Reina de la Muerte

chapter twenty five

vanessa

I've never known my father to fear much. When I was a child, I looked up to him. I saw him as a role model for the perfect leader in the fucked up world I was raised in—I wanted to be everything he was, if not more. Looking at him now, all I'm staring at is a terrified little man who doesn't want to spill every wrongdoing he has committed against his child and her husband. He is nothing like the man I thought I knew.

Antonio is many things—a coward, deceitful, a man not even worth getting his ass beaten—but he has never been known as a man to go back on his word. Yet, despite this fact, he hesitates. Gabriel sits next to me with an impassive expression on his face, his eyes gleaming to spill his blood in his too-large office chair the longer he stalls, and he still hesitates.

"We'll start off with the basics," I speak, my voice cutting through the thick tension. "Over the phone, you spoke about Lucía having a plan for me. What do you know about it?"

Antonio glances between my watchful gaze and Gabriel's penetrating glare, thrumming his fingertips against his desk.

"Before I tell you anything," he says slowly, "I would like to propose a deal."

You have got to be kidding me...a deal? Seriously?

I sigh. "What is it?"

Another brief pause. "I want complete protection from Lucía Morales when she finds out I have double-crossed her."

"If," I correct.

"No, mija—when. She is a smart woman and doesn't leave her business partners unattended. She will find out about this meeting one way or another and I want to make sure I am fully prepared when she comes." Antonio sits back in his leather chair, crossing his arms over his chest. "That is what I would like in return."

"Isn't it already enough of a gift that I'm letting you leave this meeting alive?" Gabriel growls. I swear I hear his mug crack under his grip. "Even that seems too generous."

"Gabriel."

He doesn't look at me but I know he's listening from the way he loosens his hold. He remains silent, glaring so hard I half expected it to pierce my father.

"I wouldn't put it past you to pick the side that keeps you alive longest," I dryly remark. "You just keep getting smaller and smaller in that chair from here."

"Mock me if you want, but that is that I ask for," Antonio replies. "That is the only way you will learn her plan."

I should have known he wouldn't be generous with this information. I gave him the benefit of the doubt in hopes that he'd help us without expecting repayment, but not even his daughter deserves that sort of treatment. This is a man-eats-man world we live in. Leaders will kill their own blood if it means being at the top. I know this, yet my heart still squeezes when I hear his proposal.

I stare him in the eye, my teeth clenched as I mutter, "Fine."

It's Gabriel's turn to look at me. "Are you sure?"

"We need the intel. Besides, the bastard won't get shit if I don't think it's good enough to be a lead," I say, ignoring his challenging stare. "If it isn't, he doesn't get any."