“You fucking Vallins are every bit as crazy as your reputations suggest, but even the crazy accepts defeat. I’m giving you a chance to live so that we can continue to do business.”
“I’ll never accept defeat,” Arjen spat before the sinister smirk on his face deepened.
“All in place,” came a low-toned voice in my ear.
“What the fuck are you smiling at, you fucking animals?” Angel barked. His eyes moved left to right, taking in Arjen and me after I’d allowed myself to crack a smile also. Although Desiree breathed harshly from being choked, it didn’t take away from her confused expression.
I lifted and aimed a finger at Angel’s head, before moving it around. “I’m connecting all those red dots on your face,” I stated, releasing an evil chuckle. At those words, Angel froze.
His gaze followed mine down to the floor level, where our original team had their weapons raised and ready to fire although outnumbered five to one. It appeared Angel’s men were starting to discover that they too, were painted in red dots.
The sound of metal dropping to the shiny expensive floor brought joy to my ears, and the sight of relief on Desiree’s face brought a spark of excitement to my heart.
“You motherfucking Vallins!” Angel yelled, shoving his gun painfully into the side of Desiree’s head, causing her eyes to clench tighter.
Arjen glared in my direction and nodded once. We had ensured we had reinforcements. Arjen often called me the overkill king because of my obsession with killing and my excessive need to ensure that anything or anyone that faced death at my hands, died. If it meant shooting or stabbing them a few extra times, packing too many weapons, or killers, so be it. I did it right the first time.
“There’s a team of a hundred surrounding this compound with enough weapons to kill you and everything breathing a hundred times over.” My words were expressed as a threat and a dare. There were only ten more men out there, but he didn’t need to know that, besides the plan was working and Angel’s backup was giving up their weapons.
“I took what rightfully belongs to me,” Angel stated. This was the second time he had made that statement.
“What are you talking about?” Arjen asked. “Why would you take a woman you have no association with, from an organization you’re in business with and have never had a problem with?”
He hadn’t removed the gun from Desiree’s head, but his tight grip had loosened enough for her to open those beautiful eyes again.
“I paid for her,” Angel stated. His words caused our eyes to widen. “I gave Raymond Evans ten-million dollars for Desiree Evans over a month ago. A Ramirez and Evans alliance would open us to a market we have never tapped into before. When he failed to deliver her like he promised, I realized something was wrong. I haven’t been able to get a hold of him for over two weeks. When I got reports that she was with you Vallins, I sent my men in to claim what was mine. It was supposed to be a peaceful reclamation, but dealing with you two, it quickly turned deadly.”
The expression on Desiree’s face as she turned her face away from the gun and peered at Angel suggested that she was as stunned as we were.
“What the fuck are you talking about? I made a deal with Raymond Evans for his daughter’s hand in marriage. An Evans and a Vallin union brings us respect from the streets as well as a solid investment in the drug trade.”
Angel’s weapon dropped away from Desiree’s head, spinning on his finger before he shoved it down the back of his pants.
“Fucking Raymond Evans!” he shouted, making Desiree jump. “That two-timing, gambling prick is going to die! I’m going to pick his body apart piece-by-piece over a year’s span and feed him to the fucking rats.” He spat out his words through gritted teeth. There was no doubt Angel would put action to his threat. Raymond Evans, when he was found, was a dead man.
However, Raymond was smart, somewhat. If Arjen had married Desiree as planned and workshop hadn’t been called, Raymond would have been under the protection of the syndicate. Even now, his fate wasn’t completely sealed as far as the syndicate was concerned. If they believed they needed Raymond alive, the FA couldn’t touch him.
As soon as Angel released Desiree from his grip, she ran and stood behind me, gripping me around the waist like her life depended on it. Her face was pressed into my back, her body trembling against mine.
The hurt in my brother’s eyes was reflected on me as guilt swallowed me whole. The agony that blazed through me for inflicting that pain on him, cut as deep as the jagged curve of a serrated blade. I dropped my head in shame, but I wasn’t strong enough to push Desiree away at a time when she needed me.
Even with red dots roaming his body, Angel moved about, in thinking mode, like his life wasn’t in danger. Raymond Evans had been at the root of most, if not all of our problems.
Angel glared at Arjen before settling his confused gaze, with one eyebrow lifted high, on me with Desiree. He tilted his head slightly before he scratched his beard, likely piecing together a family problem that my brother and I hadn’t resolved yet.
“We’ve been played,” Arjen stated, tearing Angel’s probing gaze away from Desiree and me. “Obviously,” Angel replied as curiosity seeped from his gaze, and rage tightened his body into a tight coil. “He made us the same deal. How do you gamble with your own fucking daughter and organization? He had to know we would find out and kill him.”
Angel’s accent, mingling with his anger, had him skipping and slurring words. Desiree stiffened at my back when he made another threat on her father’s life. Arjen glanced in our direction before he glared at Angel.
“I’d like to call a truce until we figure this shit out.”
“Truce,” Angel agreed as he marched towards us and his stairs, unconcerned about the dots still roaming over his body. Desiree’s grip on me tightened at the sight of Angel moving in our direction.
“Stay in place. Stand down, but be ready.” My words made the red dots disappear as we turned to follow Angel down the stairs. The stand-off on the first floor lost its intensity as our group started lowering their weapons, the clink of metal sounding off, but not with the echo of death behind it.
I sensed Arjen’s eyes on me as Desiree kept a firm grip on my arm, unwilling to let me go. Her actions revealed more of the strength of the bond we had formed. It was also a bond that we were destined never to keep. This was likely our last close encounter if Arjen had anything to say about it.
We followed Angel, through the sea of men standing around, some still confused about what had transpired. They questioned each other in Spanish, their expressions highlighting their confusion.
When we stepped through the opening that led into Angel’s large dining area, he gestured for us to take a seat. He sat across the table and faced Arjen and me. Desiree sat at the table between me and Arjen. Four of our original team members stepped inside the area along with an equal group of Angel’s men. They took positions against the wall, each of our teams at our backs, ready to die on command.
Other than make plans to kill Raymond Evans, how the hell were we going to fix this situation?