Queen of Nothing

Santo

Sometimesbeingthesensible one was bullshit.

I spent all night trying to put out Black Crow fires that I didn’t spark myself. I had a permanent headache I couldn’t get rid of, and to top it off we had more problems than I had solutions. Top of my list was the Bratva bitch who was gonna need a new face on our dime, and the fact she had no allegiance to us doubled our troubles.

“Álvarez, is she gonna be a problem?” Zerkos asked me seriously.

“Which ‘she’ are you referring to at the moment?” Because honestly, I had no fucking clue. As of right now, the Black Crows felt pretty vulnerable and if I were to pin it on anything, I’d narrow it down to a couple of broads throwing this whole thing over the edge.

He rolled his eyes at me in annoyance, “The one with a casserole for a face now. Which, by the way, did you notice they were fucking SISTERS?” He practically shouted the last part at me but honestly, I couldn’t tell, white, blonde girls with pointy noses all looked the same to me.

That’s why they were easy to bone, they were just so familiar. “Hmm,” I said starting to close my eyes, I was fucking exhausted, but it didn’t seem like Berserk was gonna let me sleep until his anxiety cooled off.

Kane burst out of his room and threw Cecilia out in front of him with so much force I had to stand to catch her to keep her from falling over my chair. She spun her head at me and stared with startled eyes.

“Jesus, fuck Kane.” I looked at him questioningly, but there was a visible shift to his attitude since he left the room.

“You ready to go back down sweetheart?” Zerkos asked her and she cowered into me clenching the fabric of my shirt.

“Morena, please end this. Just tell him what he wants to know,” I said in a hushed tone right against her ear, she backed up closer to me and shook her head.

She was just wearing one of Mateo’s shirts and I could feel the roundness of her ass as she pressed into me. It was a temptation I absolutely didn’t need, and I had to redirect my thoughts immediately so as not to fall into a void of my own destructive thinking.

“You’ll let him fuck you, but you won’t tell him who’s after you? That’s rich,” Kane questioned crossing, his arms over his chest, the same demeanor coming out that he put on those first few days she was here.

I watched him change over time and soften in her presence though. I saw him never taking his eyes off of her through the camera feed. I watched him going down there to let her sleep because it was so fucking obvious that she didn’t trust those other three in the kennel, and she was staying up out of fear. I watched him follow Berserk unquestioningly until he finally saw for himself that she was worth questioning him over. Cecilia didn’t just totally fuck with Zerkos by coming here, she had thrown a grenade into the Black Crows that I was starting to worry we wouldn’t recover from.

I looked at her with a clear question in my eyes, and she looked down like she was embarrassed. I realized something happened between them, and Kane getting pissed over it, just meant all of this was going to wrench us apart if we couldn’t get our shit together.

I gave him the same puzzled look I had just given Cecilia, but he was already starting to pace, which meant we were on the verge of whatever wild card bullshit he was about to pull next. Mateo’s anger came out as impulsive outbursts, he’d gotten better at controlling his shit over the last few years, but I could see he was coming undone. It was the kind of quality that made him a fantastic murderer in the name of his country, but not so much as someone who you could predict to fall in line.

Zerkos chuckled from the corner of the couch but didn’t say more than that, and he didn’t need to. That was all I needed to confirm my suspicions. He pulled out his pocket knife and casually started cleaning under his fingernails.

“Take her downstairs for me, will you Álvarez? I’m suddenly tired of brunettes,” Kane said with a look that could have cut through stone.

“I told you both already, I can’t make it any clearer, I’m not doing this. Not with her,” I said through clenched teeth, annoyed we were having this power struggle in front of her. I could feel her relax a little at my words, but Zerkos got up and she immediately turned to me and grabbed on to me.

“No! No! Please don’t let him take me back there, please Santito!” She was begging me, and I instinctively wrapped my arms around her at the nickname, but Ronan grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from me. She grabbed me and started kicking at him, but he was much stronger than her.

“I choose Santo!” she yelled out desperately. It took me a second to realize what she said, and Ronan let her go but he was scowling so hard I thought he might burst a blood vessel.

Kane was clenching his teeth to the point where I could see the muscle on his jawline protruding and his nostrils were blown wide. Angry sneers covered both their faces at her decision.

“No. You’re not a part of that,” he said coldly, narrowing his eyes at Mateo, who returned the look back to him.

“She signed,” I said calmly, knowing I was probably her only chance out of that kennel at this point.

Ronan’s jaw ticked and Kane got up off the couch, walked up to her and grabbed her chin with his thumb and forefinger, “I challenge the fuck out of that.” He let her go but he didn’t do it gently and her head was thrown to the side with force. He stormed out of view where we could only hear his bedroom door slam. Her breathing was loud and labored as she worked through her nerves, her eyes didn’t meet mine or Berserk’s though.

“Looks like this is under discussion for now my love,” Ronan said, and grabbed her by the arm as he threw her over his shoulder. He made his way to the elevators and practically forced the door open before going in.

Fucking sloppy shit.

Didn’t even put the sack over her head.

I walked over to the coffee table and propped open the laptop. Within a few minutes, I could see Ronan hauling her through the hallways as he walked her past the kennel into her box, opening the door and tossing her in. He closed the door and passed by Oksana and Chiyo in the kennel giving them a two-finger salute before heading out and making his way back to the elevator. I closed the laptop and anxiously rubbed my neck. This was a hell of a situation, and I couldn’t begin to think of a way out of it for her. I heard the elevator arrive back at the penthouse and Ronan was walking toward me like he was gonna rip my head off.

“You need to chill man,” I said to him trying to soothe the beast raging inside him. “I haven’t done shit, I’ve been in a hospital all night dealing with your girl’s bullshit that’s bound to come back and bite us in the ass, I didn’t ask for this mess.”

His eyes narrowed at me in anger, but I could see that he knew I was right. “Kane!” He shouted and crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for Kane to come out of his room. He appeared at the edge of the hallway and leaned against the wall casually on his forearm as he looked back at him.

“We’re gonna do this then?” he said nonchalantly.

“Oh, we’re gonna do this,” Zerkos closed the distance between them in a few large steps and threw a fist into his face.

Mateo’s head snapped back hard enough to hit the wall, and he covered his nose with his hand as blood gushed from it. He let out a wild cackle like the pain didn’t bother him one bit.

“Psycho asshole,” He finally said, shaking his head and walking past him as he took a seat on the couch. “It’s not like she chose me.” He pointed his rage over at me and I raised my hands up in front of me in defense. He took his shirt off and used it to absorb the blood coming down his nose into his mouth.

“Why did she even know to do that?” Berserk redirected back to him, and I was glad my brother was seeing clearly enough for once to know I didn’t plan any of this.

I spent a lot of time thinking about Cecilia Gomez, about how I was doing her wrong. Zerkos was my friend, shit he was my brother. But she was my friend once too. Every time I went down to the kennels I was thrown back to a time where none of this shit was between us and it was just us having a good time, getting through the trash years of our lives. I had even gotten her to laugh out loud a few times down there when I brought her food and gave her some company for a bit. It was always awkward as fuck with the other three chicks watching us, but I mostly avoided them this year.

Yeah, it was shitty that I picked them out specifically, and wasn’t putting any effort into breaking them or doing any of the things we were normally doing at this point in the trials in previous years. I completely jumped ship when Cecilia walked into our penthouse, and there was nothing Ronan could do to get me on board again. If I was being honest with myself, I was fucking depressed right now.

I spent most of my time in my room playing video games, watching the camera feed, and delegating most of my work to Fletcher, though the poor guy never complained. He was solid as hell, and he always went the extra mile where it was needed.

“She was scared shitless to go back in there, dude,” Mateo said and even though he was acting like a complete shithead around her, I was wondering if there was maybe more to his little outburst. “And she signed. She doesn’t belong to you, she’s Black Crow property. And it looks like we’re down one anyway.” He crossed his arms over his chest at him not backing down.