Arturo’s harsh curse echoed against the tight walls, his heavy footfalls thundering toward me. A high, animal whimper eased up my throat, and I barely managed to steady my shaking fingers enough to key in the correct code. The heavy slide of the door’s bolt unlocking reverberated through my stomach in a shudder of relief.
“Isabel!” Arturo boomed as I wrenched open the steel door.
I dashed inside and threw my weight against it, desperate to barricade myself inside. The latch was a hairsbreadth from catching when his stocky body slammed into the door. The steel collided with my body, and the cold metal smacked into my glasses, leaving a jagged crack in the lens. My brain bounced against the inside of my skull, making everything flicker around me. The world came back into focus just in time for me to see Arturo locking the door behind both of us.
I was still staggering when he rounded on me, his face a furious shade of red. Spittle flew from his lips as he cursed me, and his meaty hand flew at my face in a blur.
The crack of pain across my cheek made stars burst before my eyes, and my knees buckled. The panic room spun around me, making my stomach lurch. I squeezed my eyes shut and willed myself to breathe through the nausea. I’d been struck before. I could cope with the dizzying pain.
I blinked tears from my vision and found Arturo looming over me, his wrinkles drawn into deep lines of rage around his eyes and mouth. He bared his teeth on a snarl, and his weight shifted in a way I recognized all too well. I tightened my muscles in the instant before he could deliver the vicious kick to my stomach.
But the blow never landed. Instead, Arturo stumbled when a deafening bang shook the steel door. He reeled back, forgetting me as he drew a gun from his waistband. I struggled to my feet and braced myself for whatever was coming next.
A strange sizzling noise penetrated the thick door, the popping sound skittering down my spine. Whoever was outside had come prepared. They knew exactly where this panic room was located, and they’d brought a blowtorch to breach the steel barrier.
It didn’t make any sense. Our enemies shouldn’t know anything about the layout of my house, especially not the room my father built to protect us if the worst happened.
“What’s going on?” My teeth clicked around the tremulous question. “Who is out there, Arturo?”
He kept the gun trained at the door, but it jerked wildly with each shake of his arm, shudders of terror rolling through his thick body. “It’s Guerrero. He wasn’t supposed to come.” Arturo spat a curse as the lock shrieked in protest of the assaulting blowtorch. “It’s supposed to be Stefano. I was going to deal with him while your brother secured our new alliance.”
My mind spun, and the grating metal set my teeth on edge. Nothing he was saying made sense. Stefano Duarte was the head of our cartel, the half-mad, ruthless ruler of our criminal organization. Guerrero was his vicious right-hand man. They were our closest allies.
But Arturo said my brother was securing a new alliance. And if Guerrero was here, breaking down the door to get to Arturo…
“What did you do?” My voice quaked with anger that layered over my gut-wrenching fear. “What did Daniel do?”
“This isn’t how it was supposed to go,” Arturo seethed, as though talking to himself. The whites of his eyes were huge in his ruddy face. “Daniel and I are supposed to take over. The cartel should be ours. Stefano was supposed to die today. Not me.” His hand clenched around the shaking gun as he repeated the declaration in a low hiss, “Not me.”
My stomach dropped. My brother and Arturo had planned a coup. They’d tried to take over the cartel.
And now, Guerrero was out for blood. There was only one way this ended: pain and death.
And I was caught in the middle of the cartel’s retribution, trapped like a cornered animal with the wolves closing in.
I might not know how to use a gun, but I had a fleeting second to wish I had a weapon before the door smashed inward. A fresh shot burst through the cramped space, leaving my ears ringing. Arturo’s body jerked, and his gun dropped from his suddenly limp fingers. He clutched his shoulder with his other hand, and blood welled from the bullet wound to paint his skin crimson.
I shrank back, wishing I could melt into the wall and leave the traitor to his fate.
A soft scream escaped my chest when a rabid beast of a man slammed into Arturo, shoving him back against the wall. Raúl Guerrero’s vivid green eyes glowed with malice, and his anvil-square jaw ticked as he gnashed his teeth like a wild predator. His huge fists gripped Arturo’s white silk shirt, applying vicious pressure to the bullet wound to make the older man scream.