Once again, not a single word ca from anyone, but everybody understood what he ant by it, and why he shot Hector's body.
It was to protect Hector's legacy. It was to protect him in the only way Jas knew how. To make sure that the truth stayed buried in a way that wouldn't weaken what Hector had built, or what he ant to the people who followed him.
Because in the end, the only person who could kill Hector, the only one who actually did kill him, was Jas. His boss. Nobody else.
And those who witnessed what happened, those who saw Hector die in that instant, would need to carry it forward, not to say a single word about the truth, but to say that he was killed by his own boss, which created its own fucking darkness that would spread far beyond that room, far beyond that night.
But they all knew that Jas was accepting all of it.
That if people spat on his na, if they cursed him, he would accept that too without resistance. He wouldn't fight it. He wouldn't correct it. He wouldn't even defend himself.
Because Hector ant so much to him that he couldn't let him be killed by anybody else.
Jas chose to beco the reason. He chose to beco the na that would stain the truth, so Hector's end would not be reduced to weakness, betrayal, or randomness.
If the story needed bla, he would take it all.
And everyone who stood there understood it clearly in that silence. This wasn't denial, and it wasn't confusion. It was sacrifice in its ugliest form, where the person carrying it doesn't get to explain themselves, because explaining would only weaken what they were trying to protect.
"You were the one." Ramirez said, and he didn't cry at all, not a single tear was in his eyes because of one simple thing. He had taken an oath to Hector that if he ever died, he would be the one to look after Jas.
And now that ti has co.
Ramirez knew that now it was the next step he needed to take, not just to carry out the oath he had made to Hector, but because this could very well be the end of the family if he failed to act correctly.
Because Jas was in a state that Ramirez could not even begin to describe. It wasn't just grief, and it wasn't just shock. It was sothing unstable, sothing that felt like it was holding on only by habit, as if the mont anyone said the wrong word, everything would collapse entirely.
And for the first ti, Ramirez didn't see Jas as a boss or as a leader. He saw him as soone standing at the edge of sothing irreversible, and if he didn't step forward now, there might be nothing left to save at all.
"The gun, Jas," Ramirez's voice ca. "It's over, so please hand it to ."
For a mont, Jas didn't move. He just stood there, holding Hector's gun like it was the only solid thing left in the world, and indeed it was. But it wasn't just a weapon in his hand anymore. It had turned into sothing else entirely, sothing heavier than tal and engraving, sothing that carried the weight of everything that had just happened.
Not just a tool of violence, but the final point where everything changed, where loyalty, blood, and leadership all broke in the sa instant.
"Why would I even continue…?"
"Jas?" Linda's voice ca as she heard Jas clearly.
"Rafael, Hans, and now Hector…" He had a smile on. A tired smile.
"Jas…" Linda began again. "Put the gun down." She said as she even reached her arms out toward him, slowly, carefully, like she was afraid one wrong movent would break whatever fragile balance was left. "It's okay… j-just put it down. W-we are here."
But the words didn't seem to land where they were supposed to. Not properly. Not fully.
Because in Jas's hand, the gun wasn't just a weapon anymore. It wasn't just sothing that had fired or killed or ended a life. It had beco sothing heavier than that. A seal. A final statent that couldn't be taken back.
The thing that turned a mont into history, and a person into a story no one would ever tell correctly.
And even as Linda reached for him, even as the others stood frozen behind her, Jas didn't look at them like they could fix anything anymore
He looked like soone who had already stepped too far past the point where being pulled back felt possible.
"Yeah, you are here." Jas kept smiling. "Linda… flip a coin."
"What…?"
"A coin. Flip one." Jas repeated himself as he looked deeper into her eyes, and she didn't know what it ant, or more so who the coin was ant for. And that look in Jas's eyes made it impossible to tell what was going on inside him.
But she knew she needed to do it, so she did. With her shaking hands she pulled out her wallet, took out a coin, and held it in her palm, waiting for Jas.
"Throw it up, Linda." Jas said, but she hesitated, because she still didn't know who the coin was ant for.
She didn't even know if Jas was blaming her… because she was the one who called Hector after Jas didn't pick up the phone. She was the one who alerted Hector about Sophia's motives. She was the one who sent Hector to his death, but in the process, she saved Jas.
"Throw it up." His voice ca again and she did it.
She threw the coin up and she didn't catch it, letting it fall into Hector's blood.
"Heads… well this is it then."
"Jas no—
It was quick. Jas suddenly pushed the gun to his head and pulled the trigger before Ramirez or anybody else could shoot him to stop him.
And this ti, the gun didn't jam.
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