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I fully disagreed.
I’d still like to torture those little brats.
But today, I ignore him, because I really don’t want to talk about it. I came here to let the music drown out my internal thoughts while having someone I trust watch my back.
I raged at Lory on Monday and drank with Riot on Tuesday... I’ve got to lift my mood before I see Kane tonight, though. He’ll know something is wrong, just like everyone else. But I can’t explain any of this to him. And he’ll want to talk about it. When I say no, we’ll bicker at each other, and Kane will be pissy because he wants to fix it before he even knows what it is.
There’s nothing anyone can do to change what has to happen.
That hardens my resolve, if only slightly.
Nothing can change the inevitable outcome. I was always going to have to kill my dad to take over the cartel.
I just wanted to ignore the obvious for a little longer.
“Did someone important die?” Gabe asks when I say nothing.
“Not yet,” I mumble.
He sets the boxes down and tilts his head to examine me. “Do you need a hand?”
“Unfortunately, I’m the only one who can do it.”
“Oh.” He frowns at me. “I’m sorry.”
I take a small sip of my whiskey—the last bit of liquor Echo will pour me because she knows I drove here. “You got that, did you?”
“Yeah, Gem,” Gabe mumbles, rubbing his hand over his mouth. “It sucks, but you knew—”
“I know.” I huff, spinning my glass on its edge. “That doesn’t make it any easier.”
“If it were easier, his sacrifice wouldn’t mean anything,” Gabe counters, too intelligent for his own good. “And wouldn’t it mean you love him less if you don’t go through with it?”
“Doesn’t killing him show how little I love him?” I challenge him bitterly.
He should back down and leave me alone, but he never does.
Maybe that’s why I came here when I could have gone anywhere else.
“Doesn’t killing him show just how much you love him?” he presses, too aware of how my family works. “You’re helping him out of a life he never wanted to live. Ed deserves that. Trusting you with the... task means that he’ll die a proud man.”
“I told Echo I don’t want to talk about it,” I reply.
His truth hurts, but it’s what I needed to hear. To know I’m not making it up… To know someone else who enjoyed my dad’s company could see what I saw. Gabe spent more time with us than his own father, and I guess, in a way, I needed to know he wouldn’t hate me for this.
“I’m not Echo,” Gabe snarks.
“No, you are not,” Friday chimes in from my right side.
To be such a loud person, she’s too fucking quiet sometimes. I love that about her, but I also hate when she sneaks up on me. That’s how we met, so it’s difficult to hold it against her.
I might be a monster in person, whispered about in the streets because no one knows who I am… But Friday Amonette was more of a digital monster. She’s retired now, or so she says, though she doesn’t mind doing the odd favor for me. After living the life of crime with her skill-set, and being sought-after by massive organizations, it’s difficult to just walk away from it.
And she didn’t walk; she fucking ran as fast as she could.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” Gabe asks, exasperated, as he rolls his eyes.
“Yep.” Friday twirls the black hair of her wig around her finger.
