CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Santana

“I called you here for help, Santana. Not to aim your fucking gun at me! I’m mobilizing my men now and…” I cocked my gun and took a wide step toward Dom. He was living in his last seconds and I wondered if he knew it.

Walking into Pop’s office and seeing him on the floor in a pool of his own blood flipped a switch in me. I’d never killed anyone before but I’d always been willing. Now, I knew without a doubt that I was a motherfucking killer without remorse.

Dom was going to die.

I wasn’t going to give him the dignity of dying in the same room with my father though. Fuck that. He was going to lie cold on the fucking ground like the backstabbing rat he was.

“You’re mobilizing whose men?” I quizzed, my finger wrapped securely around the trigger. I refused to let my guard down because I knew Dom had a pistol.

“You know what I mean, Santana. I don’t think Sam should be in here right now.” He looked past me and at Sammie. Suddenly her gut-wrenching sobs became clear and I felt my chest tighten with grief.

He was gone.

Pop was gone.

“Samira, baby, listen to me, okay? I need you to focus. Get your gun and take the safety off like I showed you.” Sammie sniffled and cried but I heard her moving around to do as I said. I couldn’t look at her fully because there was no way in hell I was letting Dom out of my sight.

He had the fucking nerve to stand there like I was being ridiculous. His exacerbated breathing and eye-rolling made my trigger finger so goddamn itchy.

“Okay, Santana now what?” Sammie’s shaky voice came from behind me.

“Come here, stand beside me.” I motioned to her with a flick of my head and she stood next to me. Her warmth was comforting to my bleeding heart. “We’re going to walk Dom to the dungeon. He tries anything…shoot him in the head.”

“W—what’s the dungeon?” She sniffled.

“It’s a room in the back with no windows. You know where the dungeon is, right, Dom?” I smirked. It was fueled by ice and pain. There was nothing amusing about the situation I was crammed into.

“What the fuck is your problem, Santana? You’re wasting time when we should be focused on the motherfucker from the east side that killed Chris!”

“You really think I’m that naïve, Dom? You think I’m going to believe that Pop came in here when nobody knew he’d be here and got ambushed by the east side? His own men? Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit. Start walking to the dungeon before I shoot you in your shoulder.” I didn’t want to take out his legs because I wanted him to walk to his own death. I didn’t want to lay a hand on him.

“So what the hell are you saying? You better choose your words carefully.”

“I don’t have to choose a motherfucking thing carefully. I’m saying you killed my father. You! Just like you’re stalking Samira…you sick fuck.” Before I knew what happened my gun-wielding hand crashed into Dom’s face, cracking the skin on his cheek and letting blood run freely.

The sight satisfied me.

The mask fell from Dom’s face once again and he drew his gun. I knew he had it on him even though he tried to act as if he was unarmed. In this business, you’re never unarmed.

Sammie gasped beside me but kept her gun trained on him.

Good girl.

“That’s the animal I wanted to see. The fucking rat that’s been next to Pop this entire time,” I growled.

“You stupid fucking shit. You have no idea what you’re talking about. What do you think the guys are gonna say when they come in here and see you’ve got me hemmed up with little Sam aiming a gun at me? Put that thing down, sweetheart. I got something nice and hard you can hold instead.” As soon as the words left his mouth, I reared back to pistol whip him again but that time he cocked his gun.

Samira was no slouch, she cocked and aimed hers too without flinching. “I’ve never shot anyone before but Santana showed me how to hit a target and Papa gave me this gun for my birthday so I will fill you with bullets without blinking.” Even though her voice was pregnant with tears, she didn’t tremble once.

“You’d shoot me, sweetheart?” Dom sounded hurt.

“In a heartbeat,” Sammie answered.

The familiar sound of concrete rubbing and scraping against itself caught my ear and I knew that meant the rest of the guys were coming in. It wasn’t a scene I wanted them to walk in on with Pop lying dead on the floor and me and Sammie holding Dom up but it was what had to happen.

“Santana, I’m telling you to rethink this. You’re being stupid,” Dom grumbled with his teeth bared.

“Yo, Santana, what the fuck is going on?” The first voice I heard was Marco’s and I was grateful. I could hear the other men behind him but his voice was all I cared about right then. I knew without a doubt that he was on our side.

“Marco, shoot him in the fucking head,” Dom instructed.

“What?” Marco almost laughed the word out. “Wait…is Pop…” I heard Marco’s voice crack a bit as the scene became clear but he pulled it together.

“I walked in on Santana finishing Chris off. His own fucking father. Now he’s trying to shut me up too.” Dom was trying everything in his power to get the heat off himself. Chatter broke out behind me and I knew it would take a while for the other guys to process everything but I wasn’t worried they’d believe Dom.

“You expect me to believe that Santana killed Pop?” Marco barked out a laugh and pulled his gun, aiming at Dom. He looked at me and then to the ground where Pop laid. “When you said you suspected someone in the business of stalking Sam…you were talking about Dom, weren’t you?” I glanced at Marco, not wanting to take my eyes fully off of Dom and gave him a nod.

“You know if something happens to Chris, I’m next in line. So, I’m not going to say this shit again, fill Santana full of holes.” Dom searched all the faces I knew were behind me and I didn’t hear one gun being drawn or aimed at me.

Confidence anchored me to my spot and gave me the power that I used to find my words and keep my eyes trained on Dom and not my dead father. “Walk your ass to the dungeon, Dom. You should already know you’re going to die for killing my father.” I tipped my chin up a bit and spoke to the rest of the men in the room. If Dom called every top soldier Pop had, that meant there were at least ten men behind me.

“Dom has been stalking Sammie. He knew Pop was coming here because he’s been watching the house. He tried to pin this on the east side guys and since that didn’t work, he’s trying to pin it on me. Fuck that.” I fired a shot at Dom’s bicep that made him howl in pain and drop his gun. “I’d never kill Pop. I loved him like he was my blood fucking father. Now, we’re all going to watch this cocksucker die slow since he thought it was smart to call everyone here.”

Crimson droplets fell from Dom’s fingertips as he clutched his arm. He pulled his lips back and let out a pained noise that didn’t sound human. It soothed the aching gash in my heart though.

Finally, after a few moments of dealing with the blinding pain of a slug burning through his arm, Dom got the message and headed toward the dungeon. Marco walked on my left while Sammie walked on my right the rest of the men filed in behind us.

The dungeon was a cold and barren place with no décor on the walls or floor and only a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. It was the room where people got killed. Even the air smelled of death and fear. Pop told me he hadn’t used it in a year and that he only brought people in there when they needed to die slowly and learn a lesson.

Dom was going to learn a lesson and then he was going to die with that lesson seared into his mind. “Get on your knees,” I growled at him. “Your fucked up little plan is falling to pieces.” I dealt a swift and damaging kick to his mouth. Blood coated his lips and teeth. He spat some onto the cold concrete floor and glared at me.

“Bravo, kid.” He winced in pain and looked at me like he could kill me on the spot. I’d never give him the chance. “You’re not as stupid as your old man. Congrats. I was sure that getting Chris out of the way would leave this entire business wide open for me. I got Alina out of the way first and I thought that would do the trick but Chris never let me take over.”

My head spun and my mind reeled at his words. My gun clattered to the concrete as I fell to my knees and rammed my fist into Dom’s mouth over and over until I lost track of time.

“Santana!” I heard Sammie scream and felt her tug at my arm. My heart was racing. It was beating so fast I thought it would stutter out of my chest and fall to the floor. It couldn’t have possibly been any more broken and crushed.

“What…the fuck did you say?” I rasped, looking at Dom through tearful eyes. His head rolled against the ground, his face slick with blood.

“Come on, let’s get the fuck out of here. Let Santana and Sam have their moment,” Marco’s voice sounded a million miles away.

“You…killed my mother? She died in a car crash.” I wiped sweat from my brow and it mixed with Dom’s blood on my forehead.

“I think you knocked him out, Santana.” Sammie knelt beside me and held my head against her chest. Listening to the steady thump of her heart cracked me in a million pieces and I let out a cry that shook the stone walls.

I felt Samira’s warm tears dropping onto my face while she held me and rocked me back and forth like I was a little boy. It’s exactly what I felt like too. I felt small and vulnerable. I didn’t feel like a hulking maniac that just beat someone’s face into something that resembled oatmeal. I felt like a wounded child.

A child without parents.

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