neck shot had blood pouring from him like a spigot was tapped into the side of his neck.
His blood flowed thick and warm between my fingers. Based on the amount of blood spilled on the ground and painting his shirt, I already knew he was nearly gone. His stressed gaze was pinned to mine as his chest rose high and sank low in quick desperate jerks as he wheezed for air. I gripped his hand and held on tight, hoping it helped in some way.
“I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. If you have a family, we will make sure they are taken care of.” It was the only peace I had to offer him.
His glazed eyes grew wide as the last breath he’d ever take was released as a ragged moan. His eyes lowered but didn’t close all the way, staring at my face but looking at nothing. He was gone, and I didn’t even know his name. I didn’t pray often, but this was as good a time as any to send one up.
“Lord. I don’t know this man’s life, but I pray that you see fit to make room for him in your heavenly home, to give him respite as he makes his transition. Amen.” His limp hand fell away from mine when I let go.
The asshole who had shot him was struggling to flip himself over so he could stand up or crawl, I suppose. The moment of peace I had summoned for the guard had dissolved.
I allowed myself to descend into the quiet where chaos kissed my mind, and noise no longer existed. After I approached the shooter, I stood over him before I jerked the helmet off his head, nearly breaking his neck in the process. One of my bullets had caught him in the top of the head, leaving a piece of his scalp missing but he still appeared to be functioning enough to communicate.
“Who the fuck sent you to kill me?”
His lips quivered as he gawked and attempted to reach across his quivering body for his gun with his good hand. I shot him in the hand he had left, enjoying the pain playing out in his horror-filled eyes. I fed on the stress creasing his face, and the vibrating cries that exited his wide mouth.
He refused to abandon his quest to pick up his rifle. However, it didn’t matter what he was attempting to pick up because his hands looked like shredded cabbage in tomato sauce.
I tucked HB into the back of my waistband before I stood atop his busted up hand. The unnatural feel of his blood and mangled flesh and bone under my bare feet sent an odd shiver through me. The scream he released lit up the mountains and sent the sound waves bouncing back in our direction and hitting my body. I picked up his rifle, flipped it in my hand, and sent the butt of the weapon slamming against his cheek.
“Who sent you to kill me?”
His breaths blew so hard, that the tooth I knocked loose flew out of his mouth with a thick wad of spit and blood, landing on his chin. I lifted the weapon and slammed it down harder against his head a second time. The lick sent him into a series of frantic cries as he twisted and turned his body to stave off the pain.
“I’m shattering your jaw with the next blow. Tell me who the fuck sent you!” My voice roared loud enough to shake the space around me.
“Ca-ca-denas,” he spit out over a chorus of harsh breaths.
“You gotta be fucking kidding me.”
This was the second man with the darkness of death hovering above them that had fingered the Cardenas Cartel. It was funny that I was on my way to their location for a meeting Corvel was tightlipped on disclosing the subject of. He knew that I was on the way and would have known to send these men to ambush me. What the hell was going on?
“Who really sent you motherfucker!”
I sent the butt of the weapon into his cheek, so hard, it sank into the side of his face.
“Who sent you!”
I didn’t want to believe that the cartel wanted me dead. If so, they were worse than the old-timers from the syndicate, not giving me a chance to prove my worth.
“Sons of a fucking bitches!”
Unwilling to believe what I had heard, I sent the gun into his face again and again, not stopping until his face was a