“You can’t take them on all by yourself,” I growled at him. Was he crazy? I looped my arm through his and tugged him back out of sight.
“Let go.”
“No, you’re being an idiot.”
“They are going to come out shooting, Reagan. Last time I checked the house wasn’t bullet proof.”
I jerked him toward me and although I didn’t really get him to move, I did catch his attention again. “There are three cars, Hendrix! What are you going to do with one gun? Run out of ammo them to death?”
“Son of a bitch.” He yanked his arm out of my hold and pressed his hand to my lower back, spinning me around. “Go then.” When I didn’t move fast enough for him, he nudged me. “Move, Willow, before I throw you over my shoulder.”
I moved.
We ran around the house and dove through the back door just as the car engines shut off.
“Diego’s here!” I panted when everyone looked at Hendrix and me like we had lost our minds.
“We heard the cars pull up,” Andy whispered.
It was then that I noticed everyone was armed and hiding behind couches, tables and the bed.
“Why didn’t anyone come get us?” Hendrix demanded.
I tugged his arm until he crouched down beside me. He shot me a grumpy look so I grinned at him. He bumped me with his shoulder until I toppled over. I scrambled back to my feet and tried to do the same thing to him.
Of course, he was immovable.
It was his turn to grin at me.
“Come out, come out, my American friends!” Diego shouted from outside.
That sobered me. Andy stood at the door with a gun clasped in his two hands. He swept a look over his small house and grimaced. “I don’t see that we have a choice.”
“I won’t hurt you!” Diego continued to shout. “Unless, of course, you do not come outside.”
I wanted to scream. Instead, I swallowed back my frustration and stood to my feet. I needed to get this over with. One way or another, Diego needed to understand that he couldn’t use me.
“Can you see out there, Andy? Is there a dark-haired man that has the look of world domination all over his face?”
Andy leaned back and looked through the small, decorative window in the front door. He took in the scene before him and reported back. “I only see Diego and his men.”
I shook off Hendrix’s hand around my ankle and made a move toward the front door. Diego shouted something in Spanish and maybe said Adela’s name. Then he yelled, “Reagan!”
“He never pronounces my name right,” I grumbled.
“Reagan,” Hendrix snarled. He had definitely pronounced it right.
I turned around and lifted an eyebrow in expectation.
He didn’t seem to know what to say then. I could tell he wanted to forbid me from going out there, but it wasn’t like Diego was going to assume I wasn’t home and go away if I never showed. He wanted something and he was going to be a gigantic pain in my ass until he got it.
“Don’t go out there alone,” Hendrix finally said.
I met those angry blue eyes of his and issued an order of my own, “Come with me then.”
“You couldn’t stop me.”
I breathed easier and tried not to smile at him. We both might be marching to our deaths.
Still, it didn’t seem so scary with Hendrix next to me.
“I’m going too,” Vaughan announced. “Nelson, Harrison, King, Miller stay with the women and kids.”
Andy opened the door a crack and slipped through to the outside. Apparently he wanted to go too. Vaughan went next, keeping the space as small as possible. I grabbed the weapons I had set down earlier and followed next with Hendrix right behind me. And when I say right behind me, I mean he was so close he kept stepping on my heels.
I would have snapped at him, if I didn’t need his nearness to survive right now.
Diego stood casually leaning against his car. He wore sunglasses and a black linen shirt. His face was cleanly shaven and revealed scrapes and deep bruising. I realized his sunglasses probably covered up a nasty black eye.
I wondered how he got out of last night alive. But the point was, he was alive. What had happened to Raphael?
“Hola,” he grinned at us.
We didn’t bother to reply. His men all took a step toward us, guns raised.
“What do you want?” Andy demanded.
Diego’s smile widened, “Have I not made myself clear? Have I not spoken my demands at every opportunity? Reagan, you know what I want. You should tell the men. Maybe they will listen if it comes from you.”
“And why would they do that?” I tried to sound bored and uninterested. I wasn’t sure I completely disguised the tremble of nerves though.
Diego’s black eyes glinted at me with mischief. “Because these men listen to you,” he explained. “Every man listens to you. You must have some magic to get these men to risk so much for you. Are you magical, Reagan? Is that how you keep surviving? Is that how you get these people to want to help you?”
I chewed on my bottom lip for a long minute, trying to decide how to answer his stupid questions. He was trying to bait me. I didn’t want to let it work. But… it was working.
It was so working.
“I’m just a girl,” I shrugged.
Diego tsked and pushed off his car. “Now, now, no need to be shy. A man has driven miles to see you… to kill you. He has invaded my country with his army to hunt you down and destroy you. Surely you must be more than a mere girl for him to be so interested in you.”
I swallowed the vicious taste of fury and took a step toward him, “You’re the one that sent for him. It’s your fault he’s down here. Not mine.”
Diego’s expression flashed with rage. “It’s my fault you infuriated a powerful man? It’s my fault you drove him to drive miles and miles just to have the pleasure of killing you? I should do it myself. I should take his pleasure away from him and end my headache.”
Hendrix stepped in front of me and Vaughan stood next to him. “You will not touch her,” Hendrix growled. “You’re lucky I’ve allowed you to look at her.”
Diego smiled again. The fury disappeared, replaced with amusement. “If I really wanted her dead, I would have done it already. ¡Cálmate! Amigo.”
“I’m not your amigo,” Hendrix spit.
Diego’s eyes glinted, “No, maybe not yet. But you will be.”
“What are you talking about?” Andy demanded. “Why have you come here?”
Diego took his sweet time answering and when he finally did it was with the cocky tone of a man that had already won. “An alliance,” he explained. “I want your help with taking out Matthias. I want you to help me kill him. And when we have accomplished our goal, I will let you go. I will leave you alone.”
I had been thinking about his offer for almost a solid twenty-four hours. I had weighed the pros and cons and I had played through all of the worst-case-scenarios.
And I’d come to one conclusion.
I pushed through Vaughan and Hendrix despite their manhandling and protests. “I have one more condition.” Diego raised his eyebrows and waited patiently for me to go on. “Adela,” I said bravely. “When we’ve helped you kill Matthias, you let Adela go.”
Chapter Three
“You want me to kill you, is that it?” Diego demanded. His face had turned red and his hands fisted at his sides. “Is this how you made Matthias an enemy? I can see this is how you work. You push and you push and you take and you take until there is nothing left but to strangle you.” Diego let out a ragged breath and then visibly tried to regain his composure before saying, “No, you cannot have her. She is mine. There is nothing worth trading her for.”
Vaughan sent me a scathing glare. I didn’t think he knew what was at risk until I laid it out. I should have talked to him about this before now, but there hadn’t been time. We had all been focused on getting Page back and I had wanted to forget about Diego and his unre
asonable requests.
“You want us to risk everything for you, but you will not give anything in return?” Vaughan demanded. “The price you ask us to pay is too much. If you even want us to consider joining with you against Matthias, you will have to give us something worthy of our alliance.”
“I am asking you to kill your greatest enemy!” Diego seemed flabbergasted by our reluctance. “I am giving you a gift. You are taking my world.”
I didn’t believe for one second that Adela was his world. He wanted her… wanted to possess her. But he didn’t live and breathe for her. He wouldn’t die for her.
I felt like I was missing something huge with Adela. The mystery surrounding her was deep and murky, but I didn’t have time to wade through it now. And I was afraid I would never have time.
What if she was more dangerous than I gave her credit for?
If all of these Mexican warlords wanted her, she must be worth something… It didn’t make sense.
“We are asking for an even trade,” Andy jumped in. “You want something great from us, you must give us something great. That is how things work.”
“Ah, the trade master,” Diego grinned at him. “Everyone trusts you because you are a man of God, but I see the truth, Culero. I see you murder. I see you kill. You are a sinner like the rest of us, no?”
“No,” Andy disagreed. “Not like you. Not like your associates. I am nothing like you.”
Diego merely smiled. That was answer enough. I suddenly wanted to take him aside and get his opinion on Andy. I wanted to hear the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Not that Diego was the most reliable source of information. Still, there had to be some insight there.
“What’s it going to be?” Hendrix demanded. “Will you let us keep the girl? If we help you end Matthias, will you let her go?”
Diego scratched at his nose while he considered our offer. I couldn’t believe Vaughan and Hendrix had stepped up to the idea. I hadn’t intended to pull them into this. If I really joined forces with Diego to take out Matthias, I had planned to do it alone. I couldn’t ask this of my friends.
Besides, I honestly didn’t expect to make it out alive.
I wanted to get them some place safe… some place away from all of this first.
“If I give her to you, you will help me? You give me your word?” Diego stood up straight and stared straight at me. Obviously he didn’t trust me, but my word meant something. It at least meant I was committed.
I tore my gaze from Diego and looked at Hendrix. “I can’t ask you to do this,” I whispered. “It’s too much.”
“It solves a problem,” he countered. “Two problems.”
“But it’s risky. We’re trying to get away from Matthias. This is the opposite of that.”
Hendrix turned on me. His hands landed on my shoulders and slid up to cup my neck. Out of panic, I gripped his wrists, desperate to hold onto him. I met his blue gaze, as deep as the ocean and intense as a star. My breath trembled in my lungs and my knees shook.
This man.
This man that I loved.
Hendrix.
“Where you go, I go,” he whispered fiercely.
Tears pricked at my eyes as I tried to stifle the pained wince that came from my chest. “I thought we weren’t anything. I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me.”
“Sometimes I say stupid things,” he confessed. “Sometimes I think I’m stronger than I am.”
“What are you saying?”
He shook his head, “Now isn’t the time.”
I knew he was right. “You’ll do this with me?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes with you.”
I held his gaze and tried to think beyond the hammering of my heart. What did this mean? Was this his way of telling me we could be something again? Or was it simply his residual feelings that kept him from letting me walk into this situation alone? The same residual feelings that kept him from me?
“I don’t know that we can run from Matthias forever,” Vaughan admitted, pulling both Hendrix and I out of the bubble we’d created with our chaotic feelings.
“I’ve thought about this for a long time,” I told them. “If we don’t do something now, he will always be a problem. He will always hunt us. He will always find ways to interrupt our lives.”
“We should have killed him when we had the chance,” Hendrix spit out. The heavy regret in his voice was echoed in each of us.
I sighed, “To be fair, I thought I did kill him.”
“Those goddamn Allens,” Hendrix cursed.
I almost laughed. He hated Matthias and Linley, he hated Kane and now Miller had become a problem for him. Poor Hendrix Parker.
“So you’re in this?” Vaughan asked Hendrix.
“Was it even a question?” Hendrix shot back. Vaughan shook his head at his brother, amused with his response. “And you? We could split-”
“Don’t bother suggesting it,” Vaughan snarled. “You know the answer. If you’re in, we’re all in. Reagan’s right anyway. We need to kill him. Once and for all. We need to be able to move on with our lives and find some peace. We cannot keep living like this.”
Hendrix nodded sharply before turning to Andy. “What about you, Andy the Missionary? Are you going to take your chance now? Or would you rather finish your mission from God on American soil.”
He regarded us carefully before saying, “Do you know that when I first met your brother Nelson, I told him that we were brought together by divine intervention? I still believe that. We met for a reason. Our paths collided for a reason. This is it.”
“This is it,” Vaughan repeated slowly. I couldn’t tell if he believed Andy or not, but he didn’t completely dismiss the idea either.
“Well?” Diego demanded. “Enough waiting. What is your answer?”
“Yes,” Vaughan told him. “We’ll help you kill Matthias Allen. And then you will let us go.”
Diego nodded. “I will let you go.”
“And you will let Adela go,” I reiterated.
His mouth hardened into a straight line, but he jerked his chin in agreement. “Yes, fine. You will have Adela and you will have your freedom. I want to see her now though. I want to see her one last time before you take her from me.”
I stiffened and adjusted the gun in my hands. “Why?”
“I cannot say goodbye? She will want to say goodbye to me. Ask her.”
I didn’t want to ask her. I suddenly felt a fierce need to protect Adela from Diego. I mean, it had always been there. Obviously I wouldn’t have bargained for her if I didn’t feel that she was in a lot of danger. But this was different. I wanted to protect her from Diego, but from herself too.
I looked at Diego and measured the man that he was. He was not a good man. He was not even decent according to my new-ish Zombie Apocalypse standards of decent.
Maybe he wasn’t as bad as cannibals or Raphael, but comparing him with them did not mean he was good just because he was a lesser evil.
I had clearly seen Adela’s desire to get away from him, more than once. She didn’t want to be with him, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t manipulate her into staying.
I opened my mouth to tell him to go to hell, but Andy answered before I got the chance. “First, we discuss Matthias, then you can talk to Adela.”
A muscle ticked in Diego’s jaw. “Fine. Si, let’s talk.” Diego walked toward us and gestured impatiently. “Are you going to make me shout the entire time? We have formed a truce. Let us speak as equals.”
I shared a look with Vaughan and stifled a disgusted shiver. We’d better not ever be equals with this psychopath.
Hendrix’s hand settled on my lower back and guided me toward Diego and his men. His hand never left my back as we got down to business. He stayed as close to me as he could, one hand on me, one holding his gun.
Diego explained that Matthias was in the country but hadn’t yet made his way to Diego’s village. The rumors that war had b
roken out among the territories had spread quickly and Matthias had taken cover somewhere north.
Matthias was technically Diego’s invited guest, so the guess was that Matthias was waiting to see which territory won out before he made his move. If Diego won, Matthias would go directly to him. If someone else won, Matthias would seek sanctuary with them.
There was also the assumption that whoever Matthias ended up with would receive an alliance. This was highly coveted among the territories because that meant trade would be opened up with the Colony and a considerable amount of power would be tacked on. Everyone wanted to be connected with the Colony, apparently.
I rolled my eyes. It couldn’t be helped.
As far as which territory was slated to win, Diego looked like the strong favorite for right now. He had beaten two territories since we got here and it had only been a little over a week. I remembered the fight from our first day in Diego’s village and according to Diego, Raphael had died last night.
Arturo was not thought of as a threat, although he looked pretty brutal to me. And the other two territories were fighting with each other.
Diego smiled during his entire explanation. He was also pleased that the territory wars had delayed Matthias. Diego made it clear that had Matthias come straight to the village for me and found out I escaped, Matthias would not have been happy.
“No kidding, he wouldn’t have been happy!” I blurted the second Diego took a breath. “Are you an idiot? He would have burned the entire village to the ground and mounted your head on stakes.”
Diego did not appreciate my outburst, but I wasn’t going to apologize.
“You’re really that important to him?” Diego asked in a slow, careful cadence.
I should have stayed calm and collected. I should not have yelled at an ex Mexican drug lord. I really, really should have thought that one out. But it was too late now…
“I killed his wife! His son! Yes, I’m that important to him. And you know that. But if you want to test him… if you want to goad him just to see what he’s capable of, do it. Go for it. You have my blessing. Because I would absolutely love to see what he does to you. I would enjoy every second of it.” My skin scorched with the pressure of my sins. I had never set out to make Matthias Allen an enemy. Or Diego. Or Raphael. Or anybody.