Once the door breaks down, all hell breaks loose. We’re not alone anymore. Now we’re surrounded by Dragon cartel men who are scrambling to hide their precious cargo. We were told it would be women - girls they kidnapped for the cartel, to traffic them. Our cartel does not deal with captives, we deal with drugs. Our intention was to set the women free and help them, but as I come face to face with the warehouse workers, I quickly realize they aren’t dealing with pretty submissive toys.
My eyes widen as I try the men desperately trying to scramble to hide their precious cargo from us. But it’s too late, their operation has been exposed.
Shots and screaming ring out in the warehouse and the floor turns red from the blood my men are spilling. It’s a fucking bloodbath, but what for? For the little plastic bags filled with poison, I’m addicted to myself?
I go on autopilot, shooting innocent men and taking lives I shouldn’t. When I next come to my senses, my palms are covered in blood and my head is fucking spinning. I don’t know how many people I’ve killed, but judging by the massacre in the room, it’s really fucking bad.
But what’s worse is that our information wasn’t correct. The Dragon cartel isn’t moving victims, they’re working with drugs. Which is our fucking field.
My mouth forms a thin line as I send a bullet through a man’s head. Brains and blood splatter the wall behind him and he falls, dead in an instant, which is probably fucking lucky.
“Heath,” Liberato calls out from the other end of the room. “They’re saying the leader of the cartel is trying to run. He was here when we came.”
I smirk. This is what I fucking live for. The chase that will end up with a dead man - and it sure as fuck won’t be me.
I follow Liberato down the hallway, stepping over dead bodies as we walk into the back alley behind the warehouse. That’s when we see him, a figure in the distance. I instantly raise my gun and fire off a shot, and the man roars. I got him.
But apparently not good enough. He grips his bleeding shoulder and disappears into a car that’s waiting for him. Liberato and I both fire our guns at it, but it’s too late. The car speeds away.
“Fuck!”
I run my hands through my hair, facing Liberato, who seems just as pissed off as I am.
“He got away.”
“No shit,” he mutters. “This is really fucking bad, Heath. What if he saw us?”
“He didn’t,” I mutter, even though I’m not too sure of my words.
“You don’t know that. And if he was the leader... well, then we’re utterly fucked. There’s no way he’ll do business with us now.”
“He didn’t see us.”
“Fuck, Heath.”
Liberato curses again and again, rubbing his temples while I put my gun back in the holster at my hip. I take the chance to inhale another bag of powder, no longer giving a damn what L will say about my dirty little habit.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
I turn to face Liberato, wiping the residual powder from my nostrils.
“What?”
“You’re all hopped up on that shit, again?”
“I told you before, L, don’t talk like that to me,” I hiss, but I don’t get to finish my sentence because this time, Liberato slams me against the brick wall in the alley. “Let go of me, you jackass!”
“You’re my brother,” he mutters while we struggle for control. “I won’t stand by and watch you destroy yourself.”
“What I do to my body is my business.”
“What about Rain, Heath?”
My body freezes up at the mention of her. I tense, narrowing my eyes at Liberato, just as I gain control in our fight. I slam him back, turning our positions.
“What about her, L?”
“She’ll want you to get better. You think she wants her man to be a junkie?”
“She’s married,” I growl.
“Not like that’s ever stopped you before.”
“You can’t talk to me like that.”
“Fucking watch me, Hermano.”
I tense my jaw and we glare at one another until I finally let go. I groan, kicking at the gravel.
“Fuck. This couldn’t have gone worse. How many casualties did we take?”
“Four.”
“Jesus.”
An unwelcome sensation slides down my spine, slithering like a snake. We’ve lost men and accomplished nothing. Now there’s only one thing left to do to save this situation.
“Alright,” I finally mutter. “Find out who the boss is from the ones that are still alive. The one they answer to at the docks.”
“Why?”
“We need to find the highest ranking official here and make an example out of him,” I bark in response. “That’s the only way to ensure we didn’t do this for nothing.”
“You want to torture a man, Hermano?”
“I have to.”
I feel the powder finally kicking in, making my head spin with what I’m about to do. The boy I used to be would have cringed at the thought of killing, torturing an innocent man. But now, I don’t give a shit. I’m desensitized to violence by now. It comes naturally.