The warehouse was empty except for the bare necessities, including a couple of foldout aluminum chairs that had been placed in front of a wall. Tied to the chairs were the two gangbangers who had tried to bust into the SUV -- and would have tried to kidnap and rape the Ramirez women if given half a chance.
Victor and Tony stood next to a man with longish, tousled brown hair, who must be the infamous King. He was the first to speak, his voice a smooth baritone that echoed in the cavernous space.
“Hugo, Franco…I think you boys know why you’ve been brought here, but just in case there’s any confusion…I think you should hear from the man you’ve insulted. I’m a firm believer in allowing the person who has been wronged to explain the nature of the offense and the manner in which they’ve been disrespected. You boys already know all about what happens in the street when you disrespect the cartel—you two being gangbangers and all.”
The hair on the back of Valentina’s neck stood up as Victor approached Hugo and Franco, acknowledging her with a slight nod of his head as he passed. The gesture only amplified her feelings of uncertainty and fear. Though she was standing in the back of the room with Juanita and Roxanne, she felt like she was the one tied to a chair being interrogated. Her stomach coiled into a nauseated knot of stress in the moments that followed.
“Mom, Auntie Roxanne, and Valentina, come forward, please.”
Auntie Roxanne? Valentina guessed that he was making sure the two men knew they’d fucked with members of the Ramirez family. She couldn’t read him, though, and that only added a raw quality to the fear that was already thick in the air. She followed behind the other two women, using them as a type of emotional shield.
“Hey, wait…I know you--” Hugo sputtered. “You’re on that telenovela. Are those fake tattoos? Like, a disguise? That is so cool.”
It wasn’t Hugo’s statement that caused her mouth to drop open, it was the speed with which Victor attacked him, like a wild animal bearing down on its prey. He grabbed the man’s hair and yanked his head up with so much force that she wondered if he might have snapped the man’s neck.
“You think you know my wife!? Really. Interesting. Well, let me introduce you to my mother and my aunt.” Victor’s head jerked around until his wild eyes met Valentina’s, daring her to argue with his declaration of ownership. She swallowed hard but said nothing. When he was certain she wasn’t going to defy him, he turned back to Hugo and spat, “You don’t know shit about my family.”
Victor snapped his fingers as he reached his hand back to gesture in King’s direction, but never took his eyes off Hugo. King disappeared around a corner and returned moments later, wheeling a small table in front of him that held a glass case. The case appeared to be home to several scorpions.
“Oh, fuck, no, please.” Hugo’s face blanched, then flushed a deep red as he began to struggle against his restraints. Up until now, the drug-filled animal dart had been enough to dull his senses, but seeing the scorpions gave him a clear understanding of the agony that lay before him.
This time it was King who spoke. “Oh, don’t be such a big baby. You’re not allergic, are you?”
“How the fuck am I supposed to know?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. Now, most of the time, scorpion stings are just a nasty little inconvenience that can be handled with home remedies—but that’s not the case with the Arizona bark scorpion. And, well, as you might have guessed--”
“Is that an Arizona bark scorpion?” Hugo’s eyes were wide, his chest heaving with a mixture of fear and a small, useless sliver of hope. It was a look that brought King a lot of pleasure. There was power in dangling hope over a man’s head, only to snatch it away.
As far as King was concerned, any enemy of the Ramirez family was an enemy of his, and that made these two fuckers the enemy. With his casual, surfer-boy look, King didn’t exactly blend in with the cartel. But these two were about to find out that looks could be deceiving; he was devoted, heart and soul, to the Ramirez family. He lived for the cartel and he knew in the back of his mind what every cartel man knows: that he would probably die for it someday. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. They were words King lived by.
Making an example of Hugo and Franco was a necessary evil. The streets would ring with word of the brutality Victor and King were about to unleash on these two. When it came to torture, they almost enjoyed the planning and scheming more than the act itself.
“Yes, they are Arizona bark scorpions. Poisonous as fuck. Aren’t they beauties?” King said as he knelt down in front of the glass case up and studied its contents. Sure enough, both men began twisting and turning, pulling frantically against their restraints, straining away from the spiders. Franco ended up overturning his chair and faceplanting on the concrete floor.
Victor leaned down and yanked Hugo up by the collar, gripping his jaw so hard it brought tears to the man’s eyes. “You little son of a bitch, I want some answers! What the fuck were you doing trying to break into their car?”
Both men were now fully awake, regarding Victor with wide-eyed fear. They knew all too well how easily torture would bring even the strongest of men to their knees, begging for death so the pain would stop.
“Yeah, that got your attention, Pendejo—estupido.”
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know, man.”
No one in the room saw the punch coming until Victor’s fist landed on Hugo’s jaw and Hugo’s head lurched to the side. His chair tumbled sideways, taking him down to the floor, knocked out. The same elegant hands that loved to caress his woman’s velvety skin were now responsible for crushing bone and spilling blood.
Valentina grabbed Juanita’s arm in an effort to keep from screaming. Juanita patted her hand, whispering, “Do you need to leave?” Valentina shook her head. She needed to see what she was marrying into, witness her soon-to-be-husband’s innate darkness. His brutality was as raw and real as it got, and she knew she would never forget tonight’s ordeal. This was the only way she could truly know if this was a lifestyle she could endure. But… would it even matter if she couldn’t? She knew Victor would never let her go.
Victor’s attention was now directed at Franco, who was more than willing to answer any questions to avoid this man’s wrath.
“I need some answers,” Victor growled. “What were you doing trying to break into my wife’s car?”
There it was again, that word: wife.
“It’s a gang initiation. We want in before that fucking Escondido starts cleaning house. He’s going to make it where you can’t have no side hustle. Fuck that.”
“I see. I hate to tell you, little man, but you have fucked with the wrong man’s family.”
“We never would have done it if we’d known they were the cartel’s women.”
“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Victor said benevolently with a nod in King’s direction.
Valentina’s eyes darted quickly over to King, just in time to see him push the heel of his palm into a small hidden panel in the wall, and then place his thumb on a sensor. A low humming noise filled the air as the wall, which was apparently only a partition, began to rise. The whir of the motor was like an eerie melody warning that something ominous was about to happen. When the panel had lifted completely, it revealed a glassed-in enclosure with a beautiful view of the outside.
King came closer and pulled a knife from his jeans, whipping it open with ease. He cut through the zip ties on the men’s hands and feet.
“Oh, thank God, you’re letting us go,” Franco directed his words toward Victor. “I swear, we’ll tell the Sinaloans to stay away from your family and your business.”
The smirk on Victor’s face made no sense to Valentina. What the hell was going on?
“Come on, boys, you’re free,” Victor said easily as he gestured grandly to the door that led to the Great Outdoors. Valentina watched as he opened the door and led the men through it.
“I’m afraid this is where we say goodbye,” Victor said, his voice far too quiet. “That door is your next stop.” He stepped back through the door leading into the warehouse and watched as the two men ventured through the door, staggering through the plush green grass.
This wasn’t so bad. Valentina breathed a sigh of relief—too soon. From behind a large bush emerged two female lions who began circling the men, who were now frozen in fear. It was like a train wreck, she could not look away. She hadn’t realized there was sound was being piped in until the females began communicating with each other.
They worked together, smoothly herding the men until one of the beasts leapt through the air. Her counterpart roared as the first beast ripped Hugo’s throat to shreds, slinging his body around like a ragdoll. Franco was next. The kills were gruesome but swift.
What happened next fascinated Valentina even as it sickened her. Another lion – a male this time -- emerged from the brush and settled in to feast on the fresh kill while the lionesses stepped away, giving him first dibs. A perfect show of dominance in the animal kingdom.
It wasn’t the roars of the lions, the crunching of bones, or even the bloodcurdling screams that haunted Valentina’s dreams for years to come; it was the purring of the big cats as they feasted on the enemies of the Colombian cartel. Their pleasure at working together to bring down the humans who had invaded their habitat. They really weren’t all that different than the Ramirez family.