Chapter 14: Chapter 14: The Offer

EVA

Damn it, my head is pounding! What did they fucking hit me with, a sledgehammer? I slowly blink my eyes and try to rub my head.

I see my hands are still tied but not my feet. Well, at least they are tied in front of me now instead of behind me!

Fuck, I can’t feel my ring! Where’s my ring? I quickly reach for my necklace and, shit, it’s gone too. I start to slowly lift my head when I realize I’m lying on some chick’s lap. Yep, this is just a little bit awkward.

I slowly lift my head and look at her, and I realize it’s the chick from the charity event. I smile at her as she smiles back.

I see that Ortiz’s goons are in front. Palo is driving, and Juan is in the passenger seat. Then I hear his voice, and I instantly get nauseous.

“Mi amor, you’re finally awake! I’m sorry for the craziness, but it seems we had to leave the house rather quickly.”

“Where is my jewelry?”

“Now, now, mi amor, I know what was in them. I am deeply sorry, but I had to get rid of them. Besides, I will get you better and bigger jewelry! Now that you’re awake, why don’t you come snuggle next to me?”

He reaches for my waist, and I start moving away. No way am I letting this piece of shit touch me.

“I will never fucking snuggle with you, you sick fucker.”

“Eva, sweetie, please don’t be like this. I could be everything you ever wanted and more. All you have to do is just give me a chance.”

“Get the fuck away from me, you asshole!”

“Mi amor, I love you. Don’t you understand that?”

He reaches for me again. He grabs the hair on the back of my head to pull me forward while I try to push myself back. The moment he gets as close as he can to try and kiss me, I throw my head forward and clearly hear the crunch of his nose.

“You fucking bitch! What’s your fucking problem?”

“You are a sick asshole!”

“What the hell is going on?”

“Pull over, man!”

I bring my legs up and start kicking at Ortiz with everything I have! He gets my legs pinned down and raises his hand back to slap me. I close my eyes, raising my hands and waiting for the blow, but it never comes.

I hear him punch someone all right, but it’s not me. I open my eyes and look as the car door slams shut and Ortiz storms out. I sit up and watch him get into another car and turn to Mara.

That’s when I see her busted lip and I just stare.

“O-M-G, I’m so sorry! I didn’t know he would hit you!”

“Oh, believe me, watching what you did to him was worth the punch! My name is Mara.”

“Well, you know mine. Where are we going? Do you know?”

She just shakes her head no and motions me to scoot right next to her side. She scoots right up to my back, and I can feel she’s doing something.

When she taps me again, I see in her purse the phone with Vinny’s name. At least I have her with me to hopefully make this go smoother.

We keep driving and driving, then we pull off onto a dirt driveway. I see Mara scramble behind me, hit a couple buttons, and then relax. We drive deep into the forest, and it seems we are in the middle of nowhere.

We come up to a huge house with tons of cars out front already. I scan the area and see people with their weapons out front. When we arrive and park, I see Ortiz jump out of a car and come over to ours.

He flings open the car door, and he looks majorly pissed off. I can’t help but chuckle internally when I look at his busted nose. It looks like it’s back in place, but the bruising that is starting is telling the tale.

“Eva, we will not have any problems! If you cause me any problems, Mara will get the punishment. Do you understand?”

I just sit in silence, looking at him and wondering if he is being truthful.

“I will not ask again! Do you fucking understand?”

“Y-yes, I understand. Please don’t hurt Mara!”

“Then let’s go!”

I slowly slide out, then Mara slides out behind me with her purse and stays right next to me. We walk forward to the door, and I can see the guards looking me up and down.

One guy makes it a little too obvious. When he looks me up and down, he blows me a kiss and has to adjust himself. What a fucking pig. We take a few more steps when I hear a gun go off behind me.

Mara and I both shriek and jump at the sound. Apparently, Ortiz noticed the pig and shot him in the head. Mara and I start to tremble with fear, then Ortiz makes an announcement.

“Don’t ever let me catch one of you fuckers looking at my girl, checking out my girl, or having to fucking adjust yourself because of my girl!”

With that, everyone scattered, and the dead man was dragged off to who knows where. Ortiz walks up to me and slowly tilts my face toward his.

I just stare at him, knowing what he is capable of. I don’t want Mara to get the shit end because I want to run my mouth.

“Mi amor, I will never let anyone look at you like I do!”

He lowers his face to my neck and licks up my neck. Did he just seriously lick my neck? I shiver at the thought, then he pulls us inside and walks with me up the stairs to his room.

He shoves me in through the door, then shuts and locks it from the outside.

A few moments later, I hear another door open and shut. He must have stuck Mara in that room. I hear footsteps headed my way, then my door is unlocked and opened.

Ortiz walks back in and takes the ropes off my wrists. I slowly rub my wrists as he walks over and sits in a chair. He watches me, and I can see the fire he’s battling with.

“Eva, now we will not have any problems, will we?”

“No, we won’t. What about my son?”

“What about him? He is of no concern to me. My only concern is making you mine and having you bear my heirs. I will let you settle in, but by tomorrow, I expect some cooperation! Is that understood?”

“Yes, Ortiz.”

“Eva, mi amor, please call me Rico.”

I just nod my head, and he leaves the room, locking it behind him. I scramble around and look to see if there is a way out. I can see the windows are nailed shut. Well, there goes that idea.

Not much else to do but nap, I guess. I decide to lie down, and I hope and pray that Caden is on his way.

It seems like a couple of hours have gone by as I wake to a bunch of yelling and commotion going on outside the room. I slowly sit up, rubbing my eyes as Ortiz comes busting through my door.

He stomps quickly over to me, grabbing me by my hair and picking me up off the bed. He stands me up and quickly starts patting me down.

“What’s going on?”

“Seems like we have company headed our way, and somebody gave out our fucking location! Where is it, you stupid bitch?”

“Where’s what? I don’t have anything! You smashed my jewelry, remember.”

He runs his hand through his hair, visibly frustrated, then he snaps his head up and looks at me. He storms off, slamming my door and locking it behind him.

He storms down the hall and slams open another door. I think, come on, Mara, hide the phone. Please hide the phone! I can hear him hitting Mara, screaming at her, and can’t help but start crying.

I hear him scrambling around the room, and my thoughts are shattered when I hear screaming and a gunshot goes off. Something large hits the floor.

I cover my face with my hands, crying and falling to the ground against the wall. I snap my head up and quickly stand as my door flies open again. Ortiz storms over, thrusting a cell phone in my face.

“Did you know about this? Whose number is this?”

“I don’t know.”

I feel my face snap hard to the side when he backhands me, and I fall, ending up sitting on the floor. I sit here with a busted lip, crying when he starts screaming in my face.

“Who’s fucking number is this? Tell me, Eva!”

“Ortiz, I don’t know! I swear!”

“Well then, let’s just fucking call it, huh?”

He hits the call button. I hear a few rings, and a male voice picks up.

“Mara, is that you?”

“This is Ortiz. Who the fuck is this?”

“Well, hello, Ortiz. This is Vinny”

“Vinny Romano?”

“The one and only!”

“How does this shit involve you? Are those your men out there?”

“Well, you see, Mara was my contact, and that pretty little girl Eva you’re probably standing next to…well, see now, she’s my family.

“If there’s one thing you don’t ever fuck with, asshole, it’s my fucking family! You better make right with whoever you need to because we will come for you!”

Ortiz slowly lowers the phone and starts to pace back and forth, mumbling to himself. He stops and makes his way over to the dresser and leans against it. He sets down the gun and phone as he holds his hands to his face.

I am just sitting on the ground when the silence is broken by gunshots and yelling. Ortiz goes running out and locks my door behind him. I quickly run over and grab the gun, hiding it on me before he realizes he doesn’t have it.

I hear gunshots and yelling, but there seems to be less and less. I hear someone run by the door down the hall then a minute later, run to my door, unlocking and opening it.

Ortiz comes running back in and runs up to me, grabbing me and holding me in front of him. “Seems like your friends have come for you, mi amor. It’s okay, they will never have you. If I cannot have you, neither will they.”

At this moment, I realize somewhere he’s gotten a new gun and is pointing it toward the door. I can hear footsteps slowly coming up and heading toward the room we are in. I stand there as still as I can, making sure I keep my composure.

I watch as Caden, Tank, and, I assume, Vinny come walking in, guns drawn. My breath hitches when I see Caden. I just give him a smile and a wink because he has no clue what I am going to do.

CADEN

“This is the house!”

We all look and get grins on our faces.

“Thanks, Terrance! All right, let’s go then!”

We quickly load up and make our way down the driveway. We pull up, jump out, and start using the forest and cars as cover. We have men fan out so the whole house is surrounded.

I can see Ortiz look out a window then quickly disappear. We keep shooting it out with his guards and are slowly making some progress. We start to see less and less men, so we start advancing toward the house.

We take out all the men outside then we enter the house. Vinny, Tank, and I slowly enter and we hear a door open upstairs.

Making our way up the stairs, we can see an open door at the end of the hall. I point at it and follow the guys slowly.

When we enter, we see Ortiz with Eva standing right in front of him. We file in then we notice that he has a gun in one hand while his other arm is around her neck.

I lock eyes with her as she smiles and winks at me. Did she seriously wink? I don’t think this is a smiling matter unless, maybe she has a plan?

“Ortiz, put the gun away, man. Don’t do this!”

“Man, fuck you, Vinny! This could have been an easy trade since Maxwell took something from me.”

“Ortiz, like I said, it wasn’t going to happen!”

“We’ll see, Caden. I’ve decided that if I can’t have her, no one will!”

I watch him take the gun and point it at her head, and my mind is starting to freak out. I start thinking about Nate, our baby, every scenario that could pop up.

I hear talking going on, and it’s not registering until I hear her voice speak up.

“Ortiz, can I talk to you?”

“Eva, mi amor, what is it?”

“I will leave with you.”

“The fuck you will! Eva, baby, what are you doing?”

“See, Maxwell, she does have a brain! She sees who clearly is the better fucking man!”

“I’m sorry, Caden, but I can’t have you or Nate hurt. Please, take care of Nate.”

I am still processing what she’s just said when I see her spin around and reach in front of her. Ortiz lowers his gun toward the ground while he watches us smirking. I see her reach up and cup his face.

While she is whispering to Ortiz, I can see his facial expression go from smiling to shock as he whips his face toward her. Before any of us can say anything, we see her arm fly up and a gunshot rings out.

We are all stunned as we see Ortiz drop to the ground with a bullet in his head. We all stand in silence as she slowly turns around with blood splatter on her face, smirking.

“Eva! What did you say to him?”

“I told him I would love to leave and carry his heir, but there was a slight problem since I’m already pregnant. Isn’t it a bitch when you are killed by your own gun!”

She walks over to Vinny and shows it to him. Sure enough, it has his fucking initials engraved on it. We all look at the gun and then look at her.

She takes the gun and tucks it into her waistband, grabbing my phone and calling Mike.

“Hey. Mike, it’s Eva. We got a cleanup job. I’ll send you the location.” She hangs up, taps some keys, and hands me back my phone. I gotta adjust myself because I can’t comprehend how hot her shooting Ortiz was.

“Hey, Caden, my king, why don’t we get out of here and go get our son!”