“Stop!” Anna shouts, pointing a gun at her own sister. Her arm trembles and her expression is pained. Una glances at her, stilling.
“You would choose him?” she asks.
Anna sucks in a sharp breath. “I won’t let you kill him.”
Una seems to deliberate for a moment before the knife disappears from my throat. She flips it over in her hand and shoves it into her thigh holster. “This doesn’t need to be a choice,” Anna says.
Una walks away and takes up her position beside Sasha. The action is seemingly absentminded, but I remember Nero once saying that Sasha is like a brother to Una. The look on Anna’s face would suggest that it stings.
“I’m willing to lend you all the manpower, guns, and protection at my disposal,” I say to Una. “All I ask in exchange is that Anna remains under my protection.”
Una snorts and folds her arms over her chest. “So, you would keep my sister locked in your gilded cage?”
“No,” Anna says. “Dominges is mine. I’m simply allowing Rafael to…oversee things.”
“Why? We don’t need him. His cartel is barely surviving this war.”
“The more manpower we have, the more chance we have of succeeding.”
“Dominges is one man,” Una says.
“I don’t just want Dominges.”
“We’ve been through this. We are not taking down an entire cartel.”
“No, but they can.” Anna points at me. “And then…”
“And then what?” Una tilts her head to the side.
“And then we can get the girls out.”
Una spits a curse and tilts her face to the ceiling. “No. This is not the plan, Anna.”
“What girls?”
“My sister fancies herself some kind of savior. Anna wants to save the slaves. Just call her Moses.”
I frown. “The Sinaloa have hundreds of slaves.”
“What’s the point of all this if they’re just left there?” Anna asks. “I won’t abandon them.” My little warrior is so strong, but this is a fools errand.
Una’s gaze swings to me. “I agreed to kill Dominges and his inner circle. I’ll stick to that, but as for rescuing girls…that’s on you. I’m an assassin, not a saint.”
“My focus is on taking down the Sinaloa right now,” I say, avoiding the subject somewhat because I hate to disappoint Anna, but I can only handle so much. I won’t make her false promises. “I’d rather work with you than against you.”
Una gives me a hesitant nod, holding her hand out to me. I take it and her body visibly tenses, relaxing only when I release her. The girl is a raging psycho. I don’t know how Nero does it.
“You’re welcome to stay here. Traffic in and out of the compound poses a risk of being followed.”
She gives a stiff nod and flicks white-blonde hair over her shoulder as she turns and heads for the warehouse door. Sasha falls into step beside her and Anna makes to follow before I grab her wrist.
“Oh no, little warrior. You and I need a talk.” I pull her over to my office and close the door behind us. “You want to save all the slaves. Really, Anna?”
Leaning against the door, she folds her arms over her chest. “I didn’t ask for your help.”
“Didn’t you? Because I have a feeling that this wasn’t the plan until just now. And what the fuck happened in Romania?”
“I killed Alexandru Dalca.” She drops her chin to her chest and waves of golden hair tumble forward over her face. “And rescued the thirteen-year-old girl that I found chained to his bed, naked and bleeding.”
I lean against my desk, gripping the edge as I swallow down rage.
“There were seven more in the basement. Living in cages in the freezing cold…”
“You can’t save them all,” I say quietly.
Glassy eyes lift to mine, breaking me just a little. “That girl was once me. I won’t abandon a single one if I can help it.”
I try not to, but all I see is Anna, naked, bleeding, and chained. And I can’t even imagine her thirteen-year-old self like that. It makes me want to lock her away from anyone who would ever hurt her, just like Una said. Sad eyes meet mine, haunted by a lifetimes worth of demons. She’s so strong, my little warrior. She’s survived so much.
“I understand why you want to save them, but it’s just not possible, avecita.”
“Would you give up on me so easily? If I were in their position…”
“You know I wouldn’t. I didn’t.” When the Russians took her, I thought I’d lost all sense of sanity. I’d have given anything for her. “But I love you, it’s different.”
“They aren’t so fortunate as to have someone who cares.”
The urge to touch her, to comfort her tender heart is so strong, but I remain rooted. “Avecita, you’re too soft-hearted for this.”
“Not when it comes to Dominges. I want his entire cartel dead and buried. If we leave even a handful of Sinaloa men alive, those girls will die in captivity, and you know it.”