GTO: Soldiers Of Hades MC, #3

As they drove away, Luisa had to wonder if maybe this was meant to be.

They traveled about two hours in total silence as her thoughts went wild. Were these hitmen? Kidnappers? Wanting to extort money from the cartel. She mentally rolled her eyes. Good luck with that. Her family wouldn’t pay anything for her. She meant very little in the grand scheme of things. Even she knew this. She hoped these men wouldn’t kill her when they found out she wasn’t worth a damn peso.

Finally, they pulled into a compound filled with motorcycles. The man sitting beside her had removed the gag on the trip but her hands were still bound in front of her. Luisa didn’t speak to them and they didn’t ask her any questions on the long trip.

Now, as she stared at the building in front of her, she had a feeling the questions would come. She would have to make a choice, one she prayed she would never have to make. One, where she would betray her family or give them up. But give them up to who and what?

When the truck pulled to a stop at the front of the large building, men came from inside and they didn’t look at all friendly. Luisa did note they all wore leather vests that read Soldiers of Hades MC.

The man sitting beside her got out of the truck and waited for her to scoot over so he could assist her. He gently grabbed her arm and led her forward. Each step she took, felt like she was headed to her demise.

Either way, she was a dead woman. If these men didn’t kill her, her own family would if she ever saw them again. She’d known this for a long time now. She raised her hand to the place on her cheek that still stung from Arturo’s slap.

In the few seconds between the time she spoke to him and him raising his hand against her, she saw a look in his eyes she had been afraid of. It had been the same look she’d seen in her Uncle Luis’ eyes when he decided to go after the man who killed his oldest son Jesus, twenty five years ago. The same man who ended up killing Luis, his two remaining sons, her own father and oldest brother. Too many men never came home from that trip. Those men left too many widows and children behind.

All for nothing.

Luis had not gotten his revenge, instead he left his own blood and the blood of so many others behind.

Now Francisco and his son Riccardo were gone too. That only left three Brago men left to lead the cartel, unless you took count of the women…

She came to a stop in from of an older man, his long white hair and the lines on his face told her he was older than the other men here.

He studied her for a moment then turned to the men who brought her here. “Who the fucking hell is this? You guys were sent on watch mission not to bring back a bitch.”

Luisa gasped. “Who the hell do you think you are, bastardo?” she growled under her breath. “I am not a bitch. That is a female dog. I am a woman.”

The older man turned his head slowly and glared at her. “The name is Python sweetheart. I’m the leader of the Hade’s Demons, and who the hell are you?”

Luisa gasped and her heart froze for a moment. She stared at him, her eyes sweeping him from head to toe and back again. This was the man who took her father’s life. She drew herself to her full height of five foot three inches tall and glared at him. Her eyes grew cold. “You are nothing more than a killer amigo, you know it and now, so does everyone else.”

Python growled. “What right do you have to call me that?”

“By rights of a victim of your last encounter with the cartel.” She sneered. “I lost my father and my brother in that massacre.”

Python took a step toward her and lowered his voice. “Do you have any idea what that bastard Luis Brago had in mind that day? He was going to burn an innocent woman, my woman, on a pyre to make a point. A woman he snatched off the streets twenty five years ago, and then nearly beat to death. When she wouldn’t die quick enough for him, he threw her into a ditch and left her to rot under the hot sun. When he couldn’t get to her all these years later, he took a priest to burn on that pyre. He came after me on my own home turf with his men and all we did was protect our home. I’m not the one who ended him, my woman did. He snatched her off the streets and held her for twenty five years. He beat her so bad, she didn’t even know her own name, or where she came from. He took a mother from her three children, he used and abused her for a long time. He didn’t care if she lived or died. The priest he took hostage helped her, nursed her back to health, and kept her alive for all those years. That same priest helped her get home and he would have died by fire if we hadn’t stopped them. That’s the man you want me to feel sorry for? Not fucking likely sweetheart.”

Luisa knew he was telling the truth. She read it in his eyes. While a man could lie to your face, his eyes would tell you the truth. And this man was telling the truth. “And his brother Angel went along with this?”

“Yes, he did.” One of the other men nodded. “I was at the warehouse and Angel held the torch to start the pyre on fire. Angel died before that could happen but he was holding the torch when he died under a hail of bullets.”

“What about Rafael?” she whispered.

“When Angel fell to a bullet, Rafael picked up the torch and tried to light the fire himself to burn an innocent man, the priest. He died in a hail of bullets before he could get near the pyre,” the man told her.

Luisa almost crumbled.

The man with the kind eyes caught her before she fell and he held her close but not too close. She faced the truth and it was hard but she really, she always knew in her heart what kind of monsters the men in her family were.

Arturo was of the same caliber as their uncle and their father. He had proven that tonight when he struck her. The words they had exchanged had proved his lack of worth and conscience. Javier had sided with Arturo, leaving her out in the cold as well.

Now, another man facing her stepped forward. His dark red hair was streaked with grey and the lines on his face didn’t distract from the fact he was a very good looking man. He might have been older than she was but he had the same cold look in his eyes that the older man had. Only his eyes were of a color she had never seen before. Violet. Flashing a violet fire as those eyes zeroed in on her. “What’s your fucking name? Who are you and how do you know about the attack on the Demon’s?”

Luisa looked up at him and she spoke in a low voice, “My name is Luisa, Angel was my father, Rafael was my brother and Luis was my uncle.”

The older man called Python moved quickly, he grabbed her by the upper arms and lifted her clean off the ground. Shaking her slightly he growled, “You’re a Brago? Unfuckinbelievable.” Python shook her harder then tossed her to the ground and turned to face the other large man with the violet eyes. “Well Cobra, we finally caught a break. We can use what she has to tell us against her family and finally bring them down.” He glared at the man who held her. “Put her in a cell.”

Cobra shook his head. “Dad, what makes you think she’ll tell us anything? The cartel is her family. I, for one wouldn’t trust a word that comes out of her mouth. I’m not willing to trust anything she has to tell us.”

Luisa gasped and peered at the men’s faces. Most if not all of them agreed with him. She pushed herself up to her feet and dusted off her hands. Then she unbuckled her watch and took off her pendant. She held them on to Cobra.

He glared at her then looked down at her watch and necklace. “What the hell are you doing?”

She shrugged but still held the items out to him. “I just thought you might want to get rid of my trackers before my brother’s men get here. They will come whether it’s to collect me and take me home or kill me, I guess is up to you isn’t it? If Arturo thinks I’ve been talking to you about cartel things, then I’ll get nothing more than a bullet to my head.” Shaking her head, she added, “But I’m sure he’ll lay the blame on you, when he tells our mother how I died. But don’t worry about that. He’ll make sure he covers his own ass but I’ll be just as dead.”

When Cobra wouldn’t take her items, she dropped them in the dirt and then turned to walk back to the truck. She took a few steps and heard a sound that almost stopped her in her tracks. She hesitated but she didn’t stop when someone cocked his gun.

If they were going to shoot her, at least her death would be on her terms, not theirs. For once in her life…she could choose something, even if it was only when and how she would die.

Luisa took another step toward the truck.