Vera

Chapter 10

Santiago

I walk into the dim room that has nothing but a chair, a table with a variety of weapons on it, and cement walls all around. In the chair directly in the middle of the room is Gabriel Martinez.

He's 33 has a record of assault, driving under the influence, possession of drugs, grand theft auto, stalking, and sexual assault. He has no family and he belongs to the Reapers. The same gang Francis sold my product to.

I hand the folder of information back to Cameron. In the 25 minutes it took me to get to the cellars in one of my storage buildings Cameron had dug up Gabriel's entire life. Even his blood type and schools he attended.

I quietly made my way over to Gabriel, looking at his forward slumped body. He was a big, muscular man, but you could see the paleness of his skin and the shine of sweat from whatever drugs he's on. My guess cocaine or meth.

I take my gun from my waistband and fire a shot into his foot. His head snaps up as a wail is ripped from his throat. He looks up at me, breathing in labored breaths.

"Goddamnit," He groans thrashing his body from the pain. "Let me the fuck go." He threatens but it's weak and miserable. No base behind it.

"Who sent you?" I barked in a voice of steel.

"No one fucking sent me," I clench my jaw at his response. I don't buy it. I've heard about the Reapers twice in too little of a time span.

"Bullshit, tell me who sent you and I'll kill you the less painful way." He continues to jerk his body from the pain in his foot, not giving me an answer. I slowly walk over to the table placing down my gun and picking up an all black, sharp, sleek knife.

I walk back over to Gabriel and stab him in the leg. His wails are deafening bouncing off the cement walls all over the room. It doesn't help with my irritation of simply being this close to him, but it worsens my need to kill him for hurting mi luz. (My light)

She said she was fine but regardless he held a gun to her head, threatened her life, and is getting on my nerves.

"Why?" I belt out in his face. I'm tired of the bullshit and I'm a millimeter away from killing him if he tells me something or not.

"Fine," He yells back even though he's still thrashing around because of his injuries. "You wanna know what he wants? Her. It's all going to come down to you and her. And you're the reason he found her. You're both dead."

A sickening grin spreads across his face. A disgusting, horrid grin. I almost want to vomit.

I rip the knife out his leg, making him howl in pain but it soon stops when I stick the knife in his neck. I leave the knife in his neck just so he'll live with the pain longer.

I stalk out of the room and trudge up the stairs to the actual storage building instead of the cellars below it. I hear steps close behind me, I already know it's Cameron and Alex, they heard what he said too. They have questions that I don't even have the answers to myself.

I nearly reach the doors before Cam yells out my name bringing me to a halt. The only reason I do is because Cam never yells, never sounds serious, and because he is like a brother to me.

If I didn't consider him as such I would have shot him for addressing me like that.

"What the hell was that guy talking about? Is he talking about the girl you were with, Vera?" I still completely.

Vera. That's her name. Vera, Vera, Vera, Vera, Vera. I love it. It matches her so well. I couldn't imagine it being anything else. I feel an overwhelming feeling of an unknown emotion, a good one but still unknown, but at the same time disappointment.

I wanted her to tell me. I wanted her to trust me with it.

"Santiago?" Alex calls to me this time. I turn and look at them. Cam has the most serious look I've ever seen him wear, while Alex always looks serious but right now he looks genuinely worried.

"I don't know what he was talking about. I assume he was talking about Vera, but I don't know. However the he he was talking about has it out for both of us." I can barely pay attention to anything but the way her name melted off my tongue.

Even in a conversation like this, I couldn't just skip over the word. I had to feel it soak in.

"Santiago, I believe you if you say you don't know, but if you do find out anything you need to tell us. This isn't a joke, their gang might have started small but it's growing by the day and they just threatened your life. I know you don't like asking for help, but it's not an option. We're in this whether you like it or not." Cam hardens his jaw as he glared at me.

He's never been this serious about something nor has he ever really put his foot down we haven't had a situation where he's had to do so, but now I can see the determination that's front and center in his eyes. I can tell his not budging so I simply nod. He nods back and slowly unclamps his jaw.

"Good, now let's talk about your girlfriend." He says a slow smile coming across his face. It's crazy how he was just scolding me and is now smiling.

"She's not my girlfriend and how do you know I was with her." Cam scrunches his eyebrows at as if he's offended.

"Don't insult me, it took you 25 minutes to get here. I had some free time." He shrugs his shoulders as if it was nothing and starts to walk towards me.

"Come on, we're having a drink and talking about that lunatic down there. And your mistress." My jaw hardens at that word. Mistress. I would never describe Vera that way. God her name, I can't get enough of it.

"She's not my mistress." I say starting to walk out the door, only to have Cam and Alex right next to me.

"Woah, sorry. Well what is she. If she's not your girlfriend, which I'm betting will happen, not your M word, don't want you to shoot me, then who is she." Before I can respond Alex interjects.

"$10000 they'll be together by December." I glare at Alex. I swear he barely talks but when he does it gets on my nerves. I wish I could shoot him too sometimes.

"$15000, November." I roll my eyes and go back to what Cam previously said.

Who is Vera to me? Without more than a minute of pondering I know the answer. It's vague and might not make sense to them but it does to me.

She's Vera. Mi luz. (My light)