Bound to the Crime Lord (Dark Mafia Tales #2)

Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Manuel POV

M y blood seethed like red-hot lava. I wanted my brother’s head on a platter, and I wanted it now .

Rodrigo explained how everything had taken place last night and only now was this information being relayed back to me.

I was furious.

“Where is she, Rigo? And you better not say you don’t know, because that would be the end of your fucking life!” The anger poured out of me like poisoned acid. “ Where is Juliette? ”

“She’s here in Guadalajara, boss,” he said quickly. “When you left the compound, we got a message from someone by the name Diego. He gave a location and said to meet him there at 3PM.”

I processed his words for a second or two.

Not only had one of my most trusted soldiers deceived me, but they had taken my woman.

I had been stumped for months about how The Triads had been one step ahead this whole time. Lo and behold, I had the mole right under my nose the entire time. I had trusted him to be around Juliette for months. I had allowed him to have free access to her. At any given moment, he could have struck. He could have killed her, and I would have lost… everything.

There was no time to wallow in self-pity at my own mistakes, though. They had been made, and now I needed to rectify them.

Heads were going to roll, and I was going to start with Leo. My dearest big brother would follow soon after.

Revenge.

That was the only thought that I had inside of my head. I wanted to make every single person pay for what they’d done. How dare they cross me. No one was going to walk away with their lives today.

All the reservations I had about spilling blood were long gone now.

I looked down at my watch and saw that I had an hour and a half until three.

“Where are we meeting?”

Rigo cleared his throat. “An old cabin about an hour out of town.”

“I’ll meet you back at the compound, then we move out. It’s time to end this fucking shitshow once and for all.”

If one singular hair on my woman’s head had been hurt, then that was a bullet to the skull for both those traitors.

When I hung up the phone, I felt my tío’s presence even before he said anything. I didn’t bother to turn around to face him, my body was already pointed to the door.

“He has Juliette,” I started. “I need to go and get her back.”

“Then I will come with you.”

My head whipped around so fast I almost gave myself whiplash. “It’s too dangerous, tío.”

He shook his head. “What’s dangerous is letting you go in this state. Look, I don’t know who this Juliette woman is, but she seems important to you, so she’s important to me. The last time your father ran on emotion he lost the woman he loved. I don’t want the same fate bestowed upon you, so I’m coming.”

There was no room for argument in his tone, and we were running out of time standing here.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

I sat in the backseat with my uncle on the other side. I could feel his eyes on me from the moment we left my compound up until the moment we had come to the old abandoned cabin far into the mountain.

My hand was itching to reach for my gun. I had been craving to shoot something from the moment I saw the picture of my girlfriend bound like cattle.

“ Mijo , I need you to think logically about this.” Tío Alberto had been trying to calm me, but his words were doing nothing but angering me further.

“Logic? You want me to reason with logic when this asshole not only took my mother, but my woman as well? He is doing to me what his mama did to Papa. There is no reasoning with a deranged idiot like that.”

I stared out at the old cabin.

Not only had I been tricked by one of my most trusted men, but my most precious thing had been stolen from right underneath my nose.

How could I have allowed this to happen? I was more vigilant than this. I was more meticulous.

When had I ever allowed things to slip through the cracks?

“I only say this so you don’t move rashly. You need to be smart and not let your emotions rule your thinking. He has been planning this day for years. He has had time to think things through and prepare for every possible outcome. He will bank on your being reckless.”

He was right, but instead of agreeing with him, I kept quiet.

It had just turned three, and we were outside the abandoned, dingy-looking cabin.

Just as I was about to air my frustrations, a sleek Range Rover pulled up the winding driveway that led to the cabin. Rodrigo sat in the driver's seat, staring at our enemy head-on.

He had been silent the entirety of the car ride up here. I knew that he was taking Leo’s betrayal as hard as I was. He had been a brother, and to now realize that it had been nothing but a lie cut far deeper than one would like to admit.

“Remember to keep your calm, mijo ,” my uncle warned me yet again. “Do not allow him to get the better of you.”

My fists were balled at my sides and my jaw was locked, riddled with tension and anxiety. “I know, uncle.”

I watched as the doors to the car opened and out came my brother alone, with no Juliette in sight.

I reached for the handle when my uncle stopped me with his hand. “Do not let the emotions get the better of you, mijo . Think before you act.”

I ground my teeth, looking over my shoulder at the old man. “You don’t need to remind me, uncle. I know what I’m doing.”

I hopped out of the car and came face to face with my one and only sibling for the very first time.

He was a striking image of my, our , father. The resemblance was almost uncanny. It felt like staring into the eyes of the man who had raised me all my life.

We were just about the same height, but I had a few inches on him. I was slightly bigger than he was, but he seemed a lot beefier, whereas I was leaner.

Diego spread his arms out wide. “Welcome, brother. I would have welcomed you when you landed a few days ago, but not all our guests had arrived. You see, I had been hoping you would bring that lovely girlfriend of yours with you, and when I learned you left her at home, I just knew that wouldn’t do.”

I balled my fists and walked forward until I came to the tip of my car. My hand itched to reach for my holster and draw my gun, but I needed to be patient. There was no need for blood to be spilled, especially blood of the same DNA.

“Hello, Diego.”

My brother scowled. “A man of few words, I see.”

“Where are they?”

“Who is the ‘ they’ you speak of, exactly?”

“Enough with the games, Diego. Where are my mother and Juliette?”

“Someone is a little testy. I would think that you would show me some manners. I am your older brother, after all. We share the same blood, same name.”

I ground my teeth. “I won’t ask you again. Where are they?”

He waved me off. “That’s no fun, brother. We should bond first. Let me go first. What’s your favorite color? You seem like a magenta kind of man.”

“Enough,” I bit out, drawing my weapon and pointing it at him. “I’m tired of your silly little games. Where is my mother and girlfriend?”

Diego’s lips pulled into a wry smile. “I wasn’t sure exactly how important she was to you. But it seems that my baby brother over here has found himself in the web of love. How sweet.”

My finger tickled the trigger.

Diego raised his hand in the air and snapped his fingers.

The wooden door of the cabin creaked open, drawing my attention to it. My heart tumbled all the way to the floor when I locked with a pair of eyes I had not seen in almost twenty years. Eyes that I had believed were shut permanently almost two decades ago.

“Mama.”