Finding Forgiveness

He reached into his pocket and pulled out some loose change, “maybe next time you’ll do a little more than dance and I’ll give you a little more.”

I ignored his comment and focused on making sure there isn’t a next time, “may I speak to you in private?”

“Wow so soon? I like the sound of this,” he said with a smile.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

I rolled my eyes, “I have to ask you something.”

“No,” he said his face suddenly becoming more serious. “I have nothing to tell you.”

“We both know that is not true,” I hissed.

If he knew who I was then he knew who my mate was and if he knew who my mate was, he could (if he wanted to) help me.

“Adios, gringa,” he said deeply.

But of course, he didn’t want to. Maybe because he had something against me or Leo or the pack or maybe because like everyone else, he didn’t want to get on Andrea’s bad side. Either way, there was no point trying so I left with my well-earnt parcel whilst I still could.

Well, that was until I saw the mob of angry men outside marching towards the building with guns in their hands.

I backed straight back in and slammed the door.

“Angry.. men with g… guns outside,” I stuttered.

“Get down!” he bellowed to me as everyone in the room withdrew a gun from their belts.

I ducked under the pool table just before the door slammed opened and shots began to be exchanged.

I fumbled for Andrea’s gun and held it close to me. Shots and groans filled the air and I watched the feet of the men sweeping into the room from underneath the table. At one point, a man spotted me and began rapidly approaching.

I tried to fire it but nothing happened. Damn you, Andrea! I knew it wasn’t loaded.

When he got close enough, I swung my arm and thrashed him across the head with the metal object as hard as I could, he fell to the floor bleeding before I made my fast getaway out of the door. The gun didn’t shoot but it’s still a heavy object.

I made my way hastily back towards the phone box shaking from fear. It was beginning to get dark but there was still enough light for me to see the keypad and dial the number Andrea had given me.

When I got back to the warehouse, Andrea was sat slouched at a table with his long legs stretched out and twirling a gun between the fingers of one hand and a small laptop to the side of him.

I walked over to him and put the parcel on the table, along with the ‘you owe me’ note and the gun before sliding it across to me.

“You could have told me,” I stated.

“Told you what?” he asked looking up for the first time.

“That one, I needed 5, 000 dollars and two, the gun isn’t loaded,” I said.

He didn’t respond but instead gestured to the man who had driven me.

He picked up the parcel from the table and left the warehouse again. It was at? that? point that I noticed the four smears of blood on the floor.

“Whose is that?” I asked quietly.

“Oh, the blood?” he asked casually before he pointed to the first smear. “That one is Esteban. Then Richardo, Eduardo and Guillermo. They are all dead.”

“W… what?” I stuttered although slightly relieved that Luca and Leo’s names were not amongst them.

“You failed the test,” he stated.

“I brought you your? stuff, didn’t I? Is that not what you wanted? And how is this anything to do with shooting four people?!”

He reached forward and pressed a button on the laptop and a muffled recording began to play. It took me a while to realise what it was but when I did, my heart sunk three miles into the ground.

A tape of my conversation with Leo in the phone box.

Andrea looked up to me, with a dark expression a cocked his head to the side as he stared me down before turning off the recording.

There was an agonising moment of silence before he finally had the kindness to end it.

“I’ve always had my suspicions that you were lying to me, Blanca, and then that phone call earlier was one of my men telling me that he couldn’t trace the existence of an Eleonora De’Meritchi fitting your description anywhere. So I had to put it to the test,” he explained. “Now do you understand why they had to die? I can’t have this ‘Leo’ finding you and you gave their names as leads for him.”

I didn’t reply? How could I? There was nothing I could say that would make anything better.

“Who is he anyway?” he said tapping the gun on the table. “Your real mate? The owner of that huge mark?”

“Yes,” I said shakily.

“Would ‘Leo’ by any chance be shortened from Alpha Leonardo Antonio Loren?” he asked still staring intently.

I looked up to the ceiling and took a short breath in. It just kept getting worse.

“And that makes you the Luna of the Stella pack… yes?” he said deviously. “Ella Jones Loren?”

I nodded. There’s no point trying to lie to him.

“You know I don’t appreciate being fucked about with, Ella. I don’t like being lied to either,” he said standing up from his chair slowly and with a sort of calmness that made me uneasy. “I also hate hassle and you’ve caused me a lot of that. And finally, I was fond of Eduardo and now he is lying dead out in the desert.”

He neared me and began to gradually circle me, without taking his eyes away even for a second. If intimidation was his objective, he was certainly achieving.

“That gives me four reasons to be very fucking angry,” he growled in my ear.

“How is this my fault? Did I chose to get involved with you?” I spat. “I was just minding my own business and you had me abducted! And what did you expect when you kidnap someone and give them money for a phone box?!” “I didn’t make you kill your own men and if you wouldn’t have to deal with my mate if you just left me alone in the first place!” I growled.

With that, he struck me across the face and hard. It stung like a bitch and made me feel far less inclined to open my mouth again.

As a matter of principle, I didn’t ever like to back down from an argument. I valued my own opinion and was always going to defend myself but I also wasn’t stupid. Andrea could and was clearly willing to hurt me so provoking him would only be a foolish move here.

“You have a fierce temper,” he replied picking up a lock of my short hair and feeling it between his fingers.. He then took a deep breath out and dropped it down again.

“You know that I have to kill you now, right?” he asked. “I like you but you’ve become a liability,” he said.

Once again, I had nothing to reply with.

“But first I have one question? What was Leonardo Loren’s mate doing in Mexico getting involved in trafficking?”

“I was with a friend and he had to get the shipment before we went on vacation,” I replied quietly.