All Hallows Eve, Vol. 3

Chapter 4

Four

“They’re here, boss.” Cameron Swayer spoke into the phone. He was the second-in-command to Knox Hernandez, head to the Scorpions organization.

“Ines and her Skeleton Men?” Knox questioned, even though he already knew the answer. He made sure Cam kept an eye on Yesina Perez while she worked at Delightful Treats and moved around town, which wasn’t too often. She usually kept to herself most days, only going to work and taking a few workout classes here and there. She was mostly a loner because she’d been so eager to get back to a life that no longer existed and was no longer hers.

Maybe I should have tightened those invisible chains when she first got here.

Knox shook off the thought, waiting for Cam to continue. “I didn’t see Ines, but I’m pretty sure the man who has been coming in for a couple of weeks now belongs to her. He’s built like a brick and had the skeleton marking tattoos on his fingers and hands. He makes sure to get a table in Yesina’s section and is only ever there when she’s on shift.” That had to be Justice, there was no way anyone else fit that description, and even if they did, they wouldn’t continue showing up and planting their ass in Yesina’s section.

Justice belonged to the Martinez family. His had been the first one hit because they held the brute strength. Where the other families had enacted a peace treaty, the Martinez and Martel families had been so tight that everyone knew Martel wouldn’t survive without his muscle, and he didn’t.

Martinez fell, and the hits on the Martel family never stopped coming.

“There’s more, boss.” There was a pause, and Knox’s grip on the phone tightened, already guessing where this conversation was going.

“Spit it out,” he ground out. The sound of sirens in the background started to fade, and he wondered if Cam had moved or emergency personnel finally left. The wreckage of Delightful Treats sucked, but he’d throw his money back into the business, and it would be up and running in no time.

“She went into one of the back rooms with him. The only reason they came out was because of the fire.”

“She’s not a dancer. She refused to get on stage. How was she allowed to go into the back with him?” His voice hadn’t gone above a decimal, but the bitter coldness in his tone gave the room frostbite.

He looked over at Joana. The woman had been one the Scorpions’ playmates. She’d been the perfect option to look after Yesina when she first got here. She was eager to please his father and money hungry. All they had to do was send her a little money to keep them afloat so long as she was in Yesina’s ear, telling her how awful the Martel clan was, and that included Ines and her men.

The one thing his father hadn’t been able to accomplish was wiping out the kids he didn’t think he needed to worry about. All the eldest sons except for Justice had been executed, an attempt to keep the vergence from coming. His father never believed a seventeen-year-old girl and two lanky kids would have the means or the determination to hunt anyone down.

But you were wrong, pops.

His father’s arrogance had cost Perez a lot of his men and the Scorpions their own. It was one of the reasons they pulled out of East Grantshot. It wasn’t necessary to deplete their forces, especially if they already got what they wanted. It was also why Joana had been perfect to watch over Yesina. She was supposed to keep her in place—keep her fearful and filled with hatred for the families that in the end were responsible for her departure from East Grantshot and keeping her from her family.

But looking at Joana now, shaking like a leaf and the skin around the scorpion tattoo on her arm inflamed from constant scratching, they made a mistake in picking her.

She used the money she’d been given from both Perez and Knox and snorted it or spent it on designer shit. The only good thing that came of using her was putting Yesina in enough debt to keep her here where she belonged.

“Is she with him now?” Knox wondered how far Yesina went with Justice and how far she was willing to go. The idea of him touching her—of them touching her—when she belonged to him made him want to burn everything to the ground.

The little shits she dated here and there had been just that—little shits, distractions to keep her busy while he helped Perez kill the rest of the families and eventually flush Ines and her Skeleton Men out.

“Nah, not once everyone got to safety. I lost him in the crowd. For a big fucker he sure knows how to quietly disappear. But we have another issue. I’m sending you a picture that just came through my phone.”

Knox’s phone buzzed in his ear, and he pulled it away long enough to see the picture of Michael Perez badly beaten and strung up against what looked like a Saint Andrews cross. His throat was slit, and across his chest the words ‘death always comes to false kings’ craved into his skin. There was a skull painted on his thigh—a signature mark from Ines.

Knox put the phone back to his ear. “I’m not surprised,” he grumbled. Perez was no match for a woman hell-bent on revenge—one who had been so much like her father. From what his own father had said about Martel, he’d been intelligent and only employed the best of the best around him. When they attacked, they had to be strategic, chipping away at his armor until the crack was wide enough for the kill shot.

He’d have to do the same for Martel’s daughter.

“Keep an eye on her and make sure you pay off the owner of Delightful Treats. He should be compensated for the loss of his club.” Knox hung up and looked at Joana. “You failed at your task. She was supposed to hate them, and she ran right to them.”

“She doesn’t…she’s not, I swear I told her what you wanted me to.” Joana’s eyes were wide as she tried to press herself into the chair, as if that would help. As if she could escape what was coming.

“You are of no use to me if you don’t hold up your end of the agreement.” He pulled out his knife and held out his hand for her wrists. “You know the rules, only Scorpions can bare the marking, and right now you are a disgrace.” He leaned in, waiting for her to hand him her arm. “Don’t worry, you can still prove your worth. If you do exactly as I say, once we remove your tattoo.”

This was overkill, he knew it, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying hearing her scream. He knew he wouldn’t lose his prized possession, not now and not ever.

Yesina stretched in bed before she curled around herself, bringing the shirt she wore up to her nose and inhaling. She let out a content hum, her body vibrating with need for the man who had worn the shirt last night, who had kissed her lips with a possession she reveled in.

Justice Martinez.

She couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before, but it explained why she felt so connected to him in the first place. He was one part of a home she had longed for and almost given up on ever reconnecting with again.

But he found her.

After so many years of being lost, he had found her and promised to explain everything when they met up again.

He couldn’t stick around last night, something about the fire had spooked him, and she couldn’t say she blamed him. Seeing those flames on the main floor had scared her. She’d been stuck rooted in place, watching the fire quickly spread. If it hadn’t been for Justice, she would have been stuck inside while Delightful Treats burned, and selfishly, the only thing she thought about was how much time she had wasted in this town—how many years she spent away from Ines, Justice, and Matteo.

The fact that she didn’t think about her mother or father in those moments let her know she still blamed him for the events that led up to her being taken away from East Grantshot and being trapped here.

But in the light of the morning, she understood it wasn’t all his fault. She should have found a way to escape the second she turned eighteen or maybe twenty-one when she had her own cash saved up before it was stolen from her. Instead, she got caught in a cycle she hadn’t fully figured a way out of till now.

She rolled over and reached for the papers Justice had handed to her last night. One was a flyer for the Halloween Carnival coming to town, and her excitement for it grew anew. She used to spend a lot of her free time in the one that came yearly to her old neighborhood, and when she looked at the handwritten note that accompanied the flyer, she felt her stomach coil with hope that she’d be spending another carnival with Justice, Matteo, and Ines.

She read over the contents multiple times when the fire department cleared her of any smoke inhalation. She’d been so eager to get home, hoping that the quicker the night was over, the quicker she got to see Justice again. The carnival was a day and half away, and she wished she had a little button to speed up time. She couldn’t wait to see him again—couldn’t wait to be home again.

Her fingers traced the words written as she reread them:

“We may have never hung out much when we were younger, I was always so shy—nervous around you. I think I had a crush on you long before I realized you could be mine, and when I did, I didn’t know how to deal with that. I remember how much you enjoyed going to these things with Ines.”

Her heart was in her throat reading Ines’ name again. She missed them so much it was hard to breathe sometimes.

“If you’re brave, mu?eca, come play in the house of mirrors. There might be a surprise or two for you. Wear a costume. I’ll be wearing one too, but you’ll know it’s me. It’s been years, Yesina, and I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this moment with you. I’ll see you on Friday the 13th.”

Yesina folded the paper to her chest. Soon, she’d feel complete again.

She burrowed further into her bed, not really having anywhere to be since Delightful Treats would be closed down until further noticed and she didn’t feel like heading to the coffee shop or her usual gym class. In all honesty, all she wanted to do was stay curled up in this bed until it was time for her to go to the carnival.

There was a loud pounding on her front door that made her shoot up in bed. She grabbed her cell phone to look at the time and noticed she had several missed calls from Joana and a private number. There was also one text message from a random number, and curiosity made her unlock her phone to check who it was from.

870-555-0809

Don’t forget who you belong to. Getting on your knees for random men will cost you.

Yesina blanched at the message. Her phone gave her the option to store it as junk and block it, and that’s exactly what she did after she took a screenshot of the message. It could be nothing, a wrong number, especially since they didn’t use her name and she didn’t have the number stored, but her gut told her it wasn’t random.

She quickly pulled up her web browser to search the number, but nothing popped up, which was expected. She’d been tempted to call it from a blocked number, but the pounding on her door increased. She hadn’t expected anyone, she really didn’t have that many friends, but given the several missed calls, maybe it was someone looking for Joana.

She slowly slipped out of her bed and grabbed the metal pipe she kept underneath it. Her one-bedroom apartment was small, but it had been enough to get her out of living with Joana. It pushed her back on saving money to leave, but it gave her peace of mind she never got living under that woman’s roof.

“Open up!” The pounding increased. “I know you’re home. Delightful Treats was set on fire last night.” Joana’s voice was panicked, and Yesina was tempted not to open the door. The woman had become erratic as of late, and it took a lot out of Yesina to deal with her.

“Yesina, please. Hurry up! It’s about your father. Open the door.” The pounding continued.

The mention of her father gave her pause. She expected to feel something—a sense of urgency or relief that he’d finally made an attempt to reach out to her, but she didn’t feel anything. Maybe before last night—before Justice had revealed himself to her—she would have swung the door open, all but begging Joana to tell her what she knew, but now she didn’t care.

And what does that say about me?

“Come on, I need help too. Please.” Joana’s voice broke on a sob, and Yesina’s shoulders drooped. She didn’t want to invite her in because she knew once she did, it would be awhile before she got her to leave.

“I know I’m going to regret this,” she mumbled while disengaging the deadbolt and unlocking all her locks.

As soon as the door swung open, Joana flung herself at Yesina. “Finally,” she cried out. The impact made Yesina drop the pipe she’d been holding as they stumbled back. The loud noise of the pipe hitting the floor made Joana flinch and cling to Yesina more.

She was shaking like a leaf and Yesina had to pry her hands off to hold her at arm’s length. “What—” Yesina started to question but abruptly stopped when she saw her dilated pupils and the sweat coating her upper lip and forehead.

She spotted the blood next. Her lips were chapped and cut up, and the skin where her tattoo had once been was completely missing.

“Your father is dead, and they tried to kill me too.” She cried out, trying to embrace Yesina again, but she kept her away, trying to piece together what she’d just heard with what she was seeing.

“I don’t…we should get you to the hospital.” Yesina tried to move her toward the door, but she latched on to her, her nails digging into her skin. “You’re hurting me,” she tried to talk in a calm voice.

“I can’t go to the hospital, they’ll find me. I need to stay with you.”

There was desperation and fear seeping off of her skin, and it alarmed Yesina. As long as she’d been around, the woman had never once shown an ounce of anything other than contempt and greed.

“I’ll go with you to the hospital,” she kept her voice calm, even as her mind was reeling with what she was dealing with—even the fact that her father was dead, if what Joana said was true.

“Who did this to you?” she asked, trying to get her to focus enough to get her help.

“Ines,” she shouted, and Yesina’s blood ran cold. “Ines and her Skeleton Men. They killed your father, and they just tried to kill me.”