GTO: Soldiers Of Hades MC, #3

When she looked back up at the men, her eyes were sad. “They all knew my views. When I was a little girl, I made friends with someone in the village. They had a small girl about my own age and I used to sneak off to play with her. My father saw me one day and dragged me home. He told me I wasn’t to play with anyone from the village again, that they could make me disappear and they might hurt me to get back at them. I didn’t understand this at all. Two days later, I sneaked out again and went to play with my friend. But she wasn’t there. In fact, her whole family was gone. I asked around for them but I was told they were all dead. Apparently, my father and his brothers had gone to see the family and shot everyone in the house. They murdered a family of six because I dared to play with my friend. One of them was a baby of six months old…” Tears ran down her face as she told her story.

“Damn, that’s just cold.” Python shook his head.

“The people of the village, the ones who had been so warm to me before, turned away from me then. I hated what my father and uncles had done and I told them so. I got the beating of my life when I spoke against them. I learned not to speak against the family business as much as I hated it… I couldn’t speak out against it ever again.”

GTO stared at her, knowing now why she had those scars on her back.

“So that means even if we take out the men, the women will take over.” Python ran his hands over his head. “This is a fucked up mess.”

“The women might try and run the cartel but they don’t have the same kind of power the men would have,” she explained. “The cartel is basically a male dominated industry. My family would eventually be taken over by another cartel. The drug trade might slow down for a few months but it would come back.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not.” Cobra shrugged. “That would depend on how bad we damage it.”

“What does that mean?” Cotton frowned.

“I’ve been thinking about the designer drug she told us about yesterday.” Cobra tilted his head as he spoke, “If we can get across the border, find out where they’re making this drug, we can blow it up. Then we can blow up the labs that turn the poppies into drugs. We can burn their poppy fields and then they would have nothing left.”

“The Brago cartel might be down but there are other cartels waiting to take over,” she warned them.

Cobra nodded. “And we’ll take them out as well. One at a time, if we have to.”

“But first, we have to strike this cartel with all we’ve got.” Cotton growled.

“We’ll blow the tunnel and get Arturo on the run,” Cobra suggested. “If we can catch him before he can get home, he won’t have the protection he wants.”

“He will fight for his freedom,” Luisa told them. “So if it comes down a gun battle, don’t hesitate. He will kill you to get away and he’ll throw whoever he has to under the bus.”

“You just need to show us where the tunnel and the boat landing is. We’ll take it from there,” Python stated.

“I need a map then.” She nodded.

Lightning found a map of Laredo then handed it to her.

Luisa spread it out on the table in front of her. She studied it carefully and tracked the tunnel back to the river. She pointed out where the tunnel came out then she told them where the ladder was and about the old leak. She went on to show them where the old dock was in case Arturo ordered a boat to get them home. She then pointed out a second place where the boat could dock. Then to a warehouse by the water that she said was the one where they were making the designer drugs.

Cobra raised his head glared at her. “They are on this side of the border?”

She nodded.

“You said they would use Mexican workers for testing the drugs.” He snarled.

“They did, they have access to my family’s workers. The cartel would send over workers all the time. Every few months, they would change the workers out, so the same ones weren’t there all the time.”

“Damn, they’ve been here the whole fucking time.” Cotton snarled.

“Well, we’ll take care of them,” Cobra assured his brother. “We’ll blow them out of the water at the same time we blow the tunnel. That ought to shake up Arturo enough to run home to his mama.”

Luisa stared at him doubtfully. “I just hope you have enough men to bring him down then. Because he has a small army set to protect him.”

“We can get more men,” Cobra informed her.

“We have to blow the tunnel in Laredo first,” Lightning reminded them.

“Before dawn, we’ll take out the tunnel and the warehouse,” Cobra announced. “That will leave Arturo and Javier to move fast and without a lot of back up.”

Luisa got up and moved over to the window. She needed to get away from them for a while. Arturo might be a bad guy but he was still her brother. Javier too. They were simply taking over for her father and their uncles in the family business. Reaching up, she rubbed her upper arms. She’d suddenly gotten a shiver of dread rushing through her body. This really was her last stand. She would either walk away with no family or watch as her family died all around her. It might even be possible that she would end up with a bullet in her head too.

She leaned against the window panel and laid her head against the coolness of the glass.

GTO came over to join her and as he wrapped his arms around her, she leaned against him. Leaning over to whisper in her ear, he said, “It will be okay. You may not think so right now, but I promise it will be.”

“You have no idea what will happen when you go after them,” she whispered back. “Arturo will come back at you with everything he’s got. And if he goes down, Javier will and if you get him, then Carmen will. Even if you get all three of them, my Aunt Guadalupe will order the thousands of men the cartel has to come after you. They won’t stop until they find you and destroy each and every one of you.”

GTO snorted. “You have no clue how many people we have willing to fight with us. We have an army of our own.”

She turned to look into his eyes and asked, “And what about me? Where do I fit in? If I give up my family what happens to me?”

GTO looked into her eyes and told her, “You aren’t alone anymore. I got your back.”

“But for how long?” she whispered.

He looked at her and stated, “For the rest of your days, sweetheart. For the rest of your days. After all, you now know my real name and I cannot let you free to tell anyone.” He winked at her.

For the first time since they’d left the room they’d slept in, Luisa smiled.

Then he crushed her mouth under his and when the kiss ended, they were both short of breath. He reached down and took her hand. “Come on, we need your input.”

The rest of the afternoon, the men did the planning. They had a huge discussion. Luisa would shoot down some of their ideas, as she would point out places that weren’t breachable.

Then the brothers gathered what they would need as in weapons, explosives, and tools. They loaded 2 trucks with all they would need for this double attack.

By midnight, they were ready and the men who were going had gotten a 4 hour nap as well. Fed and ready, thirty Soldiers left the compound.

Luisa watched them all file out with her heart in her throat. Today would be a new dawning for her entire family and she couldn’t pinpoint what she felt the most. Glad or dread. Both took up space inside her. She felt nauseous and afraid. This was a turning point in many lives, not just hers.

Gannon walked out from the armory room and down the hallway. He moved purposely toward her to take her hands, as if he knew she was upset.

She slowly looked up at him. “You are not going?”

He shook his head. “I will stay and protect you and the compound.

“P-protect m-me?” she stammered as the idea was foreign to her.

He nodded and pulled her into a warm embrace. “I told you I refuse to lose you, so here I stay.”

Luisa couldn’t speak. No one had ever truly protected her…not like this. Overwhelmed, she leaned her head on his shoulder and finally—allowed the tears to flow.