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Ally took a deep breath. “The blood samples collected at the scene were from outside. A male dismembered and likely tortured was found in a hand-dug hole. The soil had recently been disturbed, and it’s been concluded that the DNA from your patient and the victim from the scene most recently perishing there have similar infrastructures in the RNA strands of the biological genesis genes.”
I blinked, trying to piece together her nerd-talk.
Ally did it for me. “In other words, the patient you’re with right now, Ella, is related to the man who was killed.”
Sitting in my tent, I began writing down everything that had been happening lately.
Randall came up to my tent. He looked a bit skittish. I hadn’t spoken to him since our huge fight that night. He didn’t want to be involved in my business, which was fine. But why was he walking up to me now, looking like the devil was chasing him?
“I just wanted to thank you. For ya know, everything,” he said, his voice a bit shaky.
I waved my hand.
“It was nothing.”
These people deserved more than a few credit cards could get them. A bunch of the younger members, who had slept all the time and I thought were dumb as rocks, had actually moved out and gotten jobs. They used the thousand to put up rent in an apartment nearby. They pooled it together and were now roommates. It made sense that they would feel safe to stick together.
The older, grumpy members stayed behind. The sick ones who sneezed all the damn time went off to the hospital, using the money to get the proper care they needed. The really smart tech wiz left. Maybe he’d end up running a company. It was pretty cool what a simple thousand could do for some people.
The little homeless community was now thinned out to just seven people, including Randall and me.
“You can act like you don’t care.” Randall continued. His demeanor was more bashful, not at all his happy self. “But it meant a lot to me. Thank you, Ember.”
He bent down and pulled me into an awkward hug.
Feeling strange, I patted him on the back and said, “It’s nothing anyone else wouldn’t have done. Any decent person anyway.”
I laughed despite myself. I wasn’t decent at the best of times, really. But the homeless people deserved so much.
“Yeah, maybe, ” he said, that haunted gaze lingering around. Shaking himself, he finally said, “Well, thanks. I’ll see ya around.”
Feeling odd about that whole encounter, I tried to brush it off, but it felt like bugs were crawling over me.
I had to hurry. If I was going to catch Lucius and see what the ever-loving fuck he was up to, I was going to have to think on my feet. I had watched him and that frail girl that night. He had held her with a delicate hand. One that made me feel a spike of jealousy. But that was stupid.
I hated this man.…didn’t I?
Maybe, but the way he was so calm with her, how he had gently set her on a lawn chair, bringing that lump of a man to her who was surprisingly still alive…I kept wondering if the girl knew him.
She was beautiful, even while looking very bruised and malnourished. She had very pretty brown hair. It was very dark but not black. She was short. Lucius had a good ten inches on her. He wasn’t some giant. His height was nice. It was the perfect height for when he held my face to his, kissing me deeply…
I let that thought trail off. My hands flushed as I stared at my pen and paper. I had tried to recreate the strange symbol I’d seen on that guy’s mouth before that girl had killed him. She shredded his torso to ribbons. In fact, she didn’t stop until her nails cracked. Even his ribcage had been opened, and his heart had been out from his chest.
Whatever that guy did to her, the kill was personal. My own brutality was not based on excessive torture or wasted energy. The word ripper bounced around in my head—the ultimate cartel leader. So many had thrown the name at me, saying they didn’t know who this killer was. All anyone knew was that if I wanted to look for the boss, then I needed to look for The Ripper.
Was it possible that The Ripper was this frail-looking female?
I replayed the image in my head. How calm and gentle Lucius was with her. How sweet and uncharacteristically childlike around her. Was she related to him? Was he protecting her?
If she was, in fact, The Ripper, then I needed to find her. And Lucius was not going to like it. I always knew that we’d end up fighting someday. The draw we had was undeniable, but the reality of our worlds being connected…no.
When fire and ice could co-exist, then maybe.
There was no way he would give me that girl without a fight to the death. His kindness and careful movements around her made that evident.
So it was time.
Time to end this.
