Chapter Twenty-Seven
Axe pumped out the last round from the semi-automatic. The Jeep’s tire blew, and it turned over, scattering bodies in its wake.
“Woo!” Ivan shouted. “Let’s charge up the hill and bust out your father.”
“There’s another Jeep coming,” Axe said. “I’m out of bullets.”
“Me too.” Ivan slid a knife from his pant leg.
Axe did likewise. “Split up. I’ll go right; you go left.”
Ivan took off, sprinting across an expanse of lawn, followed by gunfire. He made it to a gully, while Axe followed the curve of the retaining wall. He jumped over the wall and landed in a drainage ditch.
Following it, he cut through a rose garden. The small theater was backed up against the garden full of fountains and statues.
Where was his father?
Had he been able to sneak out?
Axe plastered himself to the wall and made his way to the back door of the theater. He was met with a burst of gunfire.
He dove behind a dumpster.
Bullets pinged the dumpster and peppered the brick wall behind him.
When he failed to return fire, the clomping of multiple boots surrounded him along with gun barrels pointing at him.
“Looking for something?” It was the sneering voice of Boss Veronica. “Why don’t you look in the garbage?”
That was when Axe noticed the slow dripping of blood from the bottom of the container. He crossed himself and said his farewell to his father.
The female’s lips curled into a leer. She tilted her chin at a burly man standing next to her. “Get the prisoner cleaned up. I want him in my bedroom. I’m capo now. What better prize than an Italian stallion?”
* * *
Leanna argued with her father all the way to Ana and Eduardo’s house. They had come to pick up Soledad’s cat and pack her things. No one was safe until the cartel wars played out. Now that El Bardo was dead and Joshua Cano was also deceased, the void left plenty of turf to fight over.
“I’m not going to the American Embassy. I can’t leave Axe behind.” Leanna grabbed a laundry bag and stuffed Soledad’s clothing into it. The fetid odor of death still hung over the house, although Jorge, Eduardo’s brother, had aired it out, and they’d taken out the blood-soaked carpet.
“You are not safe here,” her father said. “The cartel believes you have a claim to being boss. You are Carmelita’s mother.”
“I’m not interested. Take Soledad and Gabriel to the American Embassy. Find Carmelita and keep her safe. I cannot leave until Axe is with me.” She flashed her opal ring at her father.
Her father narrowed his eyes. “That was to get me and Vinny to work together. I know you. You don’t get attached to men. Cano did a job on you.”
“Fuck Cano. I don’t ever want to hear his name again.” Leanna slammed the laundry bag on the floor. She punched the wall, breaking the drywall, hating the angry tears squirting from her eyes.
Word from Cano Castle was bad. Vinny was dead. Juan, of course, had already been killed. Ivan had gotten away, but he was laying low. He’d texted Gabriel once, asking if he was okay.
No one leaked anything about Axe, no matter who Tomas asked. Fortunately, he was supposedly part of the gang, and some on the inside are aligning on his side to take over from Veronica, who declared herself boss.
She’d certainly learned a thing or two from Cano, not the least of which was to grind her enemies and lovers to the dust by making them do the most degrading things.
She would make Axe a sex slave.
Damn her.
Leanna’s father left her to her temper tantrum, but she was no longer a weak baker and cake decorator. She, too, could predict what Cano would do.
