Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
As soon as Miguel stopped the car at a small distance from the group of Caimans, Cano straightened and puffed out his chest like a bald cockerel, while Ramiro stood back as if he were the new boss’s shadow. Three more men left the cars, and the tension in the air tickled Nero’s nose like the dirt had.
If Miguel was to exchange Nero for his sister… would she be here? Perhaps inside the building.
Glad that his hair was no longer so flashy, Nero squatted and kept moving closer, using his hands to make the process easier, until he reached the rusty carcass of a Toyota on the outskirts of what used to be the medical center’s parking lot. Playing with the pendant hanging off his neck, he left the safety of his leafy hideout and kneeled on one of the porous concrete slabs that covered every bit of space around the building.
Now that patients and doctors were long gone, massive graffiti at the front of the building transformed the facility into a generic canvas for hailing the superiority of this or that soccer club. But as the morning sun painted everything a bright golden hue, Nero’s attention settled on Miguel’s back and the curve of his neck as he slowly looked out of the red vehicle he must have stolen.
His movements were snakelike in their fluidity, perfectly befitting a liar.
“Where is he?” Cano asked, stretching his tall body in a bid for intimidation, but he stayed where he was.
“In the trunk,” Miguel said and opened the driver’s door.
Air pumped out of Nero as an iciness cascaded down his body, because that was a lie. Obviously.
Miguel was playing a game only he understood, and Nero had no idea what his end goal was.
But while he tried to deal with that curveball, Cano gestured at one of his men, who moved to check said trunk while Miguel stepped out of the car.
Nero froze halfway through an inhale when Miguel pulled out a gun with the speed of a Wild West sharpshooter. The roar of the shots bounced off the walls of the medical center and Cano collapsed while trying to pull out his own firearm. He’d barely managed half a scream. One of his men dropped dead next.
“You don’t murder my mother and get away with it!” Miguel yelled, and understanding flashed through Nero’s mind like a supernova. But if Miguel never planned to give Nero away for Elisa, why hadn’t he shared his plans? Why had he ventured out on an insane revenge mission, which he couldn’t survive on his own?
The ground under Nero shook, keeping him motionless as he watched the Caimans scatter while Miguel ducked behind his borrowed car and disappeared from sight. Ramiro’s voice rose above all the noise, stopping the onslaught of bullets like a concrete wall between the Caimans and Miguel.
“I need him alive!”
Nero couldn’t see the situation all that well, but considering he no longer heard Cano’s commanding voice, it was safe to presume the bastard dead. The Axe was now the man in charge, and images of what Ramiro, whose ruthlessness Nero had witnessed first-hand, might intend to do with Miguel shot through Nero’s mind like colors in a spinning kaleidoscope that had gore instead of geometrical shapes. He could not let them take this idiot. Because at this point, Miguel was Nero’s idiot, and he’d be damned if he let anyone else have him.
And the thought process that pushed Miguel into this terrible endeavor?
‘I can’t pull Nero into my revenge’, ‘I will either succeed or die, but cannot let this go’, ‘I need to go at it alone, so he’s not hurt’. Because those were exactly the kind of things this hopelessly honorable man would do when taking into account those he loved. Fucking idiot.
But Nero could be furious with him once they both got out of here alive.
He backed into the trees and creeped behind the bushes, trying to find his way into the building, so he could launch a surprise attack the Caimans weren’t ready for, but, impulsive as Miguel was, he rose from behind the vehicle instead of staying in its protective shadow, and shot, making someone howl.
Nero couldn’t care less for Caiman blood now sinking into the concrete, but as he watched Miguel attempting to take out men who hid away, forbidden from hurting him, it hit him that his lover had never been known for such recklessness. By acting as he was, he was offering himself on a platter to the first man who lost patience for this uneven exchange. Was his life no longer worth protecting now that revenge had been served and Father lay dead, like Miguel had promised his mother?
Was Nero not worth staying alive for? Was he not someone to come back to? Miguel had promised Nero to never die, and the note suggested Miguel hoped to return.