Page 907 of Coal Hearts

We could wait.

They drove to an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city.

Franco and his men got into position while I ordered Tess to stay in the car.

Of course she didn’t obey, and together we’d strolled right through the roller door, guns at our sides, snipers covering us from all angles.

The rest, as they say, was history.

Fourteen men to abduct my son.

Fourteen highly trained men.

But eleven corpses and three hostages just the same.

I’d been focused on dispatching them as quickly as possible and didn’t notice what Lino got up to.

But Tess did.

She was the one to snatch the wickedly sharp knife out of his hands. A knife he’d yanked off the man holding him hostage. The man now dead on the floor with his small intestines unspooling.

I loved my son unconditionally.

Up till that moment, I’d only ever seen him as a child who needed protection and guidance, but as Tess cleaned his bloody hands and cradled him into her side, I saw the first inklings of the man he would become.

He had too much of me in him to be normal, but he also had a lot of his mother.

His mother was scrappy and stubborn, but she was also soft and kind.

I didn’t fear that he needed to deliver pain like me...only that he could deliver it if necessary.

“Whatcha doing?” Tess asked as she strolled into our bedroom and dumped an armful of fresh towels on the end of the bed.

I scooted higher against the pillows, resting my hands on the thick sheaf of paper my brother had given me. I was still dressed after saying goodnight to him and Ily. They’d cut across the meadow with their two-year-old daughter swinging from their hands.

I still hadn’t gotten used to the idea that I was an uncle.

Or the fact that three other half-siblings had reached out.

I hadn’t talked to them as much as Henri had but they seemed sane enough. Not sane enough that I wanted them around my family, but at least my fears that my father’s progeny were out there, raping and murdering, seemed foundless...for now.

“Reading.” My heart caught at how effortlessly tempting she was. Even folding laundry.

“Reading what?” Abandoning the towels, she threw herself beside me and reached for the paper.

I let her. “Fact delivered as fiction. As he once said.”

“Oh, is this his book?” Tess sat cross-legged and flicked through the pages. “He finally finished?”

I nodded, scowling. “He wanted my opinion before submitting it to a publisher.”

“And? What do you think?”

“He’s listed almost every deletion we’ve performed together. He’s playing with fucking fire.”

“Yeah but no one will believe it’s real.” Her eyes skimmed a middle chapter. “Oh wow, he really does list everything.”

“What if Priti or Lino figure out that it’s true?”