“I told them the truth,” Diego shouted, his guttural voice ringing out, the fine hold on his temper fraying.“You and Rubén were going to kill me.Them.We had to act first.Now, stop stalling.Give me the keys!”
“If they were stupid enough to believe that, then they deserve to die.”Enrique lifted his arms to his sides as he stepped around the vehicle.“Let Lourdes go.I promise, I will not retaliate.No one will.You and your guys can drive off into the fucking sunset for all I care.Just get out of here, but leave my wife.Zayas, please.”
“Begging?Well, I’ll be damned.Never thought I’d see the day, and all it took was a goddamn woman.”He flexed his arm tighter around her.
Lourdes hissed from the renewed pressure across her windpipe.A flash of white snagged her gaze as the sunlight glinted off the circling helicopter.Thewhoop whoopof spinning blades sliced through the heavy cloak of tension.As the chopper dropped lower and vibrated the earth, a maelstrom of dirt kicked up and nearly blinded her.A rush of wind whipped at her clothes and stung her sweat-slicked skin like a thousand pinpricks.
The chopper landed across the dried, cracked riverbed in a swirling cloud of sienna.
Out of the haze, Rubén, Santiago, Domingo, and Muniz emerged from the belly of the beast, guns drawn and heads down to ward off the flying dust cloud.Breaking up into twos, they sprinted toward the nearest cars and hunkered down with the other men.
“Shit!What do we do?”one of the panicking thugs shouted.
“Stay calm, Salcido.All of you!”Diego lashed out.“We still have the upper hand.”
The rumbling engine fell silent with a longhiss-pop.
Lourdes closed her eyes, so damn sick of being the victim.She deserved happiness, a better life, a future of her choosing.Enrique was hers, and she was his.
A steady calm flowed through her and snapped her eyelids open.As the blades slowed and the flying dirt settled, Diego’s arm around her throat slackened.Now or never.She stomped on his foot, wrenched free, and lunged for Enrique’s weapons.Grit scraped her palms as her knees struck the ground.Pain ricocheted through her limbs and jarred her teeth.
“Stupid bitch.”Diego snatched her arm and hauled her halfway up.“Do you really think I won’t blow you up?”
“No!”She stabbed him in the thigh, jerked out Enrique’s huge black knife, and plunged it back in.A cry of beautiful pain ripped from her tormentor’s lips.Hot, oily blood slicked her hand, forever staining her.Drawing her deeper into the shadows.
She welcomed it.
The remote fell from his slackened hand and landed with a defiant clatter on the ground.
“No, I don’t think youwillblow me up,” Lourdes spat and yanked out the knife.
Diego stumbled back, somehow still standing.Shock and anguish morphed his flushed face into something savage.Inhuman.Eyes bulging, he shouted and hurtled toward her.
She ducked his flying fist and slashed the blade across his arm.
“Aargh!”Blood sprayed from the wound.He fumbled for the knife on his belt with his non-dominant hand.
The tether of her rage snapped like gossamer threads.She screamed in wordless, primal fury and tackled Diego to the ground.His fist connected with her chin.Her bottom lip split, and her head wrenched to the side.Somehow, she managed to hang on to him.Blood soured her mouth, and she spat it out.The pain barely registered.Her vision tunneled.She stabbed him in the neck and ripped out the blade.Liquid gushed like a geyser.
Gurgled cries spewed from Diego’s lips in crimson sprays.His hands grappled at his neck.Color leached from his face.
She ripped away the straps of his protective vest and plunged the blade into his black heart.Then she yanked it out and stabbed him again.And again.The stench of urine raked her nostrils.
Jacobo’s face flashed before her eyes.His snide laughter rang in her ears as though he’d returned from beyond the grave to taunt her.
Selfish.Foolish.Slut.The memory of her father’s vitriol carved into her, but she didn’t bleed.Oh, no.She was done with bleeding.Hurting.Hating herself.
Blood splattered her hands, her chest, her face, fueling the fire of hate imprinting on her bones.No, not hate.Cleansing her of her past.Jacobo’s abuse.Her father’s cruelty.She was a stronger woman than Gerardo Villegas would ever be a man.
“Lourdes!”
Enrique’s voice broke through the furious haze in her mind.Footsteps resounded until he filled her vision.
“Stop.He’s dead.”
She stared at her red-soaked hands and dropped the knife as though it scorched her.The blood pooling beneath Diego’s lifeless body soaked into the unforgiving earth and stained her clothes.She scrambled off him and jerked on the bomber vest.
“Wait.”Her husband knelt and stilled her shaking hands.“Is it connected to any other trigger?Will removing it set off the bomb?”
