GTO: Soldiers Of Hades MC, #3

The roar of the shot filled the air with the scent of gunpowder and the dirt kicked up next to her left foot. She took another step, another shot sounded off and the pain ripped through her foot as the bullet tore through her skin. But Luisa didn’t make a sound. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of letting them know they’d hurt her. She straightened her shoulders and took another step.

Pain radiated up her leg as she stepped down on her injured foot but she didn’t stop. Tears streamed down her face but she took another step. She knew they would never let her leave, so the steps weren’t toward her freedom as much as they were to put distance between her and the men who hated her.

She stumbled but didn’t fall as she made her way to the truck. Leaning against the metal hulk, she made her way to the step under the passenger door and then turned to sit down. Her hands were still tied in front of her and when she sat down, she stared down at the rope that bound them. It was symbolic really to the meaning of her entire life. The rope, the binds—keeping her prisoner.

Her foot was now throbbing and bloody but she barely felt the pain anymore. Still staring at the rope, she kept thinking of how symbolic the rope was…tied to a family with nothing but greed in their soul. She’d always felt out of place in that family but she knew she was part of them. Their blood ran in her veins as well.

She might hate what they did, how they earned their living but she was still part of them and nothing would ever change that. To them, she was Luisa Marie Brago, daughter, sister, niece, and cousin but to the rest of the world she had blood on her hands and was part of the plague that made a living by offering poison to the world beyond her borders. No one knew of the good she tried to do ‒ and the people who benefitted from her deeds ‒ would never tell.

Hanging her head, her hot tears fell into the dirt at her feet. Then she saw a pair of dark boots in her view. Raising her head, she could see a pair of jeans and a dark shirt. She looked up into his face and found the man who had taken her hostage, the man who had brought her here.

He stared at her with no emotion on his face at all.

He didn’t say a word, instead he held out his hand for her. She put her bound hands in his and he helped her to her feet. Then he led her back to the clubhouse. Each step they took brought her closer to her own personal hell, but she took each step proudly.

They might kill her but she would go to her death with honor. She hadn’t done anything wrong except to be born into a family that cared more about money than its own good name.

She felt her shoe filling with blood with each step she took but she didn’t mention it and she wouldn’t let them know her pain. When they entered the clubhouse, she saw everyone was sitting at the tables and they were all glaring at her.

Her watch and pendant were still intact and she shook her head when she saw them. She grabbed the nearest beer bottle from a table and stepped up to where the items were. She smashed it down on the watch, then did the same to the pendant. The bottle broke and beer spilled all over the table. Then she noted there was blood as well. She dropped the base of the bottle and looked at her fingers.

She had several small cuts and they were bleeding but she didn’t feel the pain yet. She had a chunk of amber glass embedded in the soft skin of her palm.

GTO grabbed her wrist and held it tight. He leaned over and studied her hand. Damn girl. What the hell was wrong with her? He reached for the glass embedded in her palm and pulled it out. Blood welled in her palm but when he looked at her face, he was surprised to see no pain in her eyes. In fact, there was nothing there at all. She looked well beyond what was happening at the moment.

Python growled and pushed his chair back then disappeared into the kitchen. When he returned a moment later, he tossed GTO a towel.

GTO wrapped her hand in the towel and pressed it deep.

She still made so sound of pain.

Cobra stared at her and snarled, “Why did you ruin your watch and pendant?”

She raised her head and glared at him. “I told you, they were trackers. My brothers didn’t think I knew about it but I did. They insisted we all wear them, all the time. What else were we supposed to think they were doing?”

“Why would your own brothers track you?” Python wanted to know.

“Arturo is insane, he’s been slipping over that fine line between sanity and beyond. Ever since our father died, he’s been on a downward spiral.” She shook her head. “We all have had to live under his insanity and the tracked jewelry is part of that crazy.”

“How did you get here?” GTO asked. He looked over at Python and Cobra then explained, “We were watching the house for a while tonight and only saw two men, then she came in. We didn’t know there was a woman in the house before we saw her.”

Luisa turned her head and looked at him. “There’s a tunnel that begins in Mexico and goes to the basement of Arturo’s house.”

Python snapped his head around to look at her. “How the fuck can that be? Arturo’s house is in the middle of the city.”

“And yet, it is there.” She nodded. “It’s a large steel pipeline buried deep in the Rio Grande River, deep under the city. It’s tall enough you can stand up straight and walk through comfortably and my family uses it all the time. They don’t care that men died to get it there.” Shrugging she said, “My Uncle Luis always said there were more men available that would do the work he asked them to do.”

“Your Uncle Luis was a real bastard wasn’t he?” Python growled.

She turned her head to glare at him. “You have no idea.”

“Oh, I think I do,” Python grumbled.

“Well, you did strike the first blow when you killed his son.” Luisa shrugged.

“Like hell I did.” Python growled. “You, young Miss, have been severely misinformed. Your brother Arturo killed Jesus. I wasn’t the only one there that saw him fall and that was before the real fire fight even began.” Python glared at her. “And it was Arturo that started the fire that burned the warehouse down. The fire burned from the inside of the warehouse, not the outside. We weren’t even close enough even if we wanted to do that.”

“Why?” she asked. “Why would he start the fire and let you take the blame?”

“He couldn’t risk anyone finding out he’d just killed the next man in line for the throne of the cartel,” Python reasoned. “He figured that by the time Luis found his son, the fire would have messed up enough of the evidence, so he wouldn’t look for the bullet that actually killed him.”

Suddenly, Luisa looked really pale as she stumbled back. She would have dropped to the floor if GTO hadn’t swept her up into his arms.

It was only then the men noticed the drops of blood dripping from her shoe.

“Fucking hell!” Cobra reacted to the sight of her by standing up so fast that his chair flew back and crashed to the floor. “Doc, get your ass out here right now!” he shouted.

Hurried footsteps were heard running down the hall and another man burst into the room. He took one look at the room then turned to Luisa. Shaking his head he said, “Bring her down the hall.”

When they left the main room, Python glared at one of his men.

The man shrugged. “I didn’t know she was hit. I mean she didn’t call out or hell, she didn’t even stop.”

Cobra glared at both of them.

Python caught his gaze and he had to ask, “Do you think she’s telling the truth?”

Cobra shook his head. “That’s just it isn’t it? Do I think she’s telling the truth, as she knows it? Yeah, I fucking do. Is that how we know it? Oh, hell no.”

“But which version is the truth?” Whiskey wanted to know.

“Maybe we should take both versions and mesh them together,” Lightning suggested. “If we give her the benefit of the doubt, she might be willing to help us figure it all out, so the truth comes out, even after all this time.”

Python growled. “And if we don’t, she’ll see us all in hell before we finish our mission.”

Cobra looked down at the remains of the watch and the pendant. She didn’t have to tell them about the trackers, but she had. He knew the stakes were high on her end. For her even being here, was more than her life was worth to her brother.