Isabella and I left the bar and were on our way to strangle the traitor. And, obviously, I was driving.
From what I had gathered from the conversation between Reina and Isabella and a little asking around, the traitor was Isabella's direct subordinate.
Isabella was the head of the cartel's smuggling operation, and the man who betrayed her was one of her most trusted subordinates. That's why she was extra pissed that he betrayed her. And hence, she requested Reina to let her be the one to kill the bastard.
Typical gang politics.
He usually stayed at the small underground gambling den he ran as a side business. As Isabella's direct subordinate, he was pretty high in the hierarchy in the cartel that allowed him to freely run the business with little to no consequences as long as he gave the necessary periodical tribute to the leader.
We arrived at the location. It was already past 8 pm, and the area was full of parked vehicles. A buff man, wearing a white sleeveless tank top and black pants, with arms covered in tattoos, stood in front of the entrance door, a red bandana wrapped around his forehead.
"Jefa," the guard said, immediately straightening up upon seeing the boss of his boss.
Isabella gave him a curt nod and walked straight inside. The guard gave me a curious look, but he knew better than to ask Isabella who I was.
As we stepped inside, I looked back and noticed the guard had a sneaky look. He took out a walkie-talkie and said something in a low voice. We were far so we didn't hear anything.
If my guess was correct, our target was already aware of his doom and should have ordered his underlings to warn him if anyone came here. But that begged the question: If he knew the higher-ups had sent hunting dogs after him, then why hadn't he already run away?
I smirked. Looked like this "lookout mission" was about to get interesting.
Inside smelled like cocaine, stale smoke, and desperation. Multiple tables were placed with chairs around them. On each table, various games were going on; roulette, poker, to name a few. A few slot machines were placed beside the wall, where addicts were putting some kind of coin inside and praying to whatever deity they believed in, to let them win the jackpot.
None of the guests paid any attention when two new guests walked into the establishment. Only the guards who noticed Isabella straightened their backs upon seeing her.
The guests had a varied range of expressions. A man smiling too loud with a stack of chips, an old guy staring into a slot as if it owed him salvation, and a woman pinching the bridge of her nose after a bad hand. A man maintained a poker face as he played the next card, while the others on the table showed tension as they deliberated over which card to play next.
"No, give me back my money. You can't take it, it's mine," a man shouted desperately near a roulette table as he gripped the collar of the dealer.
A few thugs immediately arrived at the table. They forcibly pried the man's hands from the croupier's collars, then they punched him in the stomach a few times, and then dragged him away to the back.
"Don't play if you don't have the guts to lose," a guest said in disgust.
A few others matched his expression, while some others showed concern. Not necessarily for the man, but their own future if they lost their money. The rest didn't even bother to look up from their game to watch the man.
It was just a small recurring episode in gambling dens, and we also ignored him as we made our way to the owner's office.
On our way, I noticed the slight shifty expression on the thugs. Some had their eyes darting around, some had a nervous expression, and a few of them even had their hands close to their weapons. That made me wonder what surprise their boss had planned for us.
My eyes met Isabella's, and we nodded subtly. She had also noticed something was amiss. My hand went to the gun on my waist. It didn't take it out, but removed the safety so it could shoot at a moment's notice without delay.
We arrived at the door and found it was locked.
"Eduardo, open the door," Isabella ordered in a cold tone. But no reply came.
Isabella was already pissed, and this only made her angrier.
"Where is he?" Isabella barked at the nearest thug.
"He should be inside, Jefa," the man stammered.
"Useless," Isabella spat. Then she turned to me and ordered, "Force it open."
Bitch.
Nevertheless, I nodded and slammed my body, shoulder-first, into the door. The door shook but didn't open. The second time, it shook more, but still didn't open. I tried the third time with even more force, the lock popped, and finally the door shook open.
We didn't storm in. Isabella and I pressed our backs to the wall on either side of the cracked door and drew our weapons. I had a pistol in my right hand and a knife in reverse grip in my left. Isabella pulled out the two pistols from the holsters on her shoulders.
The thug looked conflicted, seeing that, wondering whether he should help his boss or his boss's boss.
We exchanged a single, silent nod. I expected her to send me in first. Instead, Isabella kicked the door open and swept the room with twin muzzles. I slid in behind her. We looked around, but unfortunately, we didn't find anyone.
Empty. No Eduardo in sight.
The back exit gaped wide, and the hiss of an engine came from the street.
We ran to it and saw a man, whom I assumed to be Eduardo, in a car. He popped his head out from the window and spat, "You'll never catch me, perra!" and then sped away.
Isabella's jaw snapped. "To the car! He will not get away." Her voice left no room for argument.
We quickly ran back to our car. I was in a hurry, too. The mission was clearly stated to fail if the traitor escaped. I also understood why one of the consequences of the mission failure would be Isabella despising me for failing. Since I was driving the car, it was only natural that, if Eduardo escaped successfully, Isabella, with her emotional stake in the mission, would blame me.
"Why are you wasting time? Follow him immediately," Isabella barked when she saw me buckle my seatbelt.
"Put on your seatbelt, the following ride is going to be bumpy," I said with a grin to Isabella.
Isabella wanted to argue, but still put it on. I gave a satisfied smile, which only irked her further.
"If we lost him, I am putting a bullet in your head instead of him," Isabella warned with a grim voice. I immediately heard a notification ping and saw that the failure consequence actually changed, which showed how serious she was.
Mission: Betrayal's Price
Failure Consequence: Isabella despises you forever. -> Isabella will kill you.
But I just smirked and ignored her warnings.
As the engine hummed to life, I forgot about everything. My one hand was on the wheel, and the other on the gearshift. My focus was entirely on the road. I reversed the car on the road, and once it was there, I slammed it forward.
The world blurred as we tore onto the road, and Isabella was immediately pushed back to her seat. Whatever she was about to say next was stopped in her throat as her eyes widened when the speed kept increasing.
I followed the general direction I saw him going, and after driving for five minutes, I saw his car far in the distance. I couldn't clearly see the number plate, but the car looked similar to the car he drove.
It was possible he also noticed us on his tail, so the car sped up immediately.
Why did I have the feeling that he was purposefully driving slowly and only sped up once we caught up to him?
But I didn't have time to dwell on such questions; I had a car to catch up to.
There was heavy traffic between us, but I didn't bother slowing down. Instead, I skillfully slithered the car through the traffic. I had more than a few close calls, but I never once touched another vehicle on the road.
This panicked our target, as we were closing on him continuously. He sped past the red light and barely made it as a truck came from the right. The truck driver swerved in panic, and since we were closing behind Eduardo, we were now on a collision course with the truck.
"Watch out," Isabella screamed in fear.
I stayed calm as I immediately pulled the handbrake. The rear wheels were locked in place and started skidding. I rotated the wheel in the opposite direction, and the vehicle drifted smoothly.
The vehicle drifted till it was facing right. The back bumper was extremely close to the truck while drifting, but never touched once.
Once the car was facing right, I released the handbrake, and the rear wheels began to move again. I drove for a few tens of metres and then took a sharp left. Then we were back on the track on the road and followed behind Eduardo.
He once again made quite a distance between us in the meantime.
"He's good," I muttered, eyes fixed on his taillights. Not me good—but easily Adept-level good.
"He is one of our best drivers," Isabella answered after a few moments. Her voice was low. I saw her face in the rearview mirror. It showed a complex mix of bitterness and raging fury over his betrayal. Then she continued in a dark tone, "Or rather, he was."
I stepped on the gas and continued the chase. However, traffic made things difficult for both our target and us, as the traffic only increased as we progressed.
As we finally once again closed on him, he abruptly changed lanes and ran against the traffic. I had to slam on the brakes and then turn into the other lane.
The sudden brake pushed us both forward, but our seatbelts kept us securely in place. I looked at Isabella through the rearview mirror with a knowing smirk. If she hadn't put on her seatbelt, she would have shot out of her seat through the windshield like a torpedo. A faint blush appeared on her face as she snorted and looked the other way. But her hand was now already gripping the handle near her seat tightly.
Eduardo didn't stop making things difficult for us at that point. He utilized his knowledge of the city's various known and hidden paths, which I was unaware of, to maintain the distance between us despite our skill disparity.
After another twenty minutes of tailing him, we finally left the city and arrived at the outskirts. The road was mostly empty. Seeing the opportunity, I sped the car. In response, he also increased the speed.
But no matter how I tried, I just couldn't catch up to him. Here, the problem was not the skill but the car. Our car was just not made for high-speed street chases. I pushed it as much as I could, but it had reached its limits. How could Eduardo's car keep up?
"His car is modded," I guessed.
"Heavily," Isabella replied in a low voice. I noticed that, after my little stunt, she was now holding the handle with both hands.
That answered the question. I sighed, but kept on following him
Soon, I noticed him slowing down. He went off-road to the left.
When I arrived at the location, I slowed down and noticed a dirt path to the left, which I followed.
The dirt path ended at a massive gate. Inside, I saw rows of cars piled up. Some were complete, some had their tires removed, and some were crushed to pieces.
We were in front of a junkyard.
If I couldn't tell by now that Eduardo had lured us into an ambush, I might as well quit crime and go back to being a good student.
Isabella, who had previously been burning with fury, also looked alert. Previously, she let herself be blinded by vengeance, but our little joyride had calmed it down somewhat. However, she didn't look very worried.
"What are you afraid of? Even if there is an ambush, I can handle it," Isabella said carelessly.
Was that confidence or arrogance? I didn't know.
"Wouldn't it be better to inform Ms. Reina so that she can send reinforcements in case things turn ugly?" I suggested. I didn't want to bet my life on her overconfidence.
She shot me a disdainful look. "Eduardo's just a rat. How many idiots can he even bring? I'll put them all down myself. You just stick to lookout duty."
I took a deep breath and nodded. I started the car.
But was I convinced? Hell no.
Anger and arrogance had blinded her. Her pride wanted Eduardo's blood, and it blinded her to every red flag.
Fine. Let her posture. I wouldn't inform Reina for now. But at the first sign of trouble, I was calling her to send reinforcements. And if that broke Isabella's delicate heart, then that's her problem.
I eased the car through the gate. The junkyard was a maze of stacked metal, shadows stretching between rows—just enough weak lighting to keep us from driving blind.
A minute later, we saw Eduardo's car parked, but it was empty. There were rows of stacked vehicles on either side of the path.
I stopped behind it, and we got out of the car. We looked around but found no one.
Suddenly, we saw lights ahead of us. Together with it was the roar of engines.
First, a bike came to a stop in front of us, around 100 meters away. And then two vans stopped behind it.
Then the area was immediately flooded with light as multiple floodlights I hadn't noticed before brightened the path, as if it were day.
The bike and the vans had a silver-gray snake decal. That information was more than enough; the traitor had changed his master.
Things were getting dangerous, but it was the bike that made me break out in a cold sweat. It had a fucking minigun mounted on top of it with the muzzles facing in front like a vicious metal grin.
Are you fucking kidding me? Who the fuck modded their bikes to attach a fucking minigun to them?
The guy sitting on the bike was huge. He was wearing a black biker jacket, with Kevlar peeking through the open front. He had a thick, unkempt beard and was bald. On his head, there was a tattoo of a snake's head with the rest of the body going back.
"Derek, do you want to start a fucking gang war between the cartel and the bikers?" Isabella said to the biker in front with fury in her eyes.
Derek laughed loudly, hearing that.
"Sweetie," he answered with amusement in his voice, "Who says I want a war? As long as no one knows we killed you, how can there be a war? Besides, it is too good an opportunity not to kill one of the Hounds of the cartel and reduce some competition for us."
The Hounds of the La Corona Roja Cartel.
The Vipers of the Iron Serpent MC.
The Sharks of the Dockmen.
There were the titles of the top lieutenants of each of the three owners of the Newark underworld.
And the man in front of me should be one of the Vipers, Derek Watson. And yes, he was at F3 rank.
"You think just you and a few of your goons are enough to kill me?" Isabella said with disdain as the biker thugs got out of the vans.
But Isabella's expression immediately turned to extreme fury as she saw that one of the thugs stepping out of the van was Eduardo.
"¡Eduardo, pinche traidor!" Isabella screamed in fury.
Eduardo looked scared for a split second when he saw Isabella's venomous eyes. Still, as he came up and stood beside Derek, the fear was replaced with sick satisfaction at seeing Isabella outnumbered as if Derek's presence gave him the necessary backbone to look Isabella in the eye.
"Why the harsh words, Isabella?" Eduardo said with a smug face.
"How dare you betray the cartel, Eduardo?" Isabella asked with anger.
"Oh, come on, Isabella. You sound as if it is my fault that I betrayed the cartel," Eduardo said with an innocent face.
"Dude, did you perhaps overdose on cocaine to spout such bullshit?" I could help but quip in between listening to his ridiculous words.
His face twisted. "Shut up, pendejo! You don't belong in this conversation." He turned back to Isabella, voice dropping into a syrupy sweetness. "Isabella, mi querida. You're the reason I turned."
I felt a shiver run down my spine when I heard those sweet words.
Isabella's eyes narrowed. "What the fuck are you talking about? You got your cut. I pushed you up the ladder. I even ignored your side hustles. And this is how you repay me?"
Eduardo's expression glazed over, dreamy. "Of course you did…"
I suddenly wanted a fucking shower.
Then his face twisted in rage as he shouted, "Then why reject me?! After all these years, you led me on, and when I confessed, you spat on me! Why?"
I looked at Isabella, then back at him. My eyes said, Is he serious right now?
Isabella sighed as she closed her eyes and rubbed her temple like she was getting a migraine from Eduardo's delusional talk.
Eduardo kept pressing with a betrayed look, "If you didn't love me, then why did you help me so much?"
Isabella looked too speechless even to counter that.
Ah. One of those. She was nice to me, so she must love me. Pathetic.
But Eduardo still wasn't finished. He turned to me, his fury flared again as he said, "Or is it that you found someone else? Did you throw me away for this cabron?"
"Oi, oi, oi. Do not pull me into your lovers' spat," I said quickly.
"This isn't a lovers' spat," Isabella cut in, her eyes venomous, voice like a blade.
"Fine, fine. It is not," I replied immediately, lifting my hands in front of me in surrender.
"And you," Isabella said, turning to Eduardo," I already told you I had no interest in you. I helped you because you were an efficient subordinate. Nothing more. Nothing less."
I could hear the sound of Eduardo's heart cracking even from where I stood.
"So you never loved me?" Eduardo asked in a low voice, his face looked sad. But Isabella didn't bother humoring him with an answer.
Then his face twisted again. "Then die, you perra! Today, this junkyard will be your and your boy toy's grave. My brothers at the Iron Serpent MC will give you a painful death."
"Hey, I said to keep me out of it," I interjected once again.
"Shut up, you pen—"
Eduardo's words were cut off as he was shot in the head by Derek. Smoke was still coming out of his revolver.
The change was too sudden that Isabella and I didn't know how to react.
"He talked too much," Derek said casually.
Then he turned to Isabella and continued with a smirk, "Besides, I could see you wanted him dead. So I did you the favor and shot him first. Consider it your last gift." Then he started laughing loudly.
Isabella went from fury to white-hot rage in the blink of an eye.
After laughing, Derek turned back to Eduardo's corpse and spat on it. He said with disdain, "Did you think a motherfucking traitor like you is worthy to become our brother? Fucking idiot." He spat once again on the corpse.
"What do you want, Derek?" Isabella asked with gritted teeth. Eduardo was dead, but we now had bigger concerns.
"Sweetie," Derek said with a smug voice, "Did you forget so soon? Of course, we are here to kill you."
Derek laughed, and his buddies joined in.
"Earlier, you said, just us are not enough to kill you." Derek stopped laughing and said with a smile. "Though that may or may not be correct. But do you think I came with just these many subordinates?"
Then, as if on cue, we heard the sounds of a motorcycle engine. There were too many. Many bikes came behind the vans. Not just them; more thugs appeared on foot, on the ground, and standing atop the metal junk.
The fucker had brought a fucking army with him. I counted at least thirty, with maybe even more on the back.
Now, even Isabella looked solemn as her face looked slightly pale.
Derek looked satisfied seeing Isabella's expression. He said with a savage grin, "Even if an idiot, your ex-admirer was right about one thing. This place is going to be your grave. And you can't run away, as the entry gate is now locked."
I pulled Isabella by hand and ran back. There was a path between the car stack to the right, and we dived in and continued running.
I didn't use the car, as we would be sitting ducks in it with so many bikers ready to kill us. Moreover, Derek already said that the gate was closed. I didn't believe him, but I wasn't willing to take any chances. Moreover, going inside the maze in the car would be much more complicated for us than for the thugs coming after us on bikes.
Behind us, Derek's laugh echoed. "Let the rats run. Makes the hunt more fun."
We ran for a few minutes without stopping. With our physical conditions, we didn't feel out of breath. I made sure to take many turns and go deeper into the junkyard maze. It made it harder to make our way out, but at the same time, it made it harder for the bikers to find and kill us.
We finally stopped running. There was no one around us, and no sound of bike engines. But we didn't let our guard down.
"I am calling in for reinforcements," I told Isabella. This time, I didn't bother asking or suggesting. Isabella nodded and didn't deny this time.
I pulled out my mobile phone to make a call, but noticed that it didn't show a signal. My eyes widened as I thought of something and pulled out my second phone. It also showed no signal.
"Check if your phone has signal," I said to Isabella. She raised an eyebrow because of my tone, but didn't say anything due to the circumstances.
Isabella pulled out her phone but frowned as she looked at it.
"No signal," Isabella said with a solemn voice. She understood my concerns.
I took a deep breath.
Those fuckers had installed signal jammers.
Fuck.