“Right now,” I hiss. “Hurry. We wasted enough time on this.”
Julio returns with a chainsaw that’s kept with other weapons in this room. He seems to have aged a decade in the last ten minutes. He hands me the chainsaw almost hopefully, but I will not let him get off that easily.
“Oh no,” I smirk. “I will not kill him. You will. It’s your punishment for bringing a snake among us. You poisoned this cartel, Julio. Now it’s time to pay the price.”
His face pales even further as I motion to Antonio tied up on the chair. Julio approaches him with the chainsaw in his hands. He glances at me again, and I keep my firm eyes focused on his. There will be no reprieve. He will kill his brother, or I’ll fucking kill them both.
Julio closes his eyes and turns on the chainsaw. Antonio screams for help, realizing his own brother will betray his blood sooner than let down his cartel leader.
Tallulah won’t look up, but her father is watching on with a bloodthirsty expression.
I smirk to myself. I did this to Heath. I changed him into this monster who wants to draw blood. Without me, Heath would be just an innocent boy, lost in this cartel life. I made him who he is today, and he should be damn grateful. Without what I made him go through, he wouldn’t have lasted a week in our world.
“What are you waiting for?” Heath hisses at Julio. “Just get it over with.”
I don’t contradict him. There’s no point in drawing this kill out. It’ll be gruesome enough as is.
Julio raises the whirring chainsaw above his head.
Something inside me clicks. Perhaps it’s my morality waking up from a decade-long slumber... Or maybe it’s the seed of doubt I have about Tallulah.
I keep my eyes closed as the screaming starts. It’s blood-curdling, growing weaker and weaker as the chainsaw digs into Julio’s skin, tearing through muscle and his throat.
Finally, the screams die down. With a thud, Antonio’s severed head drops to the blood-soaked floor. His headless body twitches a few times before slumping on the chair. Blood is gushing everywhere, and my heart threatens to beat straight out of my chest as I watch the gory scene before me.
Tallulah suddenly peels her back away from the wall and runs out of the room. She looks pale as a ghost as she stumbles outside to get some fresh air.
Julio stumbles back as a guard takes the saw from his arms and turns it off. He lands on the ground, curling into a fetal position and sobbing. I’ve seen grown men cry, and I know what it takes for them to get to that point.
Approaching Julio, I land a heavy hand on his shoulder, crouching next to me.
“You’ve done well, Julio,” I tell him in a clipped tone that doesn’t reveal my anguish over the situation. “Congratulations. You’ve been promoted to a sicario. No more guard duty for you.”
His face twists in a morbid grimace of pain. I stand up, approaching my nephew, who’s admiring Julio’s bloody work. Antonio’s head lies on the floor, his eyes open in realization of what’s going to happen. The room reeks of death.
“Let’s get out of here,” I tell Heath. “We need to check on Tallulah.”
Heath seems distracted by the blood, as if he can’t even hear what I’m saying. I shake his shoulder and he finally looks at me. His charcoal eyes are devoid of compassion, but as he stares at me, his pupils slowly shrink to their normal size. He nods.
We leave the dungeons after I order my guards to clean up the mess we left behind and give Julio a better room in the house. He’s earned his promotion. I hope for his sake it was worth it.
Heath and I return upstairs. Rain seems troubled, but their kid, Mathilda, runs straight up to Heath and embraces him. I can see what family life has done to my nephew. His humanity comes back in waves, making him a better man than I ever was. It makes me wonder whether I’ll change too. For Tallulah and all the kids I’ll force her to give me.
My ward is nowhere to be found, and it’s safe to say her birthday party is over. I say goodbye to the guests, though my angel’s family stays. I don’t kick them out, because I think Tallulah needs them right now.
One of my guards tells me she’s in the rose garden, and I ponder going there myself. But I’m not an empathic person. So I send her family after her instead and give them some privacy to talk through what happened.
Tallulah will need to develop thicker skin. This is just the first step on her way to become a cartel wife.
I retreat to my office, too many thoughts running through my mind to be with someone else. Trying to busy myself with paperwork, I quickly realize my mind cannot focus.