I waited, just for a second, taking pleasure in the way they trembled before me. Their terror brought a smile to my face.
Then I shot them both.
I turned to Julianna, her face firm, accepting of whatever I might do. “I’m not going to kill you… Marco?”
He placed his hand on my hip. “Yes, my queen?”
I whispered softly so that only he could hear. “Would you agree to us signing a contract of alliance with Julianna, to keep her safe until she gets on her own two feet?”
He squeezed my hip and nodded, then spoke loudly enough to make sure our men outside could hear. “Whatever you need, Julianna. We will do it for you. We will help you build, restructure?—”
“And help you save your sister,” I said.
Julianna’s face fell, tears pouring from her eyes, and for the first time, she looked like the seventeen-year-old girl she was. “Thank you. Thank you, thank you.Thank you so much!”
Footsteps thundered down the corridor, then into the room. “Boss!” Carlos yelled, “The women Felipe and Fernando were going to traffic? We found them!”
24
Marco
Idrummed my fingers on the steering wheel while Catalina reloaded her gun beside me.
Her eyes flickered to mine. “You feel it too, right?”
“Something about this is off. It was too easy.”
She nodded. “I know it’s not possible for that to be all the trafficked victims and that we’ll need to find the ones that had already been sent overseas, but we’ve spentmonthssearching for them. Now, with Julianna’s information, we suddenly have them in less than an hour?”
I hummed in agreement. “Julianna was an unexpected variable. Since she’s been searching for her half-sister for years, it makes sense that she simply had access to direct information we couldn’t.”
“But it was still too easy.”
“Yeah.” I stroked her thigh. “Let’s just deal with Felipe’s reinforcements, then go to the bunker and save whoever we can. That’s all we can do for now.”
She squeezed my hand, and I put the car into gear.
By the time we made it back to the front entrance, it looked like World War III had taken place. Cars were on fire, flipped, some with men still trapped inside. The air was tinged with smoke, car fumes, the metallic smell of blood, and fried human skin, a scent close to barbeque. Gunshots rained around us as police and ambulance sirens sounded in the distance.
I came to a stop behind the barricade of our men and grabbed a machine gun.
Catalina adjusted the strap of the gun on my shoulder, then turned to Joseph. “How are we doing?”
“We’re all right, but we have a couple of people who need to go to the hospital as soon as we’ve cleared the way. One at least has a concussion, another got shot in the shoulder, and a third is unconscious from the backlash of an explosion.”
Catalina nodded, then looked up at me. “Let’s finish this quickly, then.”
I nodded and stepped forward.
“Cover him!” she ordered.
I planted my feet, inhaled, and fired. Each shot was beautifully violent, ripping through cars, trees, and light poles. Every one of our enemies went down in a miraculous spray of blood.
Catalina and her men took care of anyone I missed, and by the time I’d let go of the trigger, it was over. There were no movements, no more gunshots. No moans or cries. Nothing but the fires raging around us—the sign of our victory.
Even though this had ended in the best-case scenario, and most of our men could go home tonight, safe and sound, unease gnawed at my gut.
Something about traveling to the bunker concerned me. I couldn't pin down the feeling, but my intuition screamed I needed to be careful, figure out a way to protect us, protecther. But why?
