Chapter 21

I stood there, my chest heaving and my heart beating rapidly into my chest. The nerve of this woman to come here and speak as if she has every right to do so and above that, I still don’t know what she had said to Ariel and I can’t fucking follow her until I get rid of this garbage that stinks my house. I advanced on her, ready to finish this, but Leo held my arm, stopping me.

“You are not welcome here, Lena. You better leave before anything would happen to that plastic face of yours.” She glared at him. Her face couldn’t conceal her hatred toward him. She was only angry because he was the only one to escape her charms and she couldn’t get him in her bed along with Michael.

“Don’t speak to me, faggot. It still baffles me that you are a mafia and a faggot.” She turned to me again.

“How could you accept such filth here? You should have thrown him away or get rid of him.” This time when I tried to walk, Leo didn’t stop me. I towered over her. My face was red because of how furious I was.

“Leave now, this is my last warning.” She pouted and flipped her hair, ready to talk some shit I’m not in need to hear, but the enormous doors behind her opened.

Enrique Juan Pablo walked towards us. His hands were inside his pockets and a smirk on his face. “Is this a bad timing?” I took two steps backward and closed my eyes, breathing deeply. I forgot about my meeting with him and he came as a favor for me, all the way from Chicago.

I took his outstretched hand into mine, wincing when I gripped it tighter than I have intended to.

“No, you are on time. This is something unimportant. Let’s go to my office.” the infuriating woman screeched.

“You will not treat me like that, GABRIEL. You will respect me or else.” Enrique chuckled.

“Or what princess you will run to your lover Giovanni or Alessio? I don’t think they would help you with that.” Lena’s face turned red. I didn’t know if it was because of anger or shame or both, but she eyed my guest suspiciously, her gears working.

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” He chuckled and then lowered his head and whispered something into her ear, making all the blood drain from her face.

She looked me in the eye and sneered. “Don’t think that this is over. You and your little barely jail bait slut will pay for your disrespect.” And with that, she turned and left us standing.

“Do I need to know how you knew about this? That she was fucking Giovanni and Alessio both. And what did you tell her that she had to leave like this?” He smirked at me.

“You come to me for info Cerberus, there is no need to be shocked or ask about my resources. If I did that I would be useless to you.” I eyed him for a second before patting his back.

“Just stay away from me and mine and we will be good.” He chuckled and walked with me toward the office.

“You know I will never betray you like that. After what you did to me, I’m in your debt forever, Gabriel.” I nodded, believing and trust him. He was one of the few men I called them friends, though in our line of work there is nothing like friends or trust.

Just when we were about to move from the foyer, someone barged in, shouting. I growled, what the fuck do those men guarding the damn gates doing today.

“Where is she? What the fuck did you do to her? You better not hurt her or I will fucking kill you Cerberus in your damn house and no one will save you, do you hear me?” Leo left my side and ran to the doors; I turned around and found Jason, Ariel’s friend, standing between two burly men who were trying to take him away. I stood staring at him, perplexed.

“Hey, sweetness, what is wrong? What happened to you? Why are you looking like that?” The man stood there seething. His hair was a mess, his t-shirt was buttoned wrong, and he was wearing a sweat pants and slippers. He looked troubled and agitated.

The boy swatted angrily my second’s hand away when he tried to hold him. “Don’t fucking sweetness me. Where the fuck is my Ariel? And what your asshole boss did to her?” Leo looked at me shocked and I sneered at that disrespectful shit, his Ariel?

“She is not your anything. And you don’t disrespect me in front of my people in my own fucking house.” My hand shot to wrap around his neck. Today I had enough, Ariel’s friend or not, I will kill him. The boy didn’t flinch or cower away if anything else, he pushed himself to his tiptoes to try to look me in the eye. He bared his teeth at me, his nostrils flaring.

“You think that you intimidate me mutt, you are not the first criminal I have ever met. Hell, I had some fun with some of them, so you better take your hands off of me.” I put some pressure on the hand that was wrapped around his neck, but then felt the sting of something sharp against my own. Leo put his hands up, cursing while I tried to see what was nicking me.

The fucker has a military pocket knife against my neck and I didn’t even notice or see it.

“Hey Gabriel, please let’s talk about this. I’m sure there is a misunderstanding.” Leo tried, then he turned and pleaded to the kid.

“Jason, put that thing down, please. I don’t know what you think had happened to Ariel, but I promise you that she is fine and she is up with Lola. So please put that knife away, ok, I beg you.” I noted the panicked tone of Leo’s voice, but I didn’t take my eyes off of Jason, now that I see him from a different perspective. The kid has big balls. I respected that.

Enrique walked to where we were standing and faced Jason. “Mateo? Is that you?” Jason’s breath hitched and his body shook when he turned to look at Enrique. He almost fell, if it weren’t for me and the tight grip I still have on his neck.

“En… Enrique?” He all but tried to hide behind me. I lowered my hand, and he fell on the floor with a big thud, his body shaking. His eyes were round and big with fear. Leo helped him to his feet and hugged the boy to his chest and for the first time he didn’t fight him and burrowed deeper into his embrace. He asked Enrique, not so kindly.

“How do you know Jason? And why is he shaking like this? What did you do to him?”

Our guest was smart to notice the tension in my friend’s body so he raised his hands in a peaceful gesture, trying to defuse him.

“I swear to god I have never raised a hand against Mateo or hurt him in any way.” Leonidas snarled.

“Stop calling him Mateo. His name is Jason.” Enrique looked genuinely confused. “But his name is Mateo Gonzalo. Not Jason.” Jason asked, his voice small and scared.

“Did he…… Did he send you to find me? Does he know where I’m?” He only shook his head no and I didn’t miss the clench of his jaw. He addressed me.

“Can we go to somewhere private to talk, and Mateo… I mean Jason could come please.” Leo was about to shake his head no, but I said yes and we headed again to my office.

The office room was tense, even though we have been here for 5 minutes now and no one spoke. Leo was on the couch and Jason’s or Mateo’s body huddled closer to him. His shaking stopped, but his face was still sickly pale.

“I will never hurt you, Mateo, I mean Jason.” Enrique gave the kid a reassuring smile and tried to pat his hand, but the kid flinched and cowered between Leonidas’ hands. He almost straddled him. How come this scared kid didn’t recoil from my rage and the mere mention of his father made him like this. Leo snarled at our guest.

“Don’t fucking touch him.” Enrique sighed and this time he addressed me.

“Jason’s father is the leader of (Los cruzados) the crusaders, the biggest motorcycle club or biker gang if you would like to call them, in Chicago.” I straightened in my chair, intrigued.

“Sweet Jason here.” I asked, because I was confused. Enrique chuckled.

“This sweet Jason was known for his skills in torturing people at the age of twelve. Some of the strongest men would cower in front of him.” Jason flinched and whimpered as if hearing this was hurting him physically.

Leo cooed, trying to help the kid to calm down. He looked like he was about to die. “Jason, tell me, how did you escape? I mean, your father is still searching for you and you just disappeared without a trace. Even though they have found the scorched body, you left behind. He still believes that you are alive.” Jason squirmed.

“Isabella helped me.” Enrique perked up at this new information. The man looked like a dog with a bone. “Isabella Francisco Javier.” He raised a brow.

“Javier’s daughter, the previous leader of (Los soldados del Diablo) the devil’s soldiers.” Jason nodded his head.

“When I turned sixteen, I went to her. She always treated me well, even though after what my father did. She told me whenever I wanted out, I should contact her.” He hummed.

“You mean after your father killed hers?” Again, he nodded.

“What about that body they found in your room?” Jason untangled himself from Leo’s embrace, but still kept a hand clutching his forearm.

"I stole a body from the morgue. It was a John Doe; I had someone there tell me when they got any unknown bodies.” Enrique looked fascinated as he listened to the kid.

“Wow, Jason, this is just….wow. You know no one has ever succeeded in tricking your father before, and you were, what, seventeen?”

Jason licked his lips. “This was my plan since I was fourteen. I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m not like Manuel.” Enrique’s face softened.

“I know Jason. I always thought that you were a good kid but born in the wrong family.” Leo talked with a sneer on his face.

“Do they know where he is right now? Are they still looking for him? Are you going to tell Enrique? Trust me, a word slips out from you and I will fucking kill you and everything you ever loved in this world.” Enrique eyed Leo and Jason searching for something, and when he found it, he sat up straighter.

“To answer your questions, yes, they are still looking for him. Because his father thinks that he didn’t run away, he was taken so he is searching for the kid or his real body at least. And no, they don’t know where he is. And there is no need to threaten me; I won’t tell anyone anything about him. On the contrary, I will keep a close eye on them and if anything happened, I will let you know. Jason is your family Leonidas and I respect that.” Leo nodded his head, but the tension didn’t leave his body yet.

I rubbed my face. This day was a fucking exhausting one, and it didn’t end yet. ”Jason, you can go now. Ariel is staying with Lola today. If you want to see her, you can go upstairs.” The kid stood, his eyes downcast and his hands were fumbling with the hem of his T-shirt.

“Please don’t tell Ariel anything about this. My family I mean and….and….I don’t want her to hate me for something I was forced to do.” His eyes shone with tears when he looked at me. I understood what he meant. He didn’t want me to tell her how he tortured and killed people. He thought she would be afraid of him. I smiled.

“Don’t worry, Jason, this is our little secret. But trust me; Ariel will never hate you for something like this. Actually, she would be proud of you and how you managed to escape all of this and chose a different path.” He nodded and he and Leo left me alone with Enrique.

“Wow, a small world, ha?” I looked at Enrique sternly.

"Nothing of this will ever get out, Juan Pablo.” The man chuckled. “You and your second need to have some faith in me.” I sighed.

“Like you said, he is family and family of mine too.” He smirked. “You mean your little lady’s friend or Leo’s boyfriend?” I chuckled too.

“He isn’t Leo’s boyfriend yet, but trust me, he will be. My brother is like you he never quits.” His brows rose. “Oh, so he is straight?” I smirked.

“He won’t be for long.” The man whistled, yes he is on his way. Leo can make a priest sin and I have seen it before. He did it for shits and giggles sometimes, but the way he looks at Jason is different. He truly cares for the kid.” I cleared my throat.

“Enough of this, let’s talk business.”