I am sworn, brother, sweet, to grim Necessity, and he and I will keep a League til death

[latino_menace]

Ramon watches his brother darkly as he paces around, snapping at the men and basically acting like a child. There’s only so much of this he’s willing to put up with – and forcing arguments in front of Nina Myers, Jack Bauer and a group of employees is not something he’s willing to take a lot of. Especially when they have no choice but to go through with this – and whose fault is that Hector?


The deal’s so close. And no matter what he thinks about it, there’s no escape. The billion dollars that Hector was sure they’d make – it’s unimportant. What’s important is that they follow through on promises made to their buyers because without that, everything is lost. The first rule of business is not to let your customers down.

His exasperation is clear as he rolls his eyes at Hector shouting at his men for something trivial. ‘Stop making problems where there are none.’

‘I’m just trying to make sure we’re covered.’

He can’t help snapping at him. ‘No, you’re trying to stop this deal from happening because you lost your nerve.’

‘Ramon – things are happening too fast, we haven’t had enough time to think things through!’

He just pulls a face because this is getting ridiculous and he hates it when people show no backbone. ‘It’ll be fine.’

‘Just because you say it’ll be fine, doesn’t mean it’ll be fine!’

Ramon doesn’t like the way this is going. The man isn’t calming down, he’s just getting worse. And there’s an air of belligerence that he doesn’t like…this is getting serious and it’s obvious to everyone in the room. He can tell by the way even Nina and Jack are glancing at each other, and the men look more than uncomfortable.

‘The situation is difficult enough, don’t make it worse.’

It’s already worse though, he can see as soon as the words leave his mouth. Because Hector doesn’t back off, he squares up. Takes a step forward and draws himself up. The man’s taller than he is and looks down at him with undisguised rebellion on his face.

‘Or. What?’

It’s the sort of thing kids say to each other on the playground. But Ramon doesn’t laugh. His attention is drawn by Jack trying to intercede – a sensible move actually, he thinks. But Hector isn’t in the mood to listen about how they have to leave now if the deal is to go down, and Bauer is cut off by a shout that Ramon recognises well.

‘The deal. Is off.’

It’s the voice Hector uses when he’s made up his mind and has dug his heels in for good. Ramon starts to get a very bad feeling, one worse than the anger and impatience that he feels at his brother for being so fucking stupid. Because if he isn’t willing to follow through on this, he should never have started it at all.

The man starts to walk away from him and Ramon grabs his arm. If nothing else, such a blatant show of insubordination can’t be left alone. But he tries to make it easier, because this is important.

‘Hector we’re not done here.’

‘I’ve said what I need to say.’

His hands go up to grip the sides of his brother’s neck, to make him look and see and listen. His voice has a distinct note of urgency and it bites with irritation.

‘Hector, listen to me and listen to me carefully. If we don’t give our buyers what we promised them, we don’t just lose money. We lose respect. And without that, we have nothing.’

There’s a pause, and for a split second, he thinks he might have gotten through. But then Hector takes his wrists and wrenches his hands away from his face.

‘We’d have our lives.’

Beat. Ramon just looks at him.

‘We’re leaving now.’

The man calls his guys and they don’t move. Ramon looks around and sees the looks on everyone’s faces. They look terrified – and there’s no way this is helping them keep their nerve. The younger Salazar yells at them when they don’t move at first, so they start to shuffle towards the door. And no, this can’t be allowed to happen. Hector is not the one in charge here.

‘Hector….don’t do this.’

Don’t make me. You should know I can’t let you. And I don’t want to have to…

He would have thought the warning in his voice was obvious. But the man chooses to ignore it. He seems convinced that if he moves with enough conviction, he’ll be allowed to do as he likes. But Ramon isn’t the type to respond to that type of attitude and his brother should know better. But the younger man just stands there, looking down on him with a face full of defiance, it’s almost a sneer.

And then he turns away. Ramon sees Jack looking uncomfortably at the men that are leaving the place, and Hector goes to follow them.

‘Hector.’

He keeps walking.

Idiot. You idiot.

‘Hector!’

It’s louder, more angry. But the man just keeps walking, shoulders set and head held high.

Ramon draws his gun. And there’s no hesitation because his brother is still moving and there’s no sign of him stopping and who the hell does he think he is, the little shit?!

‘HECTOR!’ It’s barked, loud and angry…

…and is followed by the loud rapport of the bullet spitting from his gun.

He thinks, as he watches his brother stop in his tracks, that it’s stupid that it came to this. That it doesn’t seem like it’s really happening. But then Hector is slumping to his knees and he himself is lowering his weapon, so it must have just happened, right?

He glances round the room without moving his head. Shock is obvious everywhere. Nina has her mouth open and Jack is staring from him, to the gasping body on the floor and back to him. He holds the blue gaze for a moment, then looks away.

He didn’t leave me a choice…

But the thought doesn’t help much right now.

* * * * *

He doesn’t move for a moment while it sinks in, and no one else in the room seems to feel the need to either. Apart from Felipe that is – he grabs a cloth and starts to try and help his boss. Ramon just watches him for a time. It’s harder than he would think to get himself to walk over there.

He does eventually, with legs that feel like lead and the gun still in his hand. He ignores everyone else and talks to Hector directly. His condition is obvious but there’s only one thing he can think of to say and he doubts it’s comforting.

‘You should have listened to me. This is my business. I built it. And I won’t let anyone destroy it, not even you.’

He stares into the face on the ground, transfixed by the blood that’s trickling out of his mouth and coating his lips.

‘Ramon…’

It’s obvious that there’s not much time. Hector’s voice is nothing more than a whisper. Ramon is aware of the silence in the room, aware of the eyes on him. But he doesn’t pull his eyes from his brother’s, not even when Felipe looks up, the blood-soaked cloth in his hand. ‘I can’t stop the bleeding, we gotta get him to a hospital.’

‘We can’t!’

There’s a pause. You’re dying. Fuck, you’re really dying.

His voice is quiet when he follows up with, ‘They’ll ask questions.’ Felipe stands up and looks Ramon full in the face.

‘He’ll die if we don’t.’

Ramon looks right back.

‘I know.’

The pause seems to go on forever and silence fills the place. No one moves and Ramon sees nothing. All he can think is that he has to finish what he started. This whole day – he just has to get through it. Has to do what has to be done. And now…this has to be done.

‘Ramon…’

He doesn’t look at him for a moment, but then eventually drops his gaze to his brother. It’s just…surreal to him now. And he can’t leave him there to die slowly on the floor of a fucking barn.

He swallows once, looks away, looks back…and then raises the gun quickly and fires another bullet, this one straight into his heart.

You should have listened to me.

It’s deafening in the enclosed space – but at the same time, nothing much seems to kill the sense of quiet he feels. It’s like he hasn’t just done this, hasn’t really just murdered his brother in cold blood. And really, that’s too easy a phrase to use for it because it’s more than just cold, shooting your brother in the back as he walks away from you and then finishing him off when he’s helpless on the floor.

Jack approaches and quietly says they have to leave. The deal still has to be done. He nods, pretending that he’s not fighting tears, acting as though there is not water under one eye and a lump in his throat big enough to choke on. He looks to Felipe briefly and says,

‘When you are done, I want him to have a proper burial.’

The man nods and Ramon turns to leave, pulling his eyes slowly away from Hector’s face. He just wants to get this over with now – and what he doesn’t need is Nina Myers, in his face again about how Jack is setting him up and that Hector was right.

You have the nerve to stand there and tell me I just killed him for nothing?

He wishes he could make his voice louder, more threatening. But it just won’t work that way right now. ‘That’s enough. Don’t mention my brother’s name, ever.’

And then he heads for the door, calling the men to the cars. Because if there’s one thing he won’t do, it’s let death get in the way of business. So he does what he always does. He blocks it out and gets on with things. There’ll be time later to sort this out. For now, he’s just trying to focus on work and not on the corpse lying flat out and alone back in that dirty little barn.