Page 39 of Tainted Blood
“No, I’m a wolf, and now it’s time for you to run, little lamb.” With this, he slices through my last dress strap, tearing the ruined dress away from my hands. With a vicious shove he propels me, naked and faltering, toward the entrance to the maze. “Run, run, as fast as you can… It’s time to begin your slaughter.”
Chapter Ten
Santi
My visit to New Jersey ten years ago wasn’t my first trip to America.
Until that day, my version of America stopped at the Texas state line. Houston, to be exact. Base camp for all US cartel operations, and home to the other half of the Carrera bloodline:
The Harcourts.
I remember RJ’s dad having a whole room at his house just for watching movies. It was all state of the art, with ninety-two decibels of surround sound that you could feel more than hear. A scream during a horror flick would burst an eardrum as fast as an explosion from an action movie would rattle your teeth.
That’s why the explosion and flames don’t feel real at first. For a split second, it’s like I’m sitting on the outside, watching everything happen to someone else—like a movie.
But it’s not.
Pressing my palms against the concrete floor, I lift my head to anarchy. Fire. Smoke. Destruction. It’s the escalation of a fucking nightmare.
Slowly, I drag myself to my knees, and survey the damage. What used to be the south wall of the warehouse is now engulfed in a ball of multicolored flames. Dark smoke snakes around the jagged edges, inviting itself inside to consume what’s left—a skeleton of twisted metal and crumbled brick.
What the hell just happened?
There’s a muffled groan behind me. I turn to find RJ kneeling on one leg, his elbow braced against the other. He’s holding his upper arm, a rare, rabid expression on his face.
“Shit!” I’m on my feet in half a second, and by his side in even less. “Are you hurt?”
Gritting his teeth, he slides a narrowed gaze up at me. “No, I’m thinking real hard. Hell, yes, I’m hurt.” He moves his hand, and blood pours from a wide gash in his bicep. “Piece of glass took out a chunk of my arm.”
I catch another glimpse of the raging fire that’s consuming one side of the warehouse. We need to get the hell out of here.
“Can you move?” A pointless question since I’m already dragging him to his feet.
Once vertical, he jerks his arm away. “Someone just tried to take us out, Santi... I can do more than move. I can kill the motherfucker with my bare hands, if I have to.”
“Muy bien. Let’s find the others and put that to the test.”
We turn in opposite directions, and it doesn’t take me long to find my father. Despite the gash slicing open his forehead, he’s already on his feet with his gun drawn.
“Santi,” he says, a mumbled gracias a Dios framing the edges of my name. “¿Estás bien?”
“Sí,” I tell him. “I’m fine. RJ’s fine. Where are Grayson and Santiago?”
At the mention of their names, his brief repose snaps like a brittle bone. “Already outside,” he says, gesturing to his right. “Observing a mass cremation.”
I turn to find six of Santiago’s men lying motionless on the floor. Some are missing limbs, while others… Well, there’s not much left to check for a pulse.
Santiago is waiting for us on the remains of the sidewalk outside. His dark skin is a criss-cross of bloody streaks and gore.
“Bombs, Carrera?” he roars when he sees us. “That’s a coward’s move.”
My father lets out a hollow laugh. “You think we did this? If we came here to blow you to hell, do you think we’d stick around to hitch a ride? We’re reckless, not suicidal.”
We’re neither. We’re strategic executioners who do nothing without purpose. Just like the fuckers who are lighting up the East Coast like the Fourth of July.
I step in between them to diffuse the rising tension. “Let’s think about this for one goddamn minute. Two cartel ports just went up in flames. The building hit on our side happened to be the terminal’s south office, which is now a pile of fire and ash, along with the dockhand who tracked the container.” I glance at Grayson who’s joined us, his face looking all kinds of fucked up. “You?”
“My insider went up in flames too.”