I twisted around in my seat, stabbing with the broken bit of plastic again and again as Castillo clutched his bloody eye, screaming and trying to push me away.
He dropped the gun as he flailed beneath me, snooty old Simon now down in the footwell and stopping him from accelerating any further as it got stuck under the pedal.
The car rolled down a bank and my head hit the roof as we bumped along, but I never stopped stabbing, driving my makeshift weapon into Castillo over and over as hot blood splashed my face. The huge man was no longer in control, it was me who held the power now, the goddess of his destruction come to make him pay for all the cruelty he’d dealt in his life. My mind was in a murder haze as I continued to stab and stab and stab, and it was only when the door wrenched open beside me that I realised the car had rolled to a halt and Castillo had long since stopped moving.
AJ dragged me out of the car, and I was suddenly surrounded by all three of my psychos, pressing against me, our hearts beating as one rebellious creature who defied the laws of life. We were the outcasts of this land, the rejects of the world, but together we had something real and ours which no one could take from us.
Niall drew me from Jack’s arms and we shared a bloody kiss that tasted of our fallen enemies. He smiled at me like a jester as he rested his forehead to mine and I felt our souls winding even deeper together.
“It was Señor Castillo,” I breathed. “He’s the last on my kill rock. Now he’s deader than a daisy in winter.”
“He came with the Alonso brothers,” Mateo said and I looked from him to AJ as relief filled me over their deaths. “They won’t be the last to come here. They will have told someone where they were going.”
“Fuckin’ cartel ruining my safe house,” Niall muttered irritably.
“Your safe house?” Mateo hissed.
“Yeah. Mine. All mine, seeing as I stole it from ya,” Niall said smugly.
“Well, I wasn’t the one driving when they followed us back here,” Mateo said bitterly.
“I’ve never once missed a mark on my tail before now,” Niall snarled. “Not until you two fellas decided to distract me by making Brooklyn come all over the back seat when I should have been concentrating.”
“Your lack of concentration isn’t my problem,” Mateo snapped.
“Well fuck you for bringing yer enemies to my door, el burro,” Niall said as I jumped down from his arms and he stalked away to the house.
“What now?” I asked, looking from Mateo to Jack who was frowning at the closest corpse and seemed more interested in his thoughts than our conversation.
Mateo stepped towards me, his features setting and clarity washing over him. “First, we must destroy the evidence, hide the dead, and wash their blood from our flesh. When that’s done, we will make a plan.”
I gripped Brooklyn’s wrist and dragged her up the hill, stepping around the body of Carlos Alonso and cursing as I hauled her through the front door then towards my room.
“Where are we going, Dead Man?” she asked curiously. “Did the killing get you all hot under the cobra?”
“The cartel don’t do things by halves, mi sol,” I said to her urgently, drawing her into my room and throwing the door closed between us and the outside world before releasing her and doing a quick sweep of the place.
Once I was convinced there was no one in the room, I dropped to my knees and hauled the go bag I had ready out from under the bed. I’d gathered up some weapons and found a few of my fake IDs around the house in places Niall either hadn’t checked or just hadn’t cared about. I knew he’d had a few made up for her, so I’d find them before we left too.
“What’s in the bag? Is it a gift?” she asked excitedly, hurrying over to it as I tossed it down on the bed.
“Just some clothes and weapons, things we need if we’re going on the run,” I explained.
“Oh, I don’t really like to run. I prefer to get my cardio from riding huge men.”
I coughed out a laugh as I looked at her, my thoughts instantly going to how incredible her body had felt submitting to mine and a low growl rumbling through my chest at the memory. I hadn’t taken a single taste of her since, not until tonight when I hadn’t been able to resist helping Jack bring her to ruin. Niall had hauled me off of her when we’d fucked after all. Although I kept going over it in my mind again and again, and though I was certain I wouldn’t have truly hurt her, I couldn’t help but question myself. Maybe he’d seen that demon in me and had feared for her life. Then again, would he have left me breathing if he’d really thought I was close to killing her? It seemed unlikely. And if I hadn’t been close to ending her life, then did I have a valid reason to deny myself the sweetness of her flesh while enduring the sound and sight of the others having her?
The thoughts had been driving me to madness ever since I’d been torn away from her with my cock still hard and wanting, but now wasn’t the moment to focus on it.
“There will be plenty of that if you desire it, chica loca,” I swore. “But right now, we need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because I can guarantee that the Alonso brothers and Raul Castillo didn’t just come here on a whim without informing anyone of their plans. There’s a chain of command which leads right up to the head of the viper itself and I have worked too fucking hard and suffered too fucking much to fall prey to him again.”
“Are we going on a road trip?” she asked eagerly. “I’ve always loved the idea of going on the road, killing bad guys every time I came across them and seeing all of America. We could see all the states, like Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Canada, Disneyland. Then, when we get back, we could put photos of all our fun times up around the house and-”
“We won’t be able to come back here, mi sol,” I interrupted her, needing her to understand this.
“But…I like it here,” she said sadly, finally understanding what it was that I was telling her. “I don’t want to leave.”
I blew out a deep breath and closed in on her, backing her up against the door and breathing in her air without quite touching her at all.
“Tell me the things you need in this life, Brooklyn,” I commanded as I captured her in my gaze. “The things you truly need.”
“You,” she replied instantly, making something in my chest settle. “Niall, AJ, Brutus.”
I nodded, though a part of me still detested that, but I was willing to accept her desire for them in light of the smiles they brought to her face and the moans they drew from her lips. “You can bring those things with us.”
“I need cheese too,” she added. “I’ve gotten a taste for the fancy kind, and if we’re going to be homeless, then I want to bring a supply with me. Janky Lou sold cheese down under the bridge, but it wasn’t the same. And he kept it in his socks which was less than desirable.”
“We won’t be homeless, chica, I swear it to you. We’ll find somewhere even better than this place and make it ours.”
Tears filled her eyes but she nodded, tilting her chin in offering and I closed the distance to taste her, just like she’d known I would.