Chapter Thirty-Four
Harper
Vincent steps forward, looking a mess from his two-day Ativan coma. His gaze is on me and for some reason, I can’t stop looking at him. It’s such a mind-fuck for him and James to be identical.
“Harper,” he says.
“Take one fucking step towards her,” James growls, “and I will snap your fucking neck.”
The disfigured gang leader laughs as his men come towards James and I expect a huge fight to break out right then, but he doesn’t fight back when they grab him by the arms. He shoots me a look as they tug him from my side, and then he looks over at the leader. “Just let them go. I’ll come with you, but just let the girls go. And let Nick Tate get them to safety.”
“James,” I say. But my desperate whisper isn’t even loud enough for him to hear.
Sasha is pushed forward and she runs to me, clinging to my waist.
We’re gonna let this end like this? We’re four killers. Trained assassins. Surely we can at least put up a fight?
The men walk James to the leader’s feet and then push him down on his knees. He looks up at the ugly man and smiles. “Let them go, Matias. Let them go and I won’t finish what I started twelve years ago.”
Matias kicks James in the stomach, making him double over. “Fuck you, perro mascota. My new pet dog.” He squats down so he can look James in the eye and then he presses the barrel of his gun to James’ temple. “You’re not in any position to negotiate. And if you say one more word, I kill those girls right now.” He smiles to reveal only half a mouth of teeth. “And make you watch.”
Then he straightens up and takes his attention to Nick. “Let’s walk down to the beach so I can have time to consider my options.” He waves a hand and his entourage starts shoving us towards the steps. James is pushed forward and he begins the descent first, but he’s surrounded by Matias’ security, so I can’t even see him. Sasha and I hold hands on the way down. She’s trembling. For all our bravado, we’re not seasoned in these kinds of confrontations. Not like Nick and James are.
I’m terrified. I feel like one of us is about to be murdered, and that is most likely James.
When we finally make it to the sand, Sasha and I are pushed off to one side while Nick and James are lined up in front of the ocean. The tide is high, there’s very little beach left at the moment. And I have a brief moment of anxiety as I worry about the water crashing us against the rocky cliff that is only a few yards away.
“Shoot them both,” Vincent says. “Just shoot them. I gave them to you, now let me take the Tate girl and leave.”
“Shut up, cabrón. No one is leaving yet.”
Sasha hugs me tight, and then she leans into my ear and whispers. “James has the file, Harper. If they take James, they take the files.”
“Where the fuck is that guy James said was waiting with a boat?” But as soon as the words are out of my mouth, I see the boat lights in the small harbor. It’s motoring towards us as a very slow rate. Everyone turns to look, but then the engine cuts and it drifts over to the dock and bumps up against it.
“Your ride?” the gang leader asks me.
I nod. The Hispanic man walks towards us and stops right in front of Sasha. To her credit, she meets his gaze. “We made a deal,” he says. “You gave me what you promised, so I will give you what I promised. Go.”
“Nick too,” Sasha demands. “I asked for Nick and I’m not leaving without him.”
“Take him,” Matias says with a laugh. “I have the only man I came for.” And then he looks over at James. “Since One is already dead, my new dog, you will pay for his sins instead.”
Sasha grabs my wrist, but I can’t move. I cannot leave here without James. There’s no fucking way I’m walking off this beach and leaving him here.
I pull away from Sasha and—
“Harper,” James says, from down the beach. “Harper, stop. Listen to me.”
I shake my head and back away from the ugly man and Sasha. “I’m not part of this deal.”
“You’re damn right you’re not part of this deal. She’s coming with me, Matias.” Vincent walks forward like he’s gonna take me away, but Matias aims at the ground in front of his feet and shoots. The sand flies up in his face, making a cloud of dust.
“Someone shut this asshole up.”
They go for him, but Vincent is big and he pushes the first guy out of the way. They start fighting, but Vincent breaks away, and the last thing I see is him running into the ocean and diving into a crashing wave.
“Shoot him!” Matias calls. “He’s no one. Just a copy of the man here on his knees.”
A few men run along the water shooting into the waves, but it’s dark and I don’t see anything.
A shot rings out, hitting the cliff behind Matias, and then all four of us have guns to our heads.
A voice comes over a speaker from the boat still banging against the dock.
“Fenici party of four, your table is ready.”
Sasha snorts, but then the little red laser dot appears on James’ chest. “Let him go, Matias,” the voice in the boat says. “Or I’ll shoot him right now. And if you make me shoot my friend, I’m gonna shoot you next, motherfucker.”
“Shoot him!” Matias calls. “It’s a mercy killing. Because we’re going to set him on fire. Right here on this beach.” A man approaches from the stairs carrying two cans of gasoline and Matias walks over to meet him, his arms outstretched.
“See how efficient we are?” He stops and looks back at James, who is strangely calm for a man whose fate involves going up in flames in a haze of accelerant. “But don’t worry, dog. I’m not going to kill you, cabrón. I’m going to makes sure you live to feel the pain, just like you did me.” He points to another man who is holding a fire extinguisher. “I don’t want you to die, dog. That’s too easy. I’m going to make sure you live to feel the humiliation at being disfigured.”
“Stop,” I shout. “Just stop. This is not happening. You are not doing that.” I point to Matias. “I won’t let you.”
“You won’t let me?” He walks forward, pushing Sasha out of the way as he approaches and then he grabs me by my hair. I twist under his arm and spin around his back, my hands ready to clamp down on his throat, when a shot rings out at my feet.
Matias pushes me to the ground and then smacks me in the face.
“That’s enough, Matias,” James says. “Touch her again and I take someone out. Let her go and you can do whatever you want with me. But you’re gonna let her go first.”
“As if you can negotiate,” Matias spits.
James smiles. I can see it even in this dim moonlight. “You know I can, motherfucker. You know I can. I’m playing ball with you right now because these girls are here. But you hurt one of them, and I’ve got no reason to be compliant. So let them go. Let Nick Tate walk them up the dock so that boat can take them away. And I’m yours.”
“No,” I say from the ground at Matias’ feet. “James, I’m not leaving here without you.”
“Take her away, Nick.” James looks at my brother and they stare hard into each other’s eyes.
Sasha stands in front of me and offers her hand. I accept and she helps me to my feet. “Let’s go, Harper. Before he changes his mind.”
But I shake off her grip and walk towards my new husband instead. There’s protests in Spanish from the gang members, and probably Matias himself, ordering me to stop. But I don’t stop. I walk right up to James and wrap my arms around his neck. “I’m not leaving you here. I’m not. I refuse to leave here without you. I can’t live. I told you, I can’t live. I’d rather die than live without you.”
His hands wrap around my neck and he threads his fingers into my hair as he pulls me tight to his chest. “I love you.” And then he sighs.
“Wait,” Nick says off to my right. “Wait, Matias. I have another option for you.”
I don’t want hear the option. I really don’t want to hear the option. Because I know what he’s going to say, just by the tone of his voice.
“Take me instead.”
Sasha screams. “No! No! That was not our deal!”
Matias laughs, looks at James one more time, then my brother. He’s considering the options. He’s considering who Nick is. How he might help him.
“I have information, Matias,” Nick says quickly. “Information James does not. Information that you will want.” Sasha is still screaming and there are several men holding her back from running up to ruin this deal. Nick’s voice is strained. “The Company isn’t dead, only subdued. I can get you all their assets. I can offer you resources you will never get on your own. I can give you more power than you’ve ever dreamed of. Just let James go. Let him take my sister and the little girl. And don’t ever look for them again.”
Everyone goes silent. Even Sasha stops her wailing to wait for the answer. I count the number of times the waves crash as the deformed man stares down my brother.
Does he want a way forward into the future? Or does he want revenge for the past?
He walks over to James and stands a few paces off and laughs. “I’ll tell you what. You apologize to me. On your knees. For what you did. And I’ll consider this deal.”
James shakes his head and gets to his feet. He walks towards the gang leader, his hands in the air. “Jesus fucking Christ, Matias. It was a job. OK? A fucking. Job. It was never personal. I didn’t kill your family. Hell, I didn’t even kill you. I missed motherfucker. Why do you fucking think that is?” James stops right in front of Matias and I wait for the shot. I wait for the retaliation and the vengeance that will take his life. Take him from me forever. “Did you ever, after all this time, ask yourself why I fucking missed Matias? Did it ever fucking occur to you? Did it ever cross that pea-brain of yours that I missed on purpose?”
What?
Matias shakes his head and laughs. “You want to face me, after all this time, and say what you did was merciful?”
“Dude, I was a kid. In a fucking war zone. Your brothers strung me up. I never even got to talk to you about it. You never came to me after you recovered and asked about it.”
“You were a spy.”
“And you knew I was a spy. You knew because I told you back then and it’s pretty clear now, I don’t work for these people. I work for me. I told you everything I knew before the shit went down. It’s not my fucking fault you didn’t listen. And now you know. You’ve known since that day twelve years ago. I was telling the truth. And the last time I was down in San Pedro Sula, I stayed clear, asshole. Out of respect. You never saw me. You never heard my name. They never knew I was there.”
Matias stares at James. “We knew someone was there.”
“No one ever said my name. They never said my name because I never told them who I was. I did my job, which did not involve your gang, and left. It’s a fucking. Job. Matias. And you know the biggest difference between you assholes down there and the Company? They always knew it was business. You take everything personal. You never see the big picture. You let your emotions run your gang. For once in your fucking life, think about your bottom line.”
I look at Sasha and she shakes her head. She did not know they had some sort of business relationship. But am I surprised? James always said he worked for himself. And right now, that seems to be true. Because he’s been cheating against the Company since he stated playing the game.
“Matias,” Nick says, interrupting whatever is going on between these two killers. “Look man, you can kill James if you want, but I’ll have my sniper in the boat shoot you at the same time. And you’ll never walk out of here. Or, you can make a deal. You can take me. Leave James and take me and shit gets real easy, real fast.”
Matias stares at Nick for a few seconds. Then back to James. I don’t know what the two men are thinking, but somehow, some way, they come to some silent agreement. “Done,” Matias says “Take them now, before I change my mind.”
Sasha is wailing again, but James grabs my hand and tugs me along to collect her. “Shut up, Sasha,” he growls at her once he’s got a hold of her arm. And we are dragged from that beach. Me looking back at my brother. Sasha looking back at her promise. We are dragged all the way down to the very edge of the dock where James’ friend Merc waits in the boat. He’s still got the rifle trained on the gang members. But they are climbing the stairs.
Sasha is crying as she gets into the boat. “Why? Why did you do that?” She flings herself at James, pounding on his chest. “I hate you! I hate you!”
I should hate him too. I should hate James for choosing himself over Nick.
But that’s not what happened here.
Nick offered himself up for a reason. Several reasons, actually.
Me.
Sasha.
All of us Company kids.
Nick did the only thing he could.
Because James is the one who has the file, not him. James is the one who had to live, even if all the rest of us died.
Or everything we’ve done over the past year—the death, the struggle, the sacrifice, the pain—along with all the information on those two discs—would be lost to a vile street gang who would have no idea what to do with it if Nick didn’t get James out of there.
So I hold Sasha instead. I hold her tight and whisper soothing things in her ear. “They won’t kill him, Sasha. They won’t hurt him either. He will survive. He will survive and so will we.”
“He’s gone, Harper. He’s gone.” I know she wants to say more, but the sobbing takes over and she can’t.
There’s nothing more to say, anyway.
He’s just gone.