CHAPTER FOUR

ATLAS

Jasiel had almost worn me out, but I'd been saving myself up for him. I'd been waiting and building up everything inside me, all for it to come out in the form of me breaking our bed. The last thing I needed, but perhaps a reason to leave this safe house.

Midas and Trojan were back after a call. I showered and Jasiel rummaged through all the things I had bagged for him when he arrived. He dressed in a blue tie-dye crop top and a pair of short denim overalls. He wiggled his bum around the living room as he walked around, showing off his new freedom to wear what he wanted after a year in prison.

"Are we going to talk business now?" Midas asked, looking away from Jasiel, even though everyone in the room knew he wanted the attention.

I patted a hand at my knee, getting him to sit beside me. He tucked his hand into mine, squeezing it. "Come on," I said. "We can have our fun later."

"Business," he said, nodding. "Who's first on our kill list?"

Trojan laid out a map. It was south Florida, focused on Miami. Our location was pointed with a red dot. The known locations of the Coronado family were all dotted in blue. There were a lot of them, ranging from where they lived to where they occasionally went.

"I'm surprised you didn't kill anyone already," Jasiel said in a sigh. "I thought you were some cold-hearted killers."

"We were waiting for you," I whispered to Jasiel. "I'd never do anything without you like that."

He rolled his eyes at me. "Just say I'm incredible and you can't do this without me."

My hand at the back of his neck, I pulled him close. "You're my breath, you're my blood, and without you, why would I do anything?" I pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Now, let's not be bratty, take this seriously. Who do we kill first?" I asked, although we had a couple of hits planned already. I liked to give him a little control. My little firecracker enjoyed power, but for real power, he handed it all over to me.

Midas and Trojan looked to each other before looking at me.

"You decide," he told me. And I knew he would. I had control.

There were many people we had to get through before we got to the man who sat at the top of the crime family organization. The same man who I'd worked for, killed for, and even recruited for. But the moment he put a gun to me and told me my option was to either continue working for him, or die, we all knew how that was going to work out.

"The good news is, they still think Atlas is dead," Midas said. "The bad news is, Jasiel made the news, and they know he's on the loose. We stopped by a gas station and his face was all over the TV."

"How did I look?" he asked. "If they posted the mugshot they took when I was taken in, then I'm gonna be mad. They didn't let me do this, or this." He threw up a peace sign and stuck out his tongue. "I'm probably unrecognizable."

I wouldn't have said so, but those actions made him much cuter. "We should be careful then," I said, stroking his leg. "That means—" I paused, knowing halfway through that there was no way I could possible control anything he did. "We won't draw attention to ourselves." An issue Jasiel had. I didn't have the same issue. As an assassin, it was my job to go unnoticed, and I did that incredibly well. People didn't know I was there until after the job was done.

"I think we wanted to go for the person who shot Atlas first," Midas said, stabbing a finger on the map. "It wasn't any of his boys, unfortunately."

Benicio Coronado had six adult children. Benicio Jr, Jesus, Luis, Miguel, Rosa, and Silvia. Luis was the one who Jasiel had killed when he pointed a gun at us in a threat that we weren't to leave the family. Benicio was being groomed to take over. They were a dangerous family, each part of them spreading fear throughout Miami. They were extorted, kidnapped, trafficked drugs and weapons, and a laundry list of crimes.

"Alonzo," Trojan said. "Alonzo Gambaro. He's the one. He took credit for killing Atlas. A couple of men at a bar were talking about it."

"A bar," Jasiel gasped. "I haven't had alcohol in a year. Can I go to a bar?" He asked, hanging from my arm, tugging it for attention. "Please, please, please."

"Later," I told him. "Maybe you and Trojan could go, get to know each other."

He let out a small celebration wiggle in his seat. "We could play, who can take the most tequila shots without passing out," he said, nodding across the room to Trojan.

"Do not play that with him," I said. "He could drink a grown man under the table and walk away with only a wave in his step."

He gently whacked my arm. "It's not my fault I'm talented."

That was one word for it. He had developed an intolerance, after years of drinking hard liquor from being a teen, to working as a carney.

"Alonzo frequents Sambo, a bar a couple blocks away," Midas continued. "Trojan has the hook up with the closed security system. So, we know when he visits. What we're looking for, is a way to get him without alarming the Coronado family. So, we need a plan."

"Kerosene on his body, then light him up like a Christmas tree?" Jasiel suggested. "Or if we're looking for like torture, I have my knives, or we could—oo oo, we could use him to send a message, like we're coming for you, or the for as a number 4."

"Great ideas, babe," I said. "I've been thinking of it for a while. I want to know what the Coronado's are planning. Trojan got up a cargo manifest, so he knows they have shipments coming in, but they've got more shipments coming in that usual lately."

"What shipments?" he asked.

"We don't know."

When we worked for the family, we saw them bring in guns and drugs, but those shipments were small. If they were increasing operations, then we should be worried. The last thing we needed was for them to be expanding, because expanding meant more people, and more people meant more mess. I ran clean operations, the fewer people I had to kill, and the less blood I got on myself, the better it was. Unlike Jasiel who, much like fire, would explode and consume whatever he could in a rage.

"So, the goal is to find the weasel who shot me, get what we need from him, then end his suffering," I said, cracking my knuckles together. "I'll be taking care of the information extraction."

Jasiel yanked my arm again. "Can I watch?"

"Of course, baby." I pulled his hand up to kiss it. "You're my good luck charm."

The plan was split up into phases with our ultimate goal in getting revenge. But we wanted to dismantle and disrupt as much of them as possible, and that tasked us with knowing what was in those shipping containers, and how we could best use them. If we cut the Coronado family off at their blood supply, they'd collapse at their knees.

Jasiel and I left Midas and Trojan in the apartment. They had their own room, a smaller room to mine, but now I'd emptied my balls into my sweet boy, I was ready to begin. This had been a long time coming, and they weren't prepared for me to unleash every force I had. When I was alive, people knew to watch out for me. But since I was dead, they had no idea what was coming.

We wore masks animal masks, similar in a way to the Japanese Oni masks. I'd trained in Japan for a short period, learning to use their weapons and different techniques. It was a time I'd treasured. It came in use constantly. I was in the teddy bear mask, and Jasiel had picked out the mask of a cartoon mouse.

In the car, I drove us around. Jasiel stared out of the window as he played with the air-con on the console, pushing the plastic ridges that were directing the air in all different directions.

"I want a slushie," he said, turning to me. He lifted the mask up from his face and gave me puppy dog eyes and a pout. "It's all I want. A cold slushie with all the blue raspberry tanginess on my tongue."

"Then let's go get a slushie," I told him. "Maybe we can pick up a couple wooden crates to shove under the bed too. Unless you don't mind sleeping on a diagonal slant."

"I just got out of prison. I've slept on worse."

That was true for both of us. At least the bed had a mattress. The only time I looked forward to sleeping on a cold solid floor was when I'd pulled a muscle in my shoulder. "Never again though," I told him. "From now on, only the best for my baby."

"Good," he said. "Because I also want to help. I want to be a bigger part. I've been so—ugh."

"It's ok," I said. "Let it out. It's been a lot for you. Maybe tomorrow, we could do something fun together. The zoo, maybe?"

"I love the zoo!"

I wouldn't have suggested it if I didn't know he loved zoos. "And when we leave, after all of this shit is over, we can go take a Safari tour and see lions up close."

"Are you being serious with me right now?" he asked, yanking my arm as I drove. "Because you know how much I've always wanted to go on one of those. See the elephants, zebras, giraffes, like, are they even real?"

"Yes, they're real."

"No, but I mean, I've only ever seen them in the zoo, so like, do they even exist outside?" he asked, pulling my arm again. "You know what I mean."

I pulled into a gas station where I could see large wooden crates going unused. I parked up and let Jasiel wander off inside the convenience store for his slushie.

The wood crates were near the dumpster, and it wasn't the first time I'd fished inside a dumpster for something. But I wasn't going into one this time, I was just grabbing what I could see. The two of them looked like they'd prop the bed up for a night or two, but we'd probably be moving onto another safe house after that.

As I finished packing the crates, I heard Jasiel's voice from inside the store.

The man behind the counter raised both his hands up as Jasiel stood in front of him, his mask pushed up from his face as he slurred down the large blue slushie.

"I—I—I—" the worker stuttered.

"I was waiting for you," he said to me. "I told you I wasn't stealing. And I didn't even threaten to kill him, I promise." He said, his brows pinching together.

His face was completely visible, and so was the screen with his mugshot. "Fuck," I grumbled. I sucked in a deep breath and approached the man at the counter. "Listen. You didn't see anything. If you say you saw anything to anyone. I'll come back and make a pretty little painting with your brain on this." I tapped a finger on the scratched plastic. "Understand?"

"I—I understand," he said, his hands still high in the air.

"Good," I said, tucking a hand into my trouser pocket. I had a stack of bills inside a gold money pin. "I'll know if you say anything." I threw a small bill at the counter.

"He doesn't deserve that," Jasiel said, snatching it away.

"Come on," I said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. "And put that back. We pay for things, like silence."

He sighed, throwing the bill to the ground as we walked out. He continued to suck at the slushie through the straw, the sound was like a dry scratch as he got every ounce of blue raspberry liquid flavoring, leaving nothing but the white-gray of the ice.

"Don't cause trouble," I told him as we sat in the car. "We're keeping a low profile for the moment."

"I know, I know," he said, pouting his blue-stained lips at me. "I was just—I wanted to drink it so fast."

"And no brain freeze?" I asked.

He scoffed. "I'm a professional. This mouth doesn't experience brain freeze."

I hummed, reaching over to him and stroking his chin. "You have a talented mouth."

His hand grabbed at my crotch. "You want to see if I can make it blue?" He stuck his tongue out, showing me how his entire mouth had turned blue, looking like he'd blown a Smurf.

"Please do," I said, unbuckling my belt.

BANG.

A gunshot whipped through the air, shattering the back side window.

Immediately looking to Jasiel to see if he was hurt, my eyes then glanced to the sound of the shot.

The skid of a motorcycle screeched on the road.

They were gone.

I held Jasiel's hand, double checking he was ok.

"Let's go get them!" he said.

"No. We have a plan. All that matters is you're safe. Let's head back." I looked behind to the side window that was shattered. The bullet had landed in the headrest of the back seat.

It was close.