Page 29 of Venomous King
I round the corner in pursuit of Diego, my mind attempting to devise a way to talk him down from the rage he’s in, with no solution making itself readily apparent, when my eyes take in the terrifying scene before me. Santiago’s large frame is pressed against a wall by Diego’s body. Diego’s forearm is digging intoSantiago’s throat, cutting off his air, and his other hand holds a gun pressed firmly at his temple. “Tell me why I shouldn’t put a bullet in your brain,traidor(betrayer)?”
“Let... me... go.” Santiago’s aged face is turning an alarming shade of burgundy, fuck, I have to do something.Here goes nothing. I take a running leap toward the two men and throw myself onto Diego’s back, wrapping both my arms around his strong neck, and legs firmly around his trim waist, and yanking him as hard as I can, away from Santiago. “Stop this, Diego! You... don’t want to... murder him. He’s... family.” My breath comes in ragged pants, as Diego releases his hold on Santiago, and tries his best to dislodge my orangutan hold. “Stop hurting him!”
“Isabella! Release him, baby, before he hurts you!” Kai jumps into the fray and tries to get me off of Diego, but I tighten my grip, refusing to heed his request or be extricated.
“Release... me,Princesa, I don’t... want to hurt you!“ Diego growls, releasing his grip on the gun that goes skating across the floor, and using both his hands to pull at my arms around his neck, while Kai grabs at my legs.
“Too late, fucker! All you do is hurt me!” I scream, losing myself completely to my overwhelming rage at this whole fucked up situation, and how, once again, I’m the victim and a captive. At the absurdity of loving two men who are complete opposites of each other, and knowing that I can never let either of them go. At the fact that all I want to do is raise my daughter and survive, and these men are making my life a living hell.
The Stratford rage fills me, and refuses to allow me to back down. I slam my head backward and nail Kai in the chest, and he releases a pained grunt. Satisfaction fills me at the sound, but it’s not enough to get the fury within me to recede. I want more, I want bloodshed for all the times I have ended up crying because of one of them. All the times I have cowered, and givenup a piece of myself to one of these men, who don’t see me as their equal, and instead see me as something fragile and easy to control. I lunge my head forward and bite Diego’s earlobe until he screams, and the tinge of blood hits my tastebuds.
“Isabella! Get a hold of yourself, let him go!” With a final huff, and a menacing glare behind me at Kai, I release my hold on Diego, and we all tip forward, limbs entangled, and end up on top of each other. Diego’s body breaks my fall, as Kai stumbles and crashes on top of both of us with his heavy weight.FUCK, that hurt!
“Jesus fuck, you both weigh as much as elephants. Get the fuck off me!” Diego grunts with my elbow in his face.
“WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING IN HERE?” Manuel bellows from the doorway. My eyes almost pop from my skull with shock. As I glance in that direction, I see Julia grinning back at us and waving her little hand. “They are playing Twister,Abuelo (grandfather). I love Twister!“ She races across the room and throws herself on top of Kai, and each of us releases a groan as more weight is added to the pile.
Just when I thought this situation couldn’t get worse or more humiliating, here’s fate to show me I’m fucking wrong.
“Now that Julia has gone off with her nurse and Carlos to ride her pony, can one of you please tell me what the hell was happening in here? We could hear the commotion across the lawn.” Manuel turns his furious green eyes in Diego’s direction. “And you, I told you not to fire any more weapons inside this compound while mynieta (granddaughter)is here! Were you even listening, Diego? Did I not make myself clear?”
Diego points his finger across the room to where Santiago sits, winded, in a chair, his face swelling from a punch Diego laidon him immediately after Julia left the room. “He betrayed us, betrayed me. He’s the reason that Issy was able to escape me. He fucking helped her.”
“I did it for you,hijo (son). You were entranced by her, blinded by your desire for her. You weren’t seeing reason anymore, all you cared about was her. She was destroying you, destroying everything your father has spent years building, and turning you intoLa serpiente (the serpent).“ Santiago runs his shaking fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair. “You killed one of your men, Diego. Made others watch as you fucked her like an animal. How many more would have died because of her?”
Diego paces back and forth, the furious rage that still holds him making his body tremble with energy. My eyes keep watching his tightened fists, and wondering when he will lash out again. Thank fuck Manuel made him hand over the gun. He’s just moments away from unleashing that outrage and violence on everyone in this room, and right now, I fear for my and Kai’s safety. I doubt even Manuel will be able to pull him back from that abyss he’s on the precipice of falling into.
“I am not your son, old man. You have no son, and you had no right to take what was mine from me. You cost me years without Issy and my daughter. You watched me spend years fighting a relentless war with her grandmother, while the whole time you knew she was alive. Did you also know she was carrying my child before you cast her out?”
“He couldn’t have,” I say, and Santiago replies simultaneously, “Yes. I knew. It was why she had to leave then, or you would never be free of her.” The bottom of my stomach drops out from under me, and my head sways with the sound of bees buzzing in my ears. That can’t be right. How could Santiago have known I was pregnant? I didn’t even know until I went to the clinic in Oregon.
My eyes meet Santiago’s pitiful brown eyes, and in them, I see regret staring back at me. “We couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, but my mother was a midwife back in Columbia, and she told me Isabella wasembarazada (pregnant). I couldn’t risk you falling deeper into her trap. You were already so lost, Diego. You started a war with her grandmother, to keep a girl who didn’t want to be with you. You would have led us all to our deaths.”
“ENOUGH! This is all in the past,hijo (son), and while it hurts to hear of this betrayal, Santiago is not wrong. You were unreasonable. I warned you that this war with Stella would destroy us all, but you refused to listen.“ Manuel meets Diego’s furious eyes, and grabs onto his shoulder firmly. “Let this go, boy. He was trying to protect you and our family.”
“No. I will have my retribution. I will have his death at my hands for costing me years without Issy.” He pulls away from his father’s hold and marches to where Santiago sits. His hand strikes out and grabs a fistful of his hair, yanking his head up, until Santiago has no choice but to meet his glare. “Your death will not cleanse your sins. I will ensure I wipe your name from the history of our cartel, a befitting punishment for betraying me.”
“I will not allow it, Diego! I am still the head of this family, and this cartel. You will not take the life of a man who has been by my side faithfully longer than you have been breathing, especially when what he did was to save you from yourself. Ask for something else, son, to assuage your wrath, but not his death.”
Silence fills the air, and my fear crawls higher and higher until it feels like it might strangle me. Diego is so stubborn and pigheaded he will never let this go, and if he takes action against Santiago without his father’s permission, I fear that it will drive a wedge between the two of them. I can hear Kai shifting beside me, and I wonder what is going through his head, watching all these cartel men threaten violence and death. I wonder if heregrets taking my call, and returning for me all those years ago. If he hadn’t, he would be oblivious to this mess, living a normal life in Manhattan, practicing medicine. He might even have been married to a nice, ordinary girl by now. Instead, he’s a prisoner of a cartel boss, in a compound in the mountains in Washington state, and being threatened with guns and death daily, never mind how many bullets he’s already taken from Diego alone.
“He cost me almost five years with Issy. I would have never known about my daughter, if Carter hadn’t tipped me off about their wedding.” Diego nods towards Kai and me. His mention of Carter’s name causes me a moment of confusion, and then clarity hits me like a ton of bricks. That son of a bitch was the one to tell him where we were, probably out of some misguided bro-love. If my sister hasn’t already ripped off his balls by now, when I get my hands on him, I am going to make the fucker a eunuch.
“For every year that I was separated from Issy, Santiago will lose a finger, and because Issy conspired with him, she will be the one to remove them, or I will end her lover’s life, and Santiago’s.”
Shock makes my mouth go slack at his announcement. Of all the things I thought would come out of Diego’s mouth, I never would have imagined it would be that. I want to refuse his demand, but the words won’t leave my lips.It could be worse, he could demand that you kill Santiago. He could start a war with his own father over you.
“Don’t do this, Diego. Please don’t make her complicit in your crimes,” Kai pleads from my side, but Diego doesn’t even acknowledge his words. His eyes are solely focused on mine, and my reaction.Rage. Pain. Desperation.I see all of those things, and so much more in his gaze. I glimpse the years of suffering, while I lived happily with Kai and our daughter. I see the scars of the wounds inflicted on his body, in his war withmy grandmother. I witness all the death and destruction he has caused in my name.
“It is a fair punishment, I will allow it. I am sorry, my old friend, but it is better than him taking your life,” Manuel pronounces, and I’m positive I am living in a nightmare that I can’t wake from. How could this all be happening? How could Manuel approve of this insanity?
Manuel moves towards me, a large blade in his hand. “You will do this, girl. You are the cause of all this misery. You will do it so we can finally have some peace, and my son can put this behind him.” Is he right? If I do this unspeakable act, will this finally end? Will Diego finally be able to let go of the past, with this act of bloodshed? My fingers tremble as I reach for the blade’s dark handle, and clutch it as Manuel releases it. All the while, Diego watches me with that cold mask he likes to wear, hiding his feelings from me.
The scent of acrid sweat, blood, misery, and hope are all intertwined in the air around us. This is who I am now, who I was always meant to be. Fate is a fickle bitch. She heard my silent pleas over the years to make me stronger, worthy of the Stratford name, and has answered yet again with a sick test of violence. A Stratford would not hesitate to mete out justice on an enemy. My grandmother and sister wouldn’t hold back against any of these monsters. They would meet them with their heads held high, and so will I.
“Isabella,” Kai utters quietly in a pleading tone, his eyes boring into mine as if by his will alone, things could be different, and we could be free of this mess. The truth is we will never be free, not now, not ever. I must make a stand here, if I am ever to have a chance at living a life as anything other than a prisoner.
“Shhh, Kai. It will be alright, it has to be me. He will never let this go if I don’t do this, and we can’t continue this way. I have to do this for Julia and... also for me.”