The grand ball

[Ryker]

Zacarías Secada Amengual

El Tiburón, The Shark

"I'm sorry for your loss."

Fury ripped at the seams of his soul.  

When the call bearing news of his brother's execution arrived, Zacarias fell into a momentary stasis. To this day he could recall the paralysis that took over. Such shock as he'd never known in his life. Their mother and father lived long, healthy lives. He had every reason to suspect him and his brother to do likewise, despite the nature of their family's empire.

Family was everything. 

When they buried Andres, Zacarias laid a flower on his brother's chest, leaned close to the casket and whispered the words of promise upon the veil hiding his face. 

"I will find the one that did this to us. I will make him beg to be shot in the head. Rest, my brother. We will have revenge."

When he looked the last time upon his elder sibling's corpse, there was no room for doubt. The promise was signed in the blood of their family's soul. 

Tonight, of all places in the world to find an American special forces operator, the promise was coming to fruition. 

He saw the wings of death hovering behind the eyes of Jay Carpenter. Whatever he had, whoever he loved, he would lose it all. Finally, when the pain of that loss could be born no longer, and Zacarias believed in his heart that his brother was avenged, he would put a bullet in Jay's brain and ground the meat of his chest with a machete. And Andres would be at peace.

Ryker came to stand alongside in the group's departure. Zacarias could hardly speak through the savagary of his own thoughts. "The girl too," his voice prowled with the scent of a hunt. "Who is she?"

Ryker supplied a name. "Natalie Grey."