GTO: Soldiers Of Hades MC, #3

Ten minutes later, he took her hand and wound his fingers within her own then slowly helped her down the hall into the main room.

Despite the early hour, there were plenty of the brothers there.

Python and his sons, Cobra and Cottonmouth were sitting at the main table.

GTO walked her over to a nearby table and left her there to get them both a cup of coffee. When he returned, he noted the three of them were staring at her. Actually, they were almost glaring at her. He had to wonder why. Handing her a cup he whispered, “Are you okay? They’re glaring at you.”

“I know. I can feel them.” Reaching for her cup, she took a sip then turned to return the three men’s glare. “Something on your mind, gentlemen?”

“Yeah, you might say that.” Cobra growled. “We’ve had reports coming in all night about your brother searching the city for you. He knows you’re missing and he’s out there looking. He’s beating people up and torching places of business because he thinks you’re being hidden by someone in Laredo.”

“I told you yesterday that Arturo is slipping over into insanity. Who does he think I would even know in Laredo? I’ve never been outside of his house when I was there.”

“He’s still on a rampage and things are getting very unsettled in Laredo,” Cobra stated. “We might need to move up our timeline.”

She shook her head. “Do you wish for me to apologize?” She stood up and suddenly looked angry. “I now officially apologize for being born a Brago. For having their blood in my veins. Do you wish for me to what? Stab myself in the heart and show you just HOW SORRY I AM?!”

Then men all stared at her, as the main room went utterly quiet.

GTO looked over at them and he felt anger as well. “So, is that it? She is to blame because WE took her?”

They all shook their heads.

Cotton stood now. “My brother and father should be the ones apologizing to you. They always look like this, Luisa. In fact, I call one Growly and the other Scowly.”

Some snickers could be heard in the room.

Python glared all around and the snickers ceased.

Cobra and Python gave him the same scowl now, so no one would guess which name went to which man.

Cotton smiled a bit and shook his head then went on, “I am sorry Luisa…” He glanced at his father and brother, “…for their behavior. What my brother was trying to say but failed to, is how can we hurt your brother, make him make a mistake that might bring him down?”

Luisa caught her breath and pain radiated in her expression as she calmed a bit. “Despite regretting that I am a Brago…This is my family you realize that don’t you? As crappy as they are, they are still my family.” Taking a deep breath, she snarled. “You might think they deserve to be betrayed but it’s going to cost me everything if I do that. I will be dead to them if I betray them. My family will never forgive me and I’ll be looking over my shoulder until the day they find me and put a bullet in my head. That is how my family deals with betrayal. I just want you to know that. Even now, Arturo is looking for me to put a bullet in my head because no matter what I say, he will already believe I have turned my back on him and my family. You might not have to do anything to get him to make a mistake…he’ll do that on his own.”

“But we want it done now, before he lays the whole city to ruins,” Python stated.

She slowly turned her head to glare at him. “Then I suggest you give him only one way out of the city.”

“How the fuck do we do that?” Python growled.

“We take out the tunnel,” GTO suggested. He’d been studying her face carefully and said what she couldn’t bring herself to say. He saw her close her eyes in relief when he made the suggestion and knew he’d hit on the solution she had in mind. He turned to the others. “We need to take out his way home, so he has to go above ground to get back where he feels safe and protected.”

“But we don’t know where the tunnel is, so how the fucking hell can we take it out?” Cobra snarled.

“I know where it is,” Luisa said quietly. “I told you this already. When are you going to know I am telling the truth, despite not even wanting to do so?” She sighed heavily. “I can show you where it is.”

Python stared at her with a snarl on his lips. “And why would we believe you?”

Luisa shrugged. “Again, why not? You don’t have to believe me. If you chose not to trust me, then you don’t. I can’t help that and I don’t have to prove anything to you. But then you can’t judge me because of who I am either. If you judge me at least do it on what you know about me as an individual, not as part of the whole. I am not my family and I never have been. I don’t believe in what they are doing, in fact I hate what they stand for. They know this already that’s probably why Arturo is going crazy right now. He knows I hate the drug trade and they embrace it.”

“Tell us about the tunnel?” Cotton asked so he could bring the tension in the room down a bit.

“On the Mexican side,” Luisa explained, “it begins in a small house not far from the river. There is a set of twenty steps to the base of the tunnel. The tunnel itself is a steel tube large enough a full grown man can stand and walk freely through it. It’s about two miles long and comes out on the American side, then goes deep underground all the way to the center of the city and it ends in Arturo’s basement.”

“Ok, say if we were to blow up the underwater tunnel, will that flood either house on either end?” Cobra asked.

Luisa shook her head. “No, both ends have a pressurized door, they can shut against that.”

“What would Arturo or your other brother do if they couldn’t move back and forth through the tunnel?” Python wanted to know.

“They would have to get across the border at one of the other avenues. Above ground. Or they could order a boat to come and pick them up.”

“Do you know where they would cross?” Python asked.

Nodding, she replied, “There’s a landing not far from the end of the tunnel on this side. It isn’t used much since the tunnel was built but my family has used it in the past.”

“Ok, what do you think is going to happen if we blow the tunnel?” Cobra stared at her.

She let out a heavy sigh yet again. “I think Arturo and Javier will know I told you about it in the first place because no one knows it’s even there except my family.”

“That’s putting a target on your head isn’t it?” Python stated.

“It’s been there since I was taken out of my brother’s backyard.” She stared back at him. “But if you take out the tunnel, he’ll know for sure I betrayed the family.”

“Tell me something?” Cobra asked while looking pensive. “Has there ever been a leak in the tunnel?”

“What are you thinking?” Python turned his head to look at him.

“I’m thinking if we could open an old leak, they wouldn’t be able to blame her. They could blame it on an old leak.”

“There were leaks of course, but they have been fixed for many years.” She shrugged. “At one point, the integrity of the tunnel was in question but they have it wired, so if the pressure goes down to a certain point, it will raise an alarm.”

“So if we damage the shell of the tunnel enough, the whole tunnel would be compromised? Is that right?” Cobra asked.

She looked unsure now. “It wouldn’t be safe to use that would be for sure but whether Arturo would use it? That’s a good question.” She thought for a moment then nodded. “There is one weak spot in the outer shell. It’s at a point where there’s a ladder that allowed the workers to come and go freely.”

Cobra shook his head. “How the fuck did no one notice the huge ass steel going in the water when they built this thing? That would have drawn crowds of the curious.”

“They brought it in big boats at night. Boats stopping along the river is not uncommon on that part of the river. They would unload the steel tunnel pieces in the dark and the men would put them in place before the sun came up. Then they could weld during the day where the light wouldn’t be picked up from the underwater welding.”

“How many men died during putting this tunnel in?” GTO asked.

Luisa hung her head. “Nine men. Six men were drowned and three men were crushed by the pieces when they lost control of them.”

“And what did your people do for the families of those nine men?” Cotton asked.

She raised her head and glared at him, her rage showing on her face now. “They gave them a hundred dollars and replaced them.”

Python shook his head. “Fucking generous of them. In American dollars that comes to about two thousand bucks.”

Luisa nodded. “Also, to a truly poor family in my country that is still a lot of money.”

The men all shook their heads in disgust.

Python spoke again, “Ok… if we take out Arturo, who’s next in line to take up the reins?”

“Either my brother Javier or my cousin Carmen. Carmen is Francisco’s remaining son, but those two are the only males left in the Brago line.”

“What about the females?” Cobra asked. “Who are they?”

“I have two aunts, a mother, and two female cousins and each one of them is of the same mindset as their husbands and fathers. Guadalupe was raised in another cartel, so she knows the business from both sides. Elena follows Guadalupe’s orders, as does my mother. My cousins Rosa and Gabriella are more interested in boys and shopping but lately, their mothers have been taking them in hand and teaching them the ropes.”

“Your mother didn’t take you in hand?” GTO asked.

“She did but I never wanted to know the details. She knew this, so she never pressed very hard. She’d always counted on her three sons to run things.”

“So at least, she knows you don’t like the family business,” Cotton replied.

“Like it ever mattered to her at all,” Louisa whispered and looked away from the men.