“Dos.”
“Te quie—”
A loud pop rang out, and I flinched. A blink. One blink and my brother was no longer kneeling in front of me. One blink and he was on the ground. His eyes were fixed in my direction, his head turned in an unnatural angle on the living room floor. Carlos stepped over the blood slowly creeping across the tile.
I was vaguely aware of people talking behind me, but I was too focused on Javier just a few feet away from me. I stared intently, breath held in my lungs, as I waited and waited for his chest to move, for his eyes to blink, for some sign that this wasn’t real.
I was brought to my senses when I heard my dad’s voice begging Carlos to clear his debt, pleading for Carlos to believe him when he said that he wasn’t involved with the police. Why wasn’t Dad doing anything? Why wasn’t he shooting Carlos in the head for killing his only son? Why did no one seem tofuckingcare?
The rage ripped through my body, and I realized that Peter was no longer holding me down. I stood up and spun around, lunging at Carlos. I didn’t get very far as I was pulled back by Peter into a tight chokehold that was threatening to cut off my air supply.
“How could you?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Carlos looked at me with a scowl before erupting into a cackle. He was laughing at me after just fuckingmurderingmy brother. I wanted to snap his neck. Claw his eyeballs out. Slit his throat. Blow every motherfucker in the room’s brains out.
I glared at my father who was sweating profusely under the gun that Vargas now held to his own head. I knew it was sick that I didn’t care if my dad died. My biggest fear was what would happen to me when he was dead too. I was next. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I tried to scream again, but a hand was clamped over my mouth to shut me up and I writhed in Peter’s arms, desperately trying to break free, kicking my feet at his shins and clawing at his arm.
It was like everything Javier had taught me about self-defense was locked behind a door, just out of reach, and I couldn’t find the sequence of moves I needed to break free.
“Por favor, jefe. Mi hija,” my dad cried, tears streaming down his face. I was stunned, unable to believe my own ears. My dad was begging for my life? “Mi hija. No me mate. No me mate.”
Carlos turned his head to stare at me, an amused expression on his face.
“Oh, güerita,” He stepped forward until he was inches away and ran his finger over my cheekbone. “You’ve got a lot to look forward to when I get back.”
I stared at him in bewilderment, flicking my gaze to my dad for answers, but he ignored me.
Carlos gestured for Vargas to put away his weapon.
“Gracias mil veces. Gracias, gracias,” my dad sobbed, bowing down onto the floor.
Carlos nodded as he turned around, observing the chaos he’d left in our living room.
“Bring the girl once the cleaners get here,” Carlos calmly ordered Peter. “And keep your mouth fucking shut, or you’ll be dead too, Kush.”
I struggled against the hand that was becoming damp with my harsh breathing. I couldn’t let him take me somewhere. Carlos paused in the doorway, glancing down at the broken beer bottles puddled on the floor. Carlos turned, grabbing a bag of powder from Vargas’ suit pocket, and tossed it at my dad.
“Por las cervezas,” he muttered, crouching down and patting my dad across the cheek.
My dad didn’t even hesitate to open the bag and take a line on the coffee table. Right above Javier’s body.
Carlos smoothed out his suit and followed Vargas outside. I shuddered at the sound of Kush in my ear.
“At last. No Javier here to protect you now...unless you count his dead body.”
Before I could even process anything that was happening, my body was flung onto the floor, my mouth and nose burning from the impact of hitting the floor face first. Suddenly, Kush rolled me over and landed on top of me, pinning my legs beneath the weight of his own. My back was sticky and wet, and I gagged realizing I was in the pool of my brother’s warm blood.
I flung my fists towards Kush’s face, but Peter landed with his knees on either side of my head and gripped my arms so forcefully they were nearly breaking beneath his weight.
I screamed at the top of my lungs for help, my dad’s high leaving him unresponsive and blissed out on the sofa as I watched Kush unzip his pants.
“Shut her up,” Kush snarled at Peter. “We don’t have much time.”
Peter rolled one of his knees onto the palm of my hand so that he could use one of his hands to undo his own zipper. My screams were silenced, just as Kush had asked, by his sweat-and-piss-tainted dick. My first instinct behind choking and gagging was to bite down on his disgusting penis, but he had experience. His gun rose and he tsked. I tried to turn my head away from him to get his dick out of my mouth, only to be met by the lifeless brown orbs of my brother right beside me.
“I’ll put another bullet in his head if you bite me,” Peter grunted, shoving his cock so far down my throat I couldn’t breathe.
