved it from his coat pocket to see if it was one of his associates, only to be cut to the core by looking at his true love’s blue eyes. He put his phone away quickly to avoid being distracted.

“This is what leadership is. Making big decision for the greater good—as El Lopez, you’ll have much tougher decisions to make than this. Oppose me and possibly lose everything in a massive, bloody war between the cartel and the mercenary syndicates which could last for decades—or take hold of everything you’ve ever dreamed of without another shot being fired.”

His phone was still buzzing urgently, Diego looked again, this time seeing the text that Olivia was about to abandon her hard-won refuge and come back to him—here, where people might already be looking.

Don’t go! Stay where you are! I’m handling things.

He could only hope that he wasn’t too late already.

*-*-*

“Well, well—look who’s got froggy about stretching her legs,” Chewy smirked from the top of the stairs. He was carrying several thin sandwiches on paper plates and a jug of water, “break it up, ladies. Back to your corners.”

With the toe of his basketball shoe, Chewy pushed Lucia back onto her ass while handing out sandwiches to the others. He had some paper cups in his jacket which he also distributed.

“You, Hector says you can go share his bed with him after you’re done eating. You don’t need to stay down here with these ‘untrained whores.’ His words,” when he approached Bethan and Hanna, he spoke softly, to Bethan specifically, deciding to let the blonde sleep a while longer, “you two are free to go. Needless to say, you can’t tell anyone about anything that has happened here tonight, but I figured that would be a deal you’d be happy to agree to.”

Chewy handed Bethan a Dixie cup of water.

“I can even drive you home after the sun goes down. You can tell your folks that you liked a boy, but when he got rough you slapped him and came right home. They’ll be so glad to have you safe and unencumbered they won’t ask any questions. It also gives you an excuse… in case we left any marks on that creamy white skin.”

Chewy noticed a slight hesitation.

“Don’t worry about your friend. Double-A will give her a lift home. They probably neighbors anyway, with his Calabasas-livin’-ass.”


*-*-*

Inside the black Cadillac, a chorus of metallic percussions filled the space behind tinted windows. Andres was loading .9mm shells into a long banana clip while his associates chambered rounds to the side and rear of him. The sky was growing ruddy with sunset drawing near. They would attack from the west with the setting sun at their backs.

The oldest strategies were still the most effective.

Andres and his car full of Surreno hitters had driven up from Long Beach that afternoon. Everything was on schedule. Andres slapped the clip into his Tech-9 and chambered a round.

“Alright, let’s get this done,” Andres said, sliding the black ski mask over his face and slipping a pair of sunglasses on over that, “no prisoners, no mercy, no hold-ups. We’ve got less than thirty minutes to get back here. We won’t be waiting on any stragglers or wounded. Understand?”

“Si, Jeffe. We’re with you,” Raul, the driver nodded sternly.

As the golden lustre of the setting sun fell squarely on the front of the poorly maintained “trap house.” Five, well-armed Surrenos evacuated the SUV and began to march toward the house…

 

[Curious_Muse]

“You’re bluffing.”

Valentina stared at the fixer.

“He’s not dead. Of course not.”

But Inez knew that Torres was not lying. That it made sense. That he would not have done what he had done tonight and let Lopez live, because letting him live would have meant retaliation. It would have been suicide.

Motherfucker.

And that was of course also the reason that they had not gotten any replies to their messages about Olivia. Inez briefly wondered who had read them, and what sending them now meant for her and her cousin.

Valentina was still staring at Diego who looked calm, and, disturbingly, sorry. Her face had turned a sickly shade of white, and she was visibly fighting back tears.

“You’re not bluffing.”

Inez felt bad for her cousin. The stunt she had pulled at the party should not have cost her this much.

“That was…really stupid of you,” Valentina said vaguely her voice shaking. “Without my dad…without the organization behind me…I am as good as dead.” She had sat down on the edge of the bed, staring at her feet. Neither Torres nor Inez could know this, but the only reason that Chewy and his cholo friends did anything she asked was because they were afraid of her father. Because Chewy owed her. Because the only ace up her sleeve had been the threat to tell her father that he had assaulted her at that stupid party.

There was a long pause. It was as if someone had suddenly pulled the plug from Valentina, drained all the fire and anger that had animated her just moments earlier. She looked nothing like the cartel heiress now, but rather like a scared little girl. And everybody knew what happened to scared little girls in their world.

“Fuck!” Inez spat the word out so sharply that Valentina flinched. “Cousin, these are tragic news and I am so sorry, my condolences. But you have to keep it together now, okay?” Then she looked at Diego. “Who knows that Miguel Angel is dead? Do the guys downstairs know?” She decided that it was not a good moment to ask the other question – who had killed her uncle – but she did wonder who it was that worked with Torres. Who had had the audacity, and the talent, to simply end Lopez, just like that, because he had hurt the fixer’s feelings. Those were the strings Valentina needed him to hand over to her. Her only chance to plop her pretty little ass on that vacated throne before someone else did.

“This all sounds fucking crazy,” the slim girl said. “But fine. Right, chica? Fine.” Valentina did not react. “We need to know who will be loyal to us from here on out. We don’t care about your suburban sidekick, she has nothing to fear from us. You’re free to live out your days with her behind a white picket fence, making jam or whatever. We don’t care. What we do care about is that you get us out of here and at the head of the organization and make it believable.” Inez was curious how Torres thought he could deliver something like that. It was fucking insane. “So what I am saying is…you’re hired.”

Valentina shook her head. “If anyone is to believe that I can take over, I’ll have to convince them that I have the stomach for it. That I am not soft.” She looked up at Diego. “You must know about Veracruz. What my father did to convince the Colombians that he was their man, and not old Guerrero? Maybe you were there yourself.” Her voice was oddly flat now. “This is what his allies have come to expect. That’s who he was. If I am to take over, I need my own Veracruz to mark the occasion.” She stood up. “I need blood, starting with the blood of those who betrayed me.”

Inez understood where this was going and did not like it. They needed Torres. He was the only thing between them and a house chock full of pissed of gang bangers who probably had their own ideas about how to punish a couple of spoiled, unruly teenagers.

“Girl, that’s not wise.”

“It’s the only way. It’s him or his girl.” It was as if Torres was not even in the room anymore. “And since he wants the gringa so badly to live…” She did not look happy about this but scared. “If I let you and your girl walk, Torres…nobody is going to let me lead. But if I agree to let this Olivia go, then you’ll have to die. It’s the only way. My concession to you is that I won’t let La Pantera near you. I’ll do it myself, and I’ll make it quick.”

This was idiotic. Even more so because all Torres needed to do was shoot them both right now. What was it with all this fucking pathos? Traitor this and blood that? Lucia was tied up in the basement, or maybe she was dead already. Valentina needed to get her head out of her ass and act like a smart leader, not like one out of a telenovela.

“As I understand it, the boys downstairs are currently divided and unsure if they should trust Torres at all. They see him as the traitor as long as you let them. The smarter thing to do? You introduce him as your ally. You own this coup. Killing a subordinate or his girl? That’s everyday shit. Unseating your own father because he made a mistake? Now that’s fucked-up.” Inez hoped that Valentina would finally come to see that she was right. “That is your Veracruz.”

***

“See, I told you,” Amanda said into the room, taking a few hurried bites off her sandwich. “He promised he’d sort this out.” The she got up, still chewing, and made her way up the stairs. “I’ll put in a good word for all of you,” she said over her shoulder before she was out of the basement. Blaire shook her head in disbelief. That level of stupidity would have to be extremely comforting. She looked around. The angry brunette was kneeling, staring levelly at Chewy with what could only be described as sadistic hunger. The other girl were huddling in their corners or sleeping. Maybe Amanda was right, and fucking this Hector was the least unpleasant option right about now.

“What about me?” she said to Chewy. “Do I have to stay here with these untrained whores?” Maybe she should have tried to sound less sarcastic, but Blaire did not have much experience with having to plead for anything.

Bethan took the water from Chewy. “Thanks…,” she whispered. At this point she did not care who drove her home if she could just get out of this place. “It would be great if you could drive me, my mum will be worried by now.” She took a sip from the paper cup. “And I’ll…I won’t tell her what happened here tonight.” She did not add that she had no idea how to believably lie to her mother, a feat she had not mastered in eighteen years, especially now that this party had gone so awry. But for now all she wanted was to leave.

Hanna would also be fine. She felt sorry for the other girls, but there was nothing she could do now. Bethan tried very hard to ignore the whimpering from Olga’s corner. “Can we leave quickly?”

***

Olivia had already pulled out of the driveway when she saw Diego’s message. She hesitated. There were a million questions she wanted to ask him, a million things she needed to know. How could she otherwise trust him? But she also knew, because she wasn’t an idiot and not used to the feeling of not being able to be without a certain guy, that it was dumb and dangerous to disregard his request. And selfish, too. He had risked everything to get her to safety, after all.

Ok, I’ll wait for you here.

She sighed, before she put the car in reverse. The sun was just going down and maybe another dip in the pool could distract her from her fears.

***

Emily put the car in park. It was an old little number, it would not draw any unwanted attention. She had made sure that her house was taken care of, that all the last stragglers were sent home. Now began the hard work of contingency. But first she needed to talk to Diego again. Their stories all needed to match, and she needed to make sure that he had his ends all tied up. Literally, in some cases.

The street was bathed in a dusty orange light as she made her way towards the house. She was wearing a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, and her hair in a bun. Her backpack was slung over one shoulder. Nervously aware that she was carrying a gun in there, she made her way past a few shops, a noisy little bar, and a row of run-down homes. There were only a few people in the street, and nobody gave her a second look. Then she finally recognized the Tres Seis shack at the corner.

“Boy, this is not how I had imagined my final high school party to end, “ she muttered to herself. At the same time, what better way to end it? There would be enough time for the glamourous boredom that was her parent’s life. She was almost there when she saw them: a group of men who did not look like friendly neighbors dropping in for a cup of coffee.

“Shit.” Emily stopped dead in her tracks. She fumbled for the phone in her pocket with shaking fingers, trying to dial Diego’s number. Had they already seen her? It was too late to run without drawing attention. To any outsider, she looked like a Tres Seis regular, and there was no other building close by she could pretend to walk towards. All she could hope for was for Diego to pick up his phone. Now.

 

[UnHolyPimpHand]

Andres, the leader of the LBC Surrenos, opened fire first—he sprayed the second floor with a burst of six or twelve shots, spitting metallic shells behind him into the street. Raul let his AK speak next, focused, precise, three-shot bursts made splinters of the front door in seconds—the third burst firing into the living room uninhibited. The three others also opened fire, concentrating their handgun shots on the windows of the ground floor.

Andres continued to sweep the second floor until his clip ran empty. He popped the used clip out and let it fall to the ground before slapping another in place and pulling back the slide to chamber a round. He felt like he knew where the notorious fixer would be, upstairs with the disgraced princess—

Either she’s cooperating with these traitors or she’s helpless to stop them. In either case, she’s useless to me. My mistress is pregnant with a son. Better my distracted, whore of a daughter doesn’t survive. Take no one alive. El Lopez had told them. His coldness sent a shiver down the spine even of one as hardened as Andres.

By the time the Tres Seis members in the house began returning fire, all of the Surrenos were taking cover behind cars parked on the street.

There was no way to tell who was hit in the initial assault, but as Andres watched his men reloading, he smiled. So far everything was going to plan…

He waited until shots rang out from the second story window where he’d concentrated his fire—when they did, he emptied his clip.

*-*-*

Diego sighed, this wasn’t going to be an easy negotiation. He’d never expected it to be. Fortunately, Inez seemed to be understanding what he was saying. At least she was on the same page. In a sense, Valentina was right—he was bluffing, in that her father wasn’t dead yet, but if he were to live, it would mean death for all of them.

“First, your father is going to try to contract out the hit on me, try to pay off some rival gang—I knew his style. But he’s not going to send them on a rescue mission. He’s going to try and kill everyone—If that doesn’t work, he’s going to try and come here himself, which will be his end.”

Diego barely had a chance to check his phone, he saw the call from Emily, he answered…

“I’m a little busy—they what?” Diego turned back to Inez and Valentina, “get down!”

It was just then that 9mm rounds began tearing through the improvised window covering and shattering things throughout the room. Diego was narrowly able to turn the mattress over and hunker behind the bedframe with the two girls, still holding the phone.

“There, you see? Does it seem like they’re here to rescue you? Your father has decided that you should die—or at least, that your death wouldn’t diminish the triumph of killing me. I’m not here to be a martyr, and Olivia is off the table. My original offer stands—or you can try to get the same offer from them.”

Just then, another volley of gunfire tore through the window and peppered the room around them.

“Emily, get out of here. Drive your car around to the next block behind us, we need to get the girls out of here,” Diego turned back to Inez and Valentina, “that means you two, I’ll cover you. Go downstairs and make for the back yard. Keep your heads down and wait for Chewy.”

Diego leaned over the destroyed mattress, taking aim where the sleeping bag that covered the window had been torn open. He lined up his shot carefully. He waited for the man dressed in black to lean out from behind his cover…

BANG!

One shot, one kill. Santa Muerte would be pleased. He then spent his next five rounds keeping the others pinned down so that Valentina and Inez could make their escape.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

He quickly crouched back behind the overturned bed to reload.

*-*-*

“Down! Get down!” Chewy shouted, cradling Bethan’s head to his chest and placing himself between her and the gunfire, “everybody, lie flat on the ground.”

Chewy roused the blonde one and did his best to gather them all behind support beams for the house. Fortunately, most of the bullets were flying above them, which gave Chewy and idea. He grabbed the blanket off the spartan mattress and used his gun to break one of the small, narrow windows at the back side of the basement. He tried hard to clear all of the glass from the frame before folding the wool blanket in half and laying it across the broken window.

“Okay, you skinny gringas—time to think thin,” Chewy gestured toward the broken window, “stay low when you get out there and wait for me. If you try to run, you’ll likely be killed. Comprende? You first.”

Chewy gestured to Amanda, helping her up and boosting her through the broken window. He continued cutting their bonds and helping them through, one after another until he came to Lucia. Her, he left bound.

“No, I don’t think you need your arms. Just wiggle—like a snake, the motion should be familiar to you.” Chewy pushed her up through the window, primarily gripping her by the ass as he did, letting the girls above lift her by her shoulders into the back yard.”

*-*-*

The living room was a maelstrom of chaos and whistling bullets and flashing muzzle flares. All of the Tres Seis were engaged with the Surrenos, firing back and forth. At least one was hit and down, but Double A had no intention of simply standing around trading shots.

Slipping out through a side exit, hidden behind the molding wooden fence, AA was able to make out their positions. There were four, three with handguns and one with an AK—clearly the AK was the priority.

Using all of his skill for stealth and tactics acquired through his time in the Israeli Defense Force, he was able to loop around the back of Mr. AK and slit his throat with a boot knife. Once the AK was in his possession, and he was stationed among the enemy without being seen, he just hunkered down, behind the car that Mr. AK was using for cover, waiting for the next man to poke his head up.

BLAP!BLAP!BLAP! the three shot burst cut their numbers to two.

*-*-*

When Chewy joined the girls in the back yard, letting Bethan and Amanda help pull him up through the basement window, he moved quickly to break down the rickety fence into the neighbor’s yard. He ushered the girls through the hole in the fence, down the alleyway that led out to the other street.

He was surprised and relieved to see Emily there. He loaded Bethan and Hanna into the car.

“Get them somewhere safe! Take them home if you can get away clean,” he instructed her before closing the door. He left the others, hunkered down in the alley—at least it was safe there for the moment—the house had been abandoned for some time.

*-*-*

When Diego saw Double-A make his move, he decided to make his own. After a silent prayer to Lady Death, he charged onto the roof, keeping his balance on the slanted surface, taking aim on the last two assailants.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The first victim went down easy, he was looking for where the AK fire was coming from and had left himself exposed to an attack from above. Unfortunately, there was no cover on the roof, where he was and after mowing down the first Surreno—he was exposed and an easy target for the second.

The shot barely missed his ribcage en route to lodging itself in his shoulder. Diego spun and fell, sliding off the edge of the roof to land hard on the dead lawn. The one who’d shot him rose from cover to finish the job, just in time to catch another volley of AK fire from Double-A.

BLAP!BLAP!BLAP!

Diego sighed, he was wounded but victorious. Now El Lopez would have no choice but to try and come handle this himself—which would prove to be a fatal flaw.

He rolled over onto his back, smearing blood on his screen as he texted Olivia.

“We won. Stay put, I’ll be there soon. Te amo.”

 

[Curious_Muse]

Finally. The soft ping that announced a message. Olivia darted for her phone.

“Thank god,” she whispered, staring at her screen, relief washing over her.

“Me, too, “ she typed. “Come quickly, I don’t want to be without you for another minute.”

***

Lucia mentally added Chewy to her growing list of future targets, should she make it out of there alive. The cholo had suddenly grown too big a mouth. But he was not the priority.

Diego Torres was definitely number one now. The top of her kill list.

She still felt nauseous. That fucking son of a bitch. And Torres knew. He had been there that night.

Her body pressed against the dry grass, she tried to take long, deep breaths. A bullet ricocheted off a metal rod over the fence and slammed into the wall above her.

Miguel Angel had decided to throw his only daughter under a bus. Interesting, and a little surprising. But she would prove to him that she was worth the faith he had put in her.

***

“Why the fuck do they get to leave?” Blaire hissed, watching Chewy steer Hanna and that annoying English chick towards the street and to freedom. What had they done to deserve this first-class treatment?

Amanda was sitting next to her, shaking and covering her ears with her hands. “What if Hector is hit? What then?” she whined. Blaire wondered how that guy had brainwashed her so thoroughly in such little time, but then again, it probably did not take much. “If he dies, who will protect me?” Blaire decided to ignore her.

The other woman had managed to wiggle herself into an upright position against the wall of the abandoned house. Her eyes closed, she seemed to be meditating, or sleeping, or whatever the fuck a total nutcase like her would do during a gang shootout. “Why did I go to this fucking party?” Blaire muttered to herself. “I didn’t even want to go.”

Olga, looking even more grotesquely out of place now in her whorish cheerleading outfit and her garish make-up, decided that this was a good moment, maybe the only one she would get, to try and get away from this freak show. Chewy had been kind enough to cut her binds, and she did not intend to stay even one second longer. Keeping her head as low as she could, she darted towards the alleyway.

“Fuck…!” Blaire followed her with her gaze. That bitch would get herself killed, but it was tempting to try. They were alone now, the crazy Mexican woman could not stop them now, and by the looks of it, she didn’t care. Blaire fidgeted, trying to estimate her chances of getting away without being hit by a stray bullet. A good fifty percent, at least. What was the alternative? Hope that whoever would come out on top of this feud would let them go?

“He’d like you.”

Blaire looked at the woman, puzzled. That bitch really was crazy. She was sitting with her back against the wall and smiled at her, unfazed and calm as if she was making conversation over coffee. On the other side of the fence they heard a thwack, a bullet hitting flesh, following by a gargling noise, as if someone tried to suck a liquid through a blocked straw. Amanda started crying.

“He has an eye for talent.”

“What? Who are you taking about?”

“Miguel Angel.” The gargling noise became more desperate before it stopped entirely. Lucia did not even flinch. “He’d be thrilled to meet you.”

***

Emily, her hands on the wheel, nodded at Chewy as he helped the two terrified girls into the backseat. “I’ll take them to Olivia,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s the safest place right now.”

Just then Valentina and Inez ran towards them, still ducking for cover, even though they were far out of the line of fire by now. Without asking or saying a word, Inez shoved her cousin next to Hanna and Bethan.

“We need to come, too,” she told Emily. “And we need to leave. Now.”

 

[UnHolyPimpHand]

“Shit!” Chewy barked as he dove through the small window, struggling slightly at his most vulnerable point, only underscoring how terrible this plan was—but he was able to get back onto his feet quickly with the boost of a little adrenaline that flooded him once he realized how vulnerable he was, “Stop! Come back here—hey!”

The gunshots around the front of the house had stopped, so Chewy raised his voice before he raised his pistol, but he squared his aim to Olga’s back. The orders might not have been explicit—but he knew better than to let a hostage get away, especially in her condition. He decided to give her one last chance, he fired a warning shot just a few feet above her head. Close enough that she’d hear it whistle by.

BANG!

“Come back here now, I won’t ask again,” Chewy called after Olga, resetting his aim between her shoulder blades, while still trying to maintain some semblance of order among the other girls behind him, “now listen, I might be able to let you all out of this, but I need certain reassurances. Otherwise I need to make sure you keep your secrets forever. Now come back.”

Chewy quickly turned back on Lucia, not wanting her to get too far from his immediate gaze.

“That goes for any of you that get antsy back there. I will kill you if I have to—but if you’re smart, I shouldn’t have to.”

*-*-*

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Diego texted Olivia back before he even applied pressure to the bullet wound in his arm. He was sick of all of this. He just wanted to be alone with Olivia again—to feel her arms around him and her lips on his.

He practically used his gun as a crutch to push himself up onto all fours before painfully crawling to his feet. Everything was aching from the fall and he estimated that at least two ribs were cracked—but that pain was still minor compared to the bullet wound, despite the fact that his internal injuries might be more severe.

Diego was beyond sick and tired of this shit—but he couldn’t stop, Not now. Not if he ever wanted to be able to rest easy and live without looking over his shoulder. The trap for Miguel Angel was still in waiting and for now, his negotiation with Valentina was at a standstill. Better to be scarce for now, he thought as he pains-takingly climbed into the driver’s seat of his Mercedes.

Kill the culprits. Do the job he was brought here to do, that no man could call him traitor.

Diego left part of his tires behind as he sped off toward the home of the Lennards.

 

[Curious_Muse]

The cell phone on the table chimed twice. Luiz picked it up and looked at the message and the attached picture.

“Torres found the money and the culprit.” He put the phone down. “It’s handled.”

Miguel Ángel Lopez Castillo rubbed the bridge of his nose and said nothing. He looked tired. The last couple of days had taken their toll. Luiz still struggled to believe that the dumpster fire that his daughter started had grown into something of a near-unstoppable conflagration, and that the flames were fanned by no other than Diego fucking Torres, a man who had until now been nothing if not loyal and reliable.

Lopez could put down this little shitshow of a rebellion up north, but it would be messy. It would cost more lives, a lot of money, and, most importantly, it would set off alarm bells in places that his organization had spent considerable time and effort to get on their side, or at least, to look the other way. And Lopez hated nothing more than having to stick his hands into the metaphorical can crawling with worms.

Valentina had thoroughly screwed up this time, and Luiz knew that her father was mad at her. Word was that his mistress – the sweet, domesticated one, La Pantera would make a terrible mother – was pregnant, and Luiz had been there when his boss had called Andres. He knew that he had not meant any of the words he had said. He adored his baby girl. She was the other reason that he did not want to risk all-out war on that side of the border. These things had a habit of spinning out of control, and fast, and ended up devouring those one loved most. Nobody knew this better than Lopez.

“Let Torres know that I am ready to forgive him.”

“But…boss…that’s…”

Lopez silenced his first lieutenant with an impatient wave of his hand.

“I have only two conditions.”

Despite his obvious discontent, Luiz nodded.

“One: I want Lucia back unharmed.” The other man said nothing. It was no secret that Luiz had no love for La Pantera, but maybe it would help if that bitch came back to him after this blunder. Maybe Lopez would finally stop putting her on a pedestal. Maybe, and this was a thought he would never dare to utter out loud, she would be reprimanded in a way that benefitted him, Luiz, as well. Because while many things could be said about Lucia, she was certainly very fuckable.

“And the second?”

“I want him to come and offer an apology.” Lopez stood up. “And I want him to introduce the accountant’s daughter to me. I am curious about the girl that got into Torres’ head like this, that single-handedly started a war.” He turned around at the door. “Tell Torres that this extremely generous offer is non-negotiable. If he refuses, or tries to run, I will find him and his little paramour. And I will make sure that she will work off his debt to me in the seediest fuck dump in Tijuana.”

Lopez did not need to spell out what was understood. If Torres was allowed to walk, they would need another scapegoat. Someone that would stand as an example for anyone else dreaming of screwing over El Jefe.

***

“Still no news from Diego?” Emily shook her head. Olivia was still pacing on the patio, her eyes glued to the screen of her phone. It had been hours since the last message. Since then, radio silence. “What if something happened?”

Emily was not worried about Diego, not yet. However, she did grow increasingly uneasy over the presence of their two unwanted house guests. The Mexican girl was sitting by the pool, whispering with her cousin. What if those men that had shot up the house came looking for them? What if they alerted someone to their whereabouts, and what if that someone was not inclined to play nice? Emily still did not fully understand who Diego had pissed off, but it was clear that this somebody had already racked up a body count.

Hannah and Bethan were inside the house, sleeping, with the help of her mom’s little pink pills. Emily put her arm around Olivia. “He’ll be here. Don’t worry. He told you he would be.” Then she added, in a lower voice: “Let’s just hope that those two over there manage not to turn this little get-together into a fucking disaster as well.”

***

“It looks not much worse than before,” Lucia observed dryly. The house resembled a war zone. Shards of glass covered overturned furniture, and there were at least two bodies she could see from where she stood. The freak cheerleader had not dared to run after all, but stood meekly next to her, sobbing quietly. Lucia noted that the sharp brunette was the only one of the three girls who did not cry or avert her eyes.

“So, what happens now?” Lucia looked at the gangbanger who was shoving the barrel of his gun into her ribs. “Looks like you cannot hide here anymore and I am really starting to get bored.”

 

[UnHolyPimpHand]

“You’re kidding,” Diego said dryly into the phone, settling his car to park outside the upscale McMansion—just a few doors down from where it had all started. He’d met these people, let them slip away, “I’d like nothing more than to make things right, but it seems too good to be true.”

Diego stood upright, the phone still held against the side of his face. He’d drawn the sickle of Santa Muerte on the sidewalk in front of this revised target.

“I’m here at the house of the actual culprits now, I can bring them with me and you lot can do what you do, get them to confess. I can deliver Pantara as well, that’s not a problem. I’d be glad to be rid of her,” Diego rang the bell, “but if he tries anything with my girl he’s going to experience a hell the likes of which even his sick mind couldn’t imagine.”

“Hello?” Steve Lennard opened the door, “oh, Diego wasn’t it?”

Steve had his lights punched out before he even realized he’d been found out. Amy, on the other hand, saw him coming and did some screaming until the sight of the pistol shocked her into meek compliance. Diego dragged Steve into the garage and tossed him into the trunk of his own luxury SUV.

“You too,” Diego gestured with his gun, indicating that Amy should join her husband in the trunk.

Leaving Kate’s car behind, Diego drove to the Tres Seis HQ—or what was left of it where he picked up the last of his hostages. On the way to the safehouse, Diego called his contact and cancelled the hit. It was against his better judgment, but he was going to lead this merry band right into the lion’s den and count on the forgiveness of a monster.

This operation was only becoming more fucked up.

When, at last, everyone was assembled at the safe house, Diego kissed Olivia with a fierce and determined passion that threatened briefly to escalate and delay the entire operation—that was until the pain and blood loss from his bullet wound caused his vision to go fuzzy around the edges and his knees to nearly buckle. Perhaps he was hurt worse than he realized.

“Emily, can you drive the Lennards’ truck. We need to get to the airport.”

Chewy was already loading up his vehicle.

 

[Curious_Muse]

Olivia looked out the window as the ground fell away beneath the private jet that Lopez had sent. Diego, his eyes closed, seemed to be dozing next to her. She did not dare to touch even his hand, for fear that she might hurt him, and irrationally afraid that the pain killers would wear off faster if she did. They had used whatever they had been able to find in the raid on the home pharmacy of Emily’s aunt, and patched Diego’s shoulder up with a pressure bandage. It looked like the bullet had missed any major arteries, but it was impossible to know if it had shattered bone or caused any other kind of internal damage. Olivia had insisted on a hospital, but she had been the only one. None of the others had thought it wise to make Lopez wait, least of all his own daughter who was now curled up in her seat, sullen and quiet. Valentina had only remarked that this hadn’t been Diego’s first encounter with a bullet, and that this one didn’t look like it would be his last.

Sick with worry, Olivia inched as close to him as she dared, straining to hear if his breathing sounded labored.

“He’ll be fine,” Emily said nonchalantly, watching her. “If blood loss were an issue, he’d be dead by now. Besides, they’ll know what to do with a gunshot wound where we are going. What better place than the lair of a narco boss?”

Olivia ignored the snark. Apparently she was the only one who felt intense unease about going to Mexico, though it had been her who had urged Diego to accept Lopez’ “invitation” to bring her along. Though, and as she had told her very distraught parents, Lopez had made it quite plain that they did not have a real choice. Emily had insisted she should come, for no other reason that she did not want to miss out on meeting a real kingpin, and, as she had put it, to score some “hot killer dick”.

Valentina had decided to leave her gaggle of hostages with Ignacio and the Tres Seis, convinced that a group of strung-out, weepy gringas would do nothing to improve her chances to appease her father. Blaire had been very unhappy, and Olga had cried and begged them to take her with them to Mexico – a sight Emily had enjoyed a little bit – but Amanda had been quite content to stay with that guy Hector. Double A had promised to take care of Hanna and Bethan, and they had no choice but to trust that he would keep them safe.

The Lennards had been less fortunate. They sat, blindfolded and their hands cuffed with plastic ties in front of them, in the back of the plane. Steve was unconscious, or pretended to be, and Olivia tried extremely hard to ignore Amy’s intermittent whimpers.

It was more difficult to ignore Lucia. Olivia was glad that Chewy sat next to her with his .45 Glock in his lap despite the fact that her hands were cuffed, too. There was something extremely unsettling about how quiet she was, about the way she looked at her and Diego from under lowered lashes, and about that psycho bitch smile on her lips when she realized that Olivia had been watching her.

***

The jet came to a standstill on a landing strip that was nothing more than a lick of asphalt between green hills and patches of forest. Three black SUVs stood at the end of the runway. Luiz was leaning against the side of his car as the eclectic party of travelers approached.

“Welcome back to Mexico, kiddo,” he said to Valentina, who only nodded in reply. Inez glanced warily at the two other sicarios who were both holding semi-automatics. She had not wanted to come but knew that her staying behind in LA might provide the wrong people with too much collateral. Luiz followed her gaze. “Please meet my associates, Arturo and Marcos.” He pointed over his shoulder. “Have a seat.” Inez mumbled a reply before climbing onto the backseat, next to Valentina.

“You look like shit, Torres,” Luiz commented dryly as the fixer walked up to him, flanked by Olivia and Emily. “I have to admit that this brings me joy.”

Then his eyes fell on the Lennards and he frowned. “Why did you bring these pinche gabachos here? Are we supposed to do your homework for you?” Without waiting for a reply, he nodded at Marcos, who shoved the couple unceremoniously into the back of his SUV. “Being pussy-whipped has made you sloppy, Torres.”

***

Olivia didn’t know what she had expected, but Lopez was surprisingly – and disconcertingly – nice.

He welcomed them in the yard of a beautiful old hacienda lined with blossoming trees and fragrant flowers. “M’ija!” He walked towards Valentina and embraced her as soon as she had gotten out of the car. “I have been worried sick.” The girl was as unnerved as Olivia by this warm reception, which did nothing to alleviate her fears. Diego had warned them that Lopez was the most terrifying of monsters: he enjoyed to play with his prey.

When he saw Diego, he gave his daughter a kiss and said: “Go on, you and your cousin can make yourselves comfortable.” The others followed them, accompanied by the three sicarios who had driven them to the estate. Olivia shooed a hesitant Emily along, not wanting to risk her friend to put her foot in her mouth in the very first moment.

“Diego,” he said, extending his hand. “I am glad that you made it.” Then he turned towards Olivia, took her hand and gently lifted it to his lips. Old school. “I am excited to make your acquaintance, Señorita Anderson. I have heard so much about you and can’t wait to get to know you better, even if the circumstances of this meeting are…peculiar.”

“Mucho gusto”, Olivia muttered, too intimidated to say anything else.

“I can see that you are unwell, so I will not keep you long.” He vaguely pointed towards Diego’s shoulder. “Dr. Urrega will have a look at that. We will talk over dinner. There is much to discuss, but you should rest now.”

***

“Lucia.”

She went out on the patio that overlooked the valley. It had always been her favorite spot in the house. Her hair still damp from the shower, freshly dressed in a silk blouse and jeans she felt better than she had in days. Miguel was leaning against the wooden railing, holding two mezcal glasses, offering one to her.

“It’s your favorite.”

Her bare feet made no sound on the stone tiles. His fingers brushed against his when she took the glass, and she downed the burning liquid in one gulp, her eyes never leaving his. “I have missed you,” she purred.

He took her hand into his, and kissed the tips of her fingers, one by one.

“I am glad to have you back.”

Lucia leant forward, expecting a kiss. Miguel smiled.

“California was a disaster.”

“I agree.” Lucia withdrew her hand angrily, taken aback by this change of topic.

“You must feel terrible about this slip-up, mi corazon.”

In lieu of an answer, Lucia refilled her glass.

“Our contacts were able to cover up our tracks quick enough to make it look like a local conflict. Gangs. Little fish.” He emptied his glass and set it down on. “That leaves the little gringas. It will cost us to convince Ignacio to take the fall for that one. I am told they are all rich girls, daughters of lawyers, politicians…cops. A pile of dynamite that my darling daughter left in Ignacio’s lap. He’s not happy.”

“We were handling it. Torres overstepped. He shouldn’t have gotten involved.” She cracked her knuckles.

“I understand that you and Diego had an altercation.” Miguel’s voice was like velvet.

“An altercation? He drugged me, Miguel. He laid hands on me. He killed our men.” Lucia scoffed, her eyes blazing. “An altercation! But that asshole will pay for his disrespect.”

Miguel was on her without any warning. He shoved her bodily against the stone wall, his fingers wrapped around her slender throat, cutting off her yelp of surprise and pain. “Still talking back to me, puta?” His voice was still just as calm, just as soft as before. If she could have, Lucia would have shaken her head, but she was unable to move.

“If you didn’t know that Leon was fucking my daughter, you failed. If you did know, but did nothing to stop it, you failed.” His face was inches from hers. “Diego went easy on that pinche pendejo.” His grip tightened, and Lucia started to struggle for air. The glass she had still been holding on to slid from her grasp and shattered on the stone tiles. “He went easy on you.”

“Please…,” she rasped.

Miguel glared at her, watching her face turn a dangerously dark shade of red. “I gave you this position because I thought I could rely on you.”

“Y…you…c..can.” Her vision started to blur. “I am…s…sorry.”

“Finally, an apology.” He relaxed his grip enough for her to draw breath, wheezing and coughing. “You forget who you are, Lucia, mi amor.” Tears welled up in her eyes and she angrily wiped them off. Pathetic. Miguel released her throat and caressed her cheek, wiping away the tears. “And that you’re as much Diego’s creature as you are mine.”

He lifted her left arm up to her face, while his thumb brushed gently over the four crosses tattooed onto her inner wrist. “You owe him, Lucia.” His free hand slid down from her face, down over her breasts and flat stomach, to undo the button of her jeans. She did not move. His hand snaked into her pants, and she gasped.

“We turned you into a beast,” he whispered, while his middle finger gently parted the inner lips of her weeping sex. “A very beautiful, deadly beast.” His thumb started to circle slowly around her slippery clit, making her moan. “We taught you how to stalk your prey.” Miguel pushed only the tip of his finger inside her. “We taught you how to inflict pain.” He pushed his finger deeper, curling it against her G-spot. “We taught you how to kill.” He added another finger, while he started to rub harder on her clit. “We taught you obedience.” Lucia’s legs started to tremble, and her wetness now clearly audible as he continued to fingerfuck her in deep, languid strokes. Lucia squeezed her thighs around his hand, whimpering, moving with him, urging him on. Her eyes were closed to half-lids, her full lips parted. She was so close.

He stopped, watching her. “But you go and turn against him. Against me.”

Lucia growled with frustration but did not dare to protest. He pinched her clit between his fingers, hard. “Do you know what people do with animals that turn rabid?” he whispered into her ear, his fingers buried in her wet pussy up to his knuckles, unmoving. She twisted in his grip, both wanting to escape him and desperate for him to continue. He could feel her clench down on him with the firm muscles of her cunt, seeking relief. His other hand went to her throat again, his fingers closing around her windpipe. Her mouth fell open as she struggled for breath, her eyes widened in panic.

“Are you a rabid animal, Lucia?”

She shook her head, no, desperate for air. Lucia squirmed in his grip, her face flushing bright red as he choked her.

“I will give you one last chance to prove it,” he said softly. “Don’t disappoint me again.”

As he released her throat, he twisted his fingers inside her, while massaging her clit with his thumb.

Greedily sucking in air, her pussy clamped down on him like a trap as she neared release. “I won’t,” she sputtered, her eyes rolling back in her head, as he fucked her hard, almost lofting her feet off the ground with each thrust of his fingers. “I…DIOS!” Her orgasm ripped through her with such intensity that she threatened to collapse, screaming out her ecstasy.

“Good girl.” He smiled as she came, bucking against his hand, her cheeks wet with tears.

He lifted his drenched fingers to her mouth, and she obediently started to suck them clean.

“Diego is my finest asset, my sharpest weapon, mi amor,” he said as he casually wiped his hand dry on the silk of her blouse. “As long as I don’t command you to, you will not hurt him.” Lucia nodded. He stepped away from her.

“I have found number five,” Miguel said, lighting a cigarette. He gestured toward her wrist. “The last missing cross.”

Lucia’s eyes narrowed. “Esparza’s son? Where?”

“Costa Rica. Trying to poach our Colombian suppliers.”

“That…he knows you have been looking for him. Why would he do that?”

“Hubris? Idiocy? It doesn’t matter. I want him handled. And I want you and Diego to do it. Like old times.” Lucia stared at him, saying nothing. Miguel smiled as he blew the smoke from his lips. “It’ll be an excellent opportunity for you kids to kiss and make up. Leave all this…unpleasantness behind us.”

“He won’t agree to that.”

“He will. You see, for the first time, Diego Torres has something to lose.”

 

[UnHolyPimpHand]

From the moment they landed in Mexico, Diego was aware of a nagging sense of unease that crept in with the heat. An unfamiliar sense of being unwelcome in his home. He was silent and slept for most of the plane ride and kept a hand over his tenuously closed bullet wound as he walked to the waiting car, the taunting from Luiz was almost too much to bear, but Diego was in no condition to retaliate, not yet at least. Luiz was still green, it seemed—not deep enough in the game to know how widely and often the balance of power can shift—and how quickly it can shift back.

“I am alive,” Diego remarked as he climbed into the car, “so long as that is true, I’m keeping my own accounts, as always. So, I’d be a little more careful with how much debt you let your big mouth take on. Day may come that I come back to collect…”

The last bit was almost under his breath as Diego climbed into the car. He desperately hated everything about this situation, but he trusted his read on Lopez. Above all else, Lopez was a businessman. The failed assassination attempt had likely set him back quite a bit and protracted warfare was expensive and a bad investment. Coming here was his act of contrition, now Diego had to convince him that there was more value in keeping him alive.

Lopez’ greeting made the hairs on the back of Diego’s neck stand up, the feigned congeniality—his lips on Olivia’s skin… his condescending concern for his shoulder.

“I’ve had worse,” Diego shrugged before reluctantly accepting the help of Lopez’ in-house surgeon, “but a few proper stitches might help me to heal faster… not here though.”

Diego was relieved for the break, it allowed him the chance to get his stitches done properly and more importantly, have some time alone with Olivia.

He did his best to comfort her and prepare her for almost anything, but once they seemed to be alone again, Dr.Urrega taking her leave—Diego melted into a deep kiss with Olivia, at once grateful that they had survived this long and uncertain if they’d have the chance to be alone together again. It bode well that Lopez hadn’t immediately killed them, or hung them out the jump door on the plane ride in—but they were a long way from safe.

“I’m so sorry,” Diego whispered as the kiss broke with all reluctance, “I should have stayed and fought him—what happens now is out of my control. I’m sorry to have gotten you involved in this.”

Diego wished that they had the time to make love, but he wanted to get a shower before this contentious dinner where they would discuss his fate—something he’d need help with, given the freshness of his stitches.

“I need a shower, amor. Will you help me?”

*-*-*

A few hours later, Diego and Olivia reappeared as a vision of poise and confidence, feigned though it must have been—they struck an intimidating image together and unified in purpose. Diego pulled out Olivia’s chair for her and sat beside her, his snakeskin boots reflecting the light.

“Thank you for having us, Sir. I appreciate the opportunity to redeem myself in your eyes. I want you to know that I only ever acted on your behalf. One of your associates took it upon herself to attack my beloved based on bad information and what I can only assume was jealousy. The Andersons were punished unduly, made to suffer for a crime that wasn’t theirs. Paul Anderson was a scapegoat for the Lennards who both willfully and deliberately stole from you. I brought them here to answer for their crimes in whatever ways you wish to exact your revenge. I never wanted anything you have, nor did I intend to cross you—I simply found something worth fighting for—and I’ll do whatever it takes to get the both of us clear of this.”

 

[Curious_Muse]

Olivia threw a furtive glance at Diego while he was talking. She felt extremely uncomfortable but tried not to let it show. Diego had been distant and distracted since they had left, and it started to dawn on her that coming with him might have been a rash idea. After all, what did she know about him? Their infatuation had started at what could only be called an alcohol-soaked and coke-induced orgy, and how good an advisor was lust?

He was hurt, yes, but since that one, first, fuck he had barely had time to touch her, and all they had done was exchange a few breathless texts. Now, with the adrenaline wearing off, Olivia wondered if she had painted herself into a very dangerous corner.

None of this felt good.

Emily on the other hand looked, as ever, like she was born to attend the dinner of a cartel boss. She looked radiant in a long summer dress, and was making animated conversation with a heavily pregnant, and very beautiful woman who was seated to the left of Lopez.

Olivia stared down at the bowl of pozole. It smelled heavenly, but her stomach was in knots. She could not help but notice the men holding machine guns of some kind strolling around the garden where the table had been set up.

***

Lucia snorted when Diego, pointedly ignoring her, called her one of Lopez’ “associates”. Was he for real? She was tempted to make a comment of her own, about how Diego knew very well what kind of punishment (a bullet to the head) Lopez thought fit for the likes of the Lennards, and how to dispose of them (lime, usually – or a good old-fashioned shovel), and that it was odd that he, Diego, suddenly thought himself above doing the grunt work he had, after all, been hired to do and that he was so very good at. But she bit her tongue.

Lopez ignored the gibe and nodded. “I am very glad to hear this. And as it happens, there is something you can do for me.” He shoved a grainy photograph across the table. “It is time to finish our joint project. Esparza has turned up in Costa Rica.”

There was a brief silence. Olivia craned her neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the picture. It was a photograph of a youngish man standing on what looked like the deck of a yacht.

“Lucia is eager for her last cross, and since you have done such good work before, I expect that you will help her get it.” He smiled at Olivia. “You are of course very welcome to wait here for Diego’s return, cariña.” It was obvious to everyone at the table that this was not an invitation, but an order. “Of course your lovely friend can stay as well.”

Lopez looked at Diego. “I am sure it will hasten your return to know how much Olivia will miss you. And my daughter will appreciate the company.” He looked at Valentina who had not yet said anything all evening. “Especially because we expect some fickle guests here soon that would love to spend time in delightful company, and her latest misadventures have made her a bit shy.” He patted his daughter’s hand amicably, and it did not escape Olivia that Valentina’s fingers were shaking.

He leaned back. “Now, let’s eat! I am sure you must be starving.”

***

Inez opened the door without knocking. Like all of the others, Chewy had his own room in the hacienda, a sun-lit space with a terrace onto the lush green valley. The soft light of the setting sun, the faint sound of the fountain in the yard – it was almost idyllic. The girl, wearing a tight tank top and jeans, was quite obviously high.

Leaning against the doorframe, she nodded her head at Chewy.

“Was it smart of you to come here?” Without being invited in, she plopped down onto the bed. “I mean, you do realize that you are…what’s the word? Collateral?”

Inez knew that this was how she felt. Her old man would have been watching the power tectonics play out, and from his vantage point, it might not look like Lopez was winning. And that was not all. She had been the one inviting her cousin to that fucking party that had set this shit train in motion, and then there was all the business with Leon. Lopez was not a forgiving man, and Inez knew that he was not above hurting girls…or family, for that matter.

“If your boss decides that it is time to cut Lopez loose, you are dead meat.” She grinned at him. “Or if Lopez decides that it is time to throw the Tres Seis under a bus. God knows he might after the shit that went down up north.”

Inez pulled her top over her head to reveal a pair of tight little tits and threw the garment on the floor.

“I guess all we can do is wait. But I have a better idea what to do with our time than a tense family dinner.” She wiggled out of her jeans, leaving her in nothing but a skimpy pair of lace panties. “That’s what you wanted back in the safe house, isn’t it? Come on…it might be your last chance.”

 

[UnHolyPimpHand]

Chewy grinned as Inez disrobed, despite her rather cutting observations about his current situation, raising one leg up onto the bed as she shook herself free of her jeans. He could tell that she was fucked up, but in the long ledger of his sins, Chewy esteemed the questionable consent of a fucked-up twenty-something to be minor compared to the offenses against God he'd committed in the last seventy-two or so hours.

He slipped the cork into the tequila bottle and set it aside on his bedside table, leaning forward to shed his own undershirt, revealing a tapestry of gang-related tattoos and more than a few scars.

“Just because it’s not an awkward dinner doesn’t mean I can’t eat something nice,” With his leg still laid out straight on the bed, Chewy reached his whole arm between Inez’ slender thighs and pulled her closer by one cheek of her firm ass.

As she was dragged closer, Chewy shrugged his tattooed shoulder under her leg and wrapped his whole mouth around the warm mound of her pussy through her thin, lacy panties. His tongue went quickly to work, prodding at her clit and thrashing around against the crease of her sex like a feral, wounded thing in his mouth. A lewd slurping noise emitted from his sucking and lapping at the outline of her pussy, while his strong hand squeezed tighter on her ass cheek which fit daintily in his palm.

“I think our dinner is shaping up to be much more fun than theirs,” Chewy grinned up from between her legs, still brushing his lips over her wet patch as he spoke and used his other hand to unbuckle his belt.

*-*-*

“No,” Diego said flatly, the façade of civility fading all at once, “these terms are unacceptable. I brought my heart here that you might see her and know that what I said is true. I no longer exist or function as an individual. She and I have been through so much, suffered together and suffered from being apart—all in pursuit of your few missing pennies that her father was wrongfully assumed of taking. I brought you the true culprits to… torture or rape or burn alive—or whatever sick ritual you want to undertake with them. That concludes our prior contract.

“If you wish me to do this thing for you—in recompense that I rightly owe you and her, I will do it—but Olivia will come too. The realities of what I do are no longer details I can pretend to be able to shelter her from. She is not only my lover, but my apprentice. By way of collateral, she will leave her best friend in your hospitable care. You will treat her with the same dignity and respect as you would Olivia, I have no doubt.

“When Pantera returns to you, her crosses all assembled—there shall be no outstanding debt between us, financial or otherwise. You shall never see or contact any of us once we depart your residence. I trust you’ll find these terms satisfactory—given your stated motives. If other motives compel your decision, I’d prefer that you made them clear.”

Diego’s heart was hammering in his chest, but outwardly gave no sign. He picked up his fork and resumed eating as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He glanced back to Olivia and gave her a wink.

He then turned back to Lopez for an answer, still chewing as if at an afternoon picnic.

 

[Curious_Muse]

Inez reached for the bottle, removed the cork with her teeth and spat it onto the floor before she took a deep swig from it. The liquid burned down her throat and made her wince, but she took another gulp before turning her full attention on Chewy as he pulled her close.

The sensation of his tongue through the thin fabric of her panties was electrifying. “Fuck, yes,” Inez moaned as he started to suck at her clit. The slender girl was like a doll in his grip, bucking against him as he went to town on her weeping pussy. She raised the bottle to her lips again, set on drinking herself into a stupor tonight, having this cholo fuck her senseless. With her left hand, she caressed his face, urging him on.

When she took another swig, his efforts made her moan so loudly that she almost choked on the tequila, spilling it down her perky tits, her stomach, soaking her panties. “Tasty, eh,” she sniggered, rotating her hips against him, so eager for more.

Looking down at him, Inez traced an angry red scar that ran across Chewy’s chest. “You like it rough, huh?” she cooed. “So do I.”

***

Collateral? Emily almost coughed the stew she had been tasting across the table. Motherfucker. She tried to get Diego to look at her, to realize that there was no way in hell that she would stay behind in the cartel boss’ lair while he and Olivia were travelling to Costa Rica in the company of that psycho bitch. She cleared her throat, sat up straight and stared at the fixer who seemed to have forgotten that she was even there. Completely against her character Emily remained otherwise quiet, scared to draw undue attention to herself.

Luiz had no such qualms. “This is not a negotiation of terms, Torres.” He put down his glass with more force than he intended. “Do you really think you are in any position to make demands after the shit you pulled in California? For pussy? You have no idea how many people have asked for your head, and if it was up to me, I’d indulge them.”

“Let’s not fight,” Lopez said, gesturing for his lieutenant to be quiet. “Not tonight.” He dabbed at his mouth with the linen napkin and sat back in his chair. “But Luiz is not wrong. My trust in you has taken a hit, Diego.” Then he looked at Lucia. “Things have been going smoothly for us up north until both of you decided to blow it all up. Quite literally.” The cartel boss sighed. “People are angry. They are calling for a scapegoat, for blood. Now is not the time to let small differences come between us, or the wolves will come for us.” He tore off a piece of tortilla and mopped off some of the pozole. “Nobody trusts a rogue freelancer. I have protected you, Diego, and I will continue to do so. But my patience has limits.”

Before Diego could protest, Lopez continued. Nodding towards Olivia, he said with a smile: “I would have never thought of you as a romantic. But I understand you. She is magnificent.” Olivia, uncomfortable that she was to become the topic of conversation, exchanged a look with Emily. “This ravishing creature is your apprentice, you say?” Olivia blushed a deep crimson, as all heads turned in her direction. She had no idea what Diego had meant, and she was not sure if she was happy with his announcement. “Fascinating. I would have never guessed such a sweet girl to be capable of what this profession will demand of her.” He raised an eyebrow at Lucia. “But we said the same about you, cariña.”

The raven-haired beauty at his side said nothing as the father of her child lovingly caressed Lucia’s wrist. “And I remember the thrill of those days, the pleasure of seeing what nobody else was able to see, of bringing out the talent in her.” Olivia withdrew her hands from the table to avoid that the others saw that they were shaking. She was barely able to breathe. Lopez’ tone, while amicable enough, drove chills down her spine.

“Who am I to stand in the way of such mutual devotion?” He lifted his glass. “To the happy couple!” His associates and family followed suit, as did Emily, who sensed that Diego had dug a slippery hole for themselves. Valentina was nervously fidgeting with her spoon. “To the Skinny Lady and her new disciple!” Lucia laughed softly before downing the mezcal in one swig, while Luiz watched Olivia with a sardonic smile. Lopez turned to Diego again. “The trip to Costa Rica will be dangerous. Esparza is an idiot, but an idiot with enough money to afford the best protection. We cannot afford any more failures, and I am not at all sure that your apprentice will be safe there.” Olivia forced herself to withstand his gaze this time as he appraised her again. “But maybe she will be able to convince me right here and right now that she is indeed up for the job.” Emily noticed that he faintly nodded towards two of the men patrolling the garden.

“And that first time…,” he said softly, locking eyes with Olivia. “You will never forget it.” Olivia answered with an anxious smile, unsure what exactly the cartel boss was referring to, secretly hoping that Diego had not betrayed her confidence by telling him about the first, coke-induced, time that they had fucked. The only time, really! “I suppose so,” she whispered, hoping that he would drop the topic. Then, seeing Emily’s eyes widen in panic, she turned around to see that the two guards who had left the garden now returned, one leading Amy Lennard, the other her husband. Both were blindfolded and handcuffed, stumbling along.

Lopez nodded to Luiz, who reached into his jacket to reveal a .45 handgun and extend it towards Olivia, handle first. “Please,” Lopez invited her, as if asking her to accept an especially generous gift. “Take it.”

Emily looked at Diego. This was utterly fucked up, but she blamed him. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, but Lopez did not seem to trust that he would simply sit through it. “I know how hard it is to let them fly, but we have to.” One of the men that had picked them up at the air strip and that Luiz had introduced as Arturo now pointed his gun at Diego’s head. Lopez smiled and leant back. “Otherwise, how will they ever learn to soar?” Emily noticed that at least three of the other guards had positioned themselves around them with their guns drawn. Fuck. She barely dared to move, and hoped that Diego would not, either, while hoping at the same time that he would put an end to this, peacefully.

Olivia, pale and trembling, stared at the gun. In a small, toneless voice, she asked: “What do you want me to do with it?” Lopez cocked his head and raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. Then he motioned at the unlucky couple who were now kneeling in the grass. Amy was mumbling incoherently, while Steve just swayed softly in his captor’s grip. It was clear that they had both been drugged. “My dear, I would like you to finish the job that your teacher has started.” Luiz impatiently nodded toward the gun in his hand. “Or was Diego lying to us?” Olivia stared at Lopez. The sudden ice in his voice did not make her want to reply in the affirmative. She was not sure that Arturo would not simply shoot Diego if she admitted that she had no clear idea even of what it was that Diego was doing for Lopez, and what she was supposed to be learning. Her pleading eyes travelled from the cartel boss to her lover and to Emily. Her friend, pale as a sheet herself, shrugged helplessly, while also shaking her head no. Surely they did not expect Olivia to murder her parents’ party guests?

Olivia took the gun from Luiz’ hand with shaking fingers. It was obvious to everyone watching that she was unsure even how to hold it, and afraid that it would go off in her grip. “The safety is still on,“ Luiz said dryly.

What now? She wrapped her fingers around the handle of the weapon, feeling nauseous and faint, staring at it in horror. “He did not teach you much, did he,” Lopez said, watching her. “Let me show you.” He got up and guided her towards the two hostages. He stood right behind her, wrapping his arms around her to hold the gun with her, pointing it at Amy who was crying under her blindfold. Olivia held her breath.

“Go on, sweetheart,” Lopez urged. She could feel his warmth against her body, smell his expensive perfume. His hands over hers were tender, almost loving. “These two have betrayed me, they have betrayed your family, and they would have let you take the fall for their greed. Do you think she would hesitate even one second if the roles were reversed?” His finger curled around Olivia’s on the trigger. She shook her head, pleading for this to end. Had he switched off the safety? She had no idea.

“Don’t!” Emily could not watch this. Olivia was no killer! She bounced up from her chair. “Stop!” Luiz, seated to her left, forced her back down, whispering something in her ear that convinced her to obey. Olivia had not even heard her.

“All the horrific things the Lennards’ actions brought onto your family, onto your poor mother…,” Lopez briefly looked up at Diego while continuing to speak, loud enough for the dinner guests to hear. “The things Diego did to her, had to do to her because one of her friends stole from me.” Olivia flinched visibly and turned her head towards Lopez behind her, making it look like she was about to kiss him. “What do you mean?” His breath on her face was warm, and she felt him slightly withdraw his fingers from hers at the trigger. Lopez sighed. “He fucked her. Though it seems that she did enjoy it in the end.”

The shot was so loud that her ears were ringing. She did hear Emily scream and felt herself being forced back into Lopez’ embrace, felt him laugh softly, before she lowered the gun.