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Now I knew, without a doubt in my soul, what Arsenio would do. What he always planned to do since he told me to get in the car.
Arsenio snatched up the pool cue. He was ready as Verlice crawled his way up, clinging to the bar top. He smashed the cue across his face, snapping his neck to the side.
Backing up, I slammed into the wall. I was right next to the way out. To say those two were preoccupied was an understatement. All I had to do was run.
“P-please,” Verlice sobbed. “Stop.”
Arsenio jumped over the bar.
“No!”
He brought the cue down over, and over, and over again.
“Stop! Help! Help me, please.”
The man’s cries didn’t slow him. If anything, Arsenio’s savagery increased.
“Arah!” he roared. The cue snapped and he did not stop.
My feet lifted, carrying me away... from the wall.
I came up behind Arsenio, peering over the top. A bloody, unrecognizable mass lay at his feet. I couldn’t tell what was face from blood or from teeth.
“Ah—” His screams cut off, hands flopping on the ground.
Arsenio kept hitting. Once. Twice. Four times.
The cue broke.
Throwing away a piece, he held the remains in both hands, lifting it overhead.
“Arsen—”
He brought it down, impaling Axel Verlice through the stomach.
Arsenio turned his back on the body, looking into my wide eyes. He picked up a rag, wiping off his bloody hands.
“Verlice mentioned something about a safe,” he said. “You empty the register. I’ll clean it out.”
I said nothing. Did nothing as he brushed past me.
Arsenio killed him.
The sentence went through my mind and would not stick. This didn’t happen. None of this was real.
Arsenio blew in here like a capo dei capi, the boss of all crime bosses, and beat and impaled a man while I watched. No hesitation. No remorse.
Did the Bedlam Boys know this is what he came here to do?
“I don’t go on collection runs.”
Who were these guys? I tied myself to them in bonds I didn’t know how to break, and I never truly knew them at all.
I couldn’t tell how long I’d been standing there. Long enough that Arsenio returned holding a duffel bag.
“Where’s the money?”
Shaking his head, he pried open the register himself, piling more bills in the bag beside a corpse.
“Why?” I rasped. “Why did you bring me here?”
“It was a gift. I assumed you’d enjoy it.”
“What? Why?”
He came to me, backing me into the wall. My breath stopped in my chest as he ran a light, bloodstained finger down my cheek. “You loved killing Cavendish. Felt the most intense, orgasmic high when you let loose that arrow. You know what it’s like, de Souza.
“You’re like me.”
“I... didn’t—”
“Shh,” he crooned. His lips were soft on mine, scorching me with the tenderest of kisses. “You don’t have to hide. Not with us. Think about why we spared you. It wasn’t for sex. It wasn’t because I like you with a leash around your neck.
“It’s because we see you, Rainey.”
“See me?” My voice was small.
“The real you. The you that you’ve hidden. Buried so deep you forgot she was there.” Arsenio tipped my chin. Spots of blood dotted his forehead. “We could’ve let the sheriff lock you up, but what would’ve been the point? The system would’ve destroyed you, and make no mistake, Rainey de Souza, you are perfect.”
I was shaking—trembling in his hold. “I am?”
“Well.” He smirked. “Almost. You haven’t been given what we have. The sweet, happy childhood with the chickens and piggies. Your real self wasn’t nurtured the way it needed to be. Whereas my boys and I have had no shortage of people in our lives, happy to fuck us up.
“Cavendish was the first step. Survival brought out the real you. Killing him broke the seal. And now we’ll do the rest.”
Spellbound, I hung on his every word.
“We’ll break you. Tear you. Rip you apart,” he whispered. “We’ll be your monsters, baby. Surviving us...” He lifted a shoulder. “Little things like giving a rapist and trafficker what he deserves, doesn’t compare.”
He kissed me.
“Go in the car and wait for me.” He handed me my phone and keys. “Call Cairo and let him know it’s done. Verlice’s friends won’t be here until midnight. Chances are they’ll run off and the first person to report the body will be the chef. I’ll make sure there’s no trace of us left behind, and that we’ve got all the money in this place.”
“Okay.”
Arsenio kissed me again, and I melted into him, whimpering like a bitch in heat.
He sent me off alone, with my phone and the keys to his car. It didn’t cross his mind that I would take off and run from the man who savagely beat another human being to death, then promised me he’d bring the same vicious cruelty out of me. At any cost.
Or more likely it did occur to him I might run, and he dismissed the thought as immediately as I did.
