“No?” I growl. “So you haven’t been selling information to the Dragon cartel?”
At the sound of my words, Daniel’s face pales, making me chuckle darkly.
“Just as I thought,” I mutter. “You’re the worst scum, Daniel. And we don’t need traitors like you in our midst. I think you’ll agree we can’t set the wrong example.”
Daniel seems flabbergasted, not because he knows he’s going to die, but because he seems shocked we’ve found out he’s a fucking rat.
“Please,” he begs again pathetically. “I can change.”
“No room for second chances in the cartel,” I hiss at him. “You should’ve thought about change before you sold out your boss to his worst enemy. Julio, get it over with.”
Julio nods and points his gun squarely at Daniel’s forehead. But before he can fire the shoot, the girl screams and kicks at him, making the gun fly from his hands and onto the floor. Julio curses. Saul and I are already reaching for our guns while the girl attacks him. We don’t need to draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves. Even though the owners of the motel are on our payroll, I don’t want to attract more people to the scene of the crime. More witnesses just mean we’ll have to spill more blood tonight, and for once, I’m trying to keep my hands relatively clean. I’m preoccupied with my ward again, not that I’d ever reveal it to Saul. He’d just give me shit for getting so damn weak, and because of a woman, no less.
Saul and I hesitate to take the shots, even though our weapons are ready. After all, this is Julio’s test so he can take the next step in our cartel, and we shouldn’t be helping him. The only reason we’re here is to make sure the job is done, not to save a subordinate’s ass from a feral stranger girl.
“Fucking take him out,” I demand a Julio makes a jump for the gun on the floor at the same time Daniel does. But the other man is too fast, his greedy fingers wrapping around the weapon, which he shakily points at me.
I let out an incredulous laugh, approaching the traitor until the barrel of the gun is pointed straight at me.
“Do it,” I grin at him darkly. “I fucking dare you.”
The piece of shit chickens out. He doesn’t have the guts to kill me, but he lets out a shot, anyway. The bullet grazes my arm before burying itself in the wall. And then another shot rings out, this time from Julio’s gun, silencing Daniel forever.
As the man’s body hits the ground with a heavy thud, I groan, checking the bleeding wound on my shoulder.
“Fucking finally,” Saul pipes up while the girl sobs. “What do we do about the witness, padron?”
I size up the messy girl in the corner. She’s half-naked, quite pretty. I think of the life she could have if we spared her today. There’s no way we could let her go. The only options she has are death, or becoming a part of our cartel, and we all know what that means. She’ll become a whore, and judging by her wide, innocent eyes, she’s too young to be one. She’s better off dead, and she seems to realize the same as more sobs wrack her small body. It’s unfortunate that she was here tonight, but there’s no going back now. She has to pay the price.
“Take her out,” I nod at Julio.
He steps over Daniel’s dead body on the floor where blood is already pooling. Some of it must be mine - the graze is pretty bad, ripping into my skin and soaking my shirt.
“Get it over with,” I demand.
At first, I think Julio won’t obey. He approaches the sobbing girl with some hesitation. It almost looks like he’s going in for a hug, but the next moment, he sends a bullet right through her, hitting her flat belly.
She gasps, blood running out of the corner of her mouth as she stumbles back. The injury seems bad enough to kill her, though I think it’s cowardly of Julio not to take her out the proper way. She deserves a quick death. None of this is her fault. Now she falls to the floor, more blood escaping her parted lips as she passes out. There’s so much fucking blood.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I hiss, and my two men follow me to the car waiting for us.
It’s just another day in my life. I won’t spend another second worrying about the two people Julio killed tonight. All that matters is that they’re gone, and he can be promoted to a sicario.
Once we’re all in the car and on the move, I congratulate Julio and welcome him to the cartel officially. He seems distracted, but his smile tells me he’s proud of himself.