Chapter 7 - A Fractured Reunion
Julian’s hand was shaking, the cold steel of the gun digging painfully into Clara’s skin. Sweat beaded on his forehead, glistening under the lone halogen bulb. He was used to giving orders from penthouses, not standing face-to-face with the cartel's most lethal former enforcer.
""Put the gun down, Mateo! Drop it, or I swear to God I’ll pull the trigger!"" Julian yelled, his voice cracking with rising hysteria.
Mateo didn't blink. He slowly opened his right hand and let his Kimber fall to the concrete floor with a hollow clatter. He kicked it away with his boot. ""Gun is down. Now let her go. Your quarrel is with me. You want your father's respect? Kill me like a man, not behind a terrified woman.""
Julian sneered, a twisted sense of triumph flashing in his eyes. ""You think I give a damn about honor? My father is dying of cancer, Mateo. The old man talks about you like you were the son he never had. 'Mateo had discipline, Mateo had vision.' I’m going to send him your severed head in a wooden box!""
As Julian shifted his weight to aim at Mateo’s heart, Clara seized the split-second distraction. Channeling all the rage built up from weeks of intimidation, she threw her head back violently, slamming the back of her skull straight into Julian’s nose.
Cartilage crunched. Julian howled in pain, stumbling backward, his shot discharging harmlessly into the rafters above.
Mateo crossed the distance in half a heartbeat. He closed his fingers around Julian’s throat, driving him against the steel frame of a shipping container with bone-rattling force. With a swift twist, Mateo disarmed Julian, sending the chrome pistol clattering into the darkness.
""Wait! Wait, Cruz!"" Julian choked out, his hands clawing uselessly at Mateo’s iron grip. ""You can't kill me! My father... he put a bounty on you that every syndicate from here to Sinaloa will answer to! If I die, they’ll hunt both of you to the ends of the earth!""
Mateo leaned in close, his stubble brushing Julian’s bloody cheek. ""Then I won't have to look hard to find them.""
With a brutal strike to the solar plexus, Mateo rendered Julian unconscious. He let the young man slide to the floor like a sack of wet flour. Mateo immediately spun around and rushed to Clara, slicing through her ropes with his combat knife.
The moment she was free, Clara collapsed into Mateo's arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Mateo held her tightly against his chest, burying his face in her hair, his own tears finally slipping down his soot-stained cheeks.
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""I’m sorry,"" he whispered over and over. ""I’m so sorry.""
Clara pulled back slightly, her hands trembling as she framed his jaw. But just as she opened her mouth to speak, a faint electronic beeping began to echo from Julian’s vest.
