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“I don’t feel merciful anymore,” I whispered in his ear.
The man wailed.
I pulled back, watching from above as he lost all hope. My hand reached back, but instead of my gun, I grabbed Katia’s favorite—a knife.
And the demon prevailed. Ruling over my senses. Taking the crown and delivering every wound. Butchering all life as blood stained and soaked my hands in red. I watched him as he soon would meet death’s realm. And I searched for a feeling.Anyfeeling that might emerge from my consciousness. I did so involuntarily, like a ritual.
Yet, regardless if they were young, old, good or evil, any sense of emotion was always the same. Absent. Tonight was no different.
Tonight, the demon and I smiled through the pain of the man’s prayers.
Silence followed after the slaughter. The body was unrecognizable, and I still felt nothing but wicked satisfaction.
I never looked back. I had no reason to when you owned the city. In a neighborhood where no one kept an outside light on. The kind that didn’t leave home after dark. The kind that death hunted. The same death that swirled inside me now.
Once the humid air struck my face, I followed the open door Sergio had ready for me. I sat inside the blacked-out windows of Arlo’s car, wiped my hands clean, and unlocked my phone’s screen.
I had an unread message. I opened it as Arlo’s door shut and the car rolled away from the curve.
ILIAS: Did you know she walks non-stop during the night? I need extra compensation for the lack of sleep.
I should have left it unread. Instead, my mind reeled while I felt Arlo’s glance bounce from the windshield to me.
“You shouldn’t be the one with gashed knuckles.”
“Upset you missed the fun?” I deadpanned.
“No,” Arlo’s deep voice replied. “But you’re the boss now.”
“And as one, I will continue to get my hands dirty when needed.”
I snapped my head toward him. Tired of words and ready to wash the filthy blood that soaked my shirt clinging to my chest.
“And indeed you did.” His lips twitched with humor.
I felt none. Not while my pocket burned with Katia’s picture and her lifeless green eyes haunted me. And I felt a violent need to have her near.
“Now, take me home.”
“Yes, boss.”
“And one more thing, find out where Tino Borelli is.”
XV
KATIA
I wokeup startled by an eerie presence. A darkness that entered the room and was now trapped by the clicking sound of the door shutting. The large crystal drops from above were on the lowest setting I’d left them on, making it hard for its light to reveal who it was.
But I knew.
Lucca.
As he stepped deeper inside, light caught his state.
I sat up quickly, wide awake and stunned by the massacre his white shirt exposed. So much red, some dried, some remained wet. Alarms set off, worried about his well-being and warning me to remain quiet, pleading for me to ignore his state. Because if his shirt showed such carnage, he was still lost and taken by its bloodbath.
Lucca was at its merciless point. Depraved and immoral.
