He yelps, grabbing for me as he falls backward, and I turn to my side, elbowing him in the chest while kneeing him in the groin. “Why? Why her out of all people?”
“Because he knew her death would break you,” he says, struggling on the floor, reaching for his fallen gun.
I stand on his chest with one foot, using the other to kick his weapon away as I try to break through the restraints.
“Who? Did my dad do this?”
He shakes his head, laughing. “No. Don't worry, he'll die soon too after he sees you and your mom cut into pieces.”
I grit my teeth, my face heating. “What are you talking about?” I ask, pressing my foot into him harder. He groans, shifting beneath me.
“Who's behind this?” I ask.
“You'll see soon enough. Killing me won't stop him, either. All you'll do is earn yourself a more painful death.”
My foot moves to his throat and he coughs, his face turning purple. “Tell me who and I won't kill you today.”
I lift my foot and his face strains. “Eat shit,” he mutters.
Lifting my foot, I bring it back down hard on his nose. Bone cracks and he screams. “Son of a—”
“Give me a fucking name.”
“I have a feeling you know exactly who I'm talking about. Think long and hard. Who wants to see your father fully crash and fall? It's often we look everywhere else other than what's been in front of our faces all along.”
My heart beats in my ears as I think back to my mom's words at the hospital.“That man can't be trusted.”
She was talking about my uncle. No, it can't be. I know him and Dad had their issues but no way would Rudy have his own family killed. Would he? It's not what we do. Or at least I was always told it wasn't.
“Family is all we truly have in this world,”my dad would say.
Except I've never truly felt I had any of them. Why didn't they come find me? Surely they had connections who could have helped. Yet they left me rotting with those men. Bile rises in my throat as another thought occurs to me. Was Rudy somehow involved in my kidnapping?
“Yes,” the man says beneath me.
“Yes, what?” I ask, my jaw twitching.
“To everything you're thinking.”
“And how would you know what that was?”
He scoffs, his lips twisting. “Because I've stood exactly where you are before, thanks to my traitorous brother. Blood may be thicker than water but it'll also try to suffocate and drown you when you least suspect it.”
“Where is he now?”
He grins, his eyes darkening. “Six feet underground in his own backyard.”
“Then I'll be sure you join him,” I say, stomping into his face. Blood is everywhere and I don't stop until the entire thing is caved in, forming into an unrecognizable hole.
His limbs shake and I use more force, switching between feet until he's no longer moving beneath me.
I lean over, breathing heavily, and I spit in what used to be his face. I don't like what I have to do next. I hate it ever came to this. I should have done better but instead I'm a fucking failure of a son. My stomach shifts as I turn back toward my mom. Her face is pale and her mouth is agape. So much fucking blood. I want her to get up and tell me she's only playing a trick.
I'm hoping for it to be one of my dad's games but no matter how long I stand here, she doesn't move. Her eyes don't blink and she remains still.
I'll never see her smile again or hear her voice. Her sitting beside me tied up with fear-ridden eyes is my last memory of her. I walk toward the table, grab my knife, and cut myself free.
After calling Gunner and telling him everything, I cut the ropes from my mom's wrists. Choking from the tears, I hold her in my arms, rocking back and forth while singing“A la Puerta del Cielo,” a lullaby she always played me at night when I was younger.