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“I don’t really need you to answer any of my questions. I already have proof that you were at the gas station on First and Broadway on June seventh.”
As soon as I said the location and date his eyes narrowed. His tanned skin paled slightly, and he was showing his first sign of worry, but he recovered quickly.
“Are you working for him?” He asked defiantly. “We can pay you more if you let me go. My bosses will pay you well.”
What was he talking about? Or rather who?I knew men like this well. I’d worked with them for years on the force. These were the guys that usually turned into snitches, if approached right. “Well now, if I do that, then he’ll kill me. How is that good for business?” I had zero clue who we were talking about, but was hoping to find out.
“Chica, the way you fucked that up? You weren’t meant to be in this line of work to begin with. No, we’ve paid off a couple of his other people. We have a system,” he insisted.
I frowned and narrowed my eyes at him. “Then we must not be speaking about the same man. The man who hired me wouldn’t let such a betrayal go so easily…”
“Nico Romano!?” He hissed. The inflection in his voice indicated that he thought I was an idiot. In reality, he was the dumbass who just gave me entirely too much information. I didn’t know who Nico Romano was or what he wanted with Santos or his bosses, but I would be finding out after this.
“Yeah, that’s him. Sorry, compadre, no can do. He’s worse than your bosses.” I bared my teeth at him in a smile. He blinked slowly at me. “Do you know why I’m going to kill you?”
“Because we killed Nico’s wife,” he said flatly, as though he didn’t have a care in the world, and it made me pause. I tried to keep the shock off my face, but he saw it. I needed to get better at hiding my emotions because he was grinning at me. I also really needed to figure out who this other guy was. A wave of sadness and pity for a woman I didn’t know washed over me. I could only imagine the horror she’d faced at the hands of these men.
“Actually, it’s because you killed my family,” I snarled at him. Now he looked confused.
“You’re a Romano?”
I couldn’t tell if he was the dense one or I was at this point. “What? The car bombing. In June…”
“Sí, we killed Maria Romano.” He looked at me as though I wasn’t the brightest bulb. I glared at him, but made a mental note to look further into Nico Romano. I didn’t want anybody getting in the way of my revenge.
“Maria wasn’t the only one you killed that day,” I said, turning back around. He watched me with interest now as I picked up a hammer and approached him.
“So?”
Red flashed over my vision. “SO?!” I gritted my teeth as I growled the word out at him. “You killed my family. My husband. My parents.”
“They shouldn’t have been in the way.”
It was the casual way he said it. Something snapped. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you if it was something inside of me or if it was his kneecap when I brought the hammer down on top of it. His scream of pain soothed some of the anger within me, though not nearly enough.
Once his voice died down our eyes met. We were both breathing hard. “Who was your family?” His voice shook. Probably because now, he knew I was willing to actually hurt him.
“Tony Costa. Bill and Maggie Larsen.” It was the first time I’d said their names out loud since the funeral. God, it hurt. It made the Beast inside rage, crave.
Something mean flashed in his eyes. “I don’t know them. They are nothing.” He spat in my face. I sat there, glaring at him with his sputum dripping down my cheek, but his words were what enraged me. Swiping the spit off my cheek, I met his eyes. I brought the hammer down on his good knee, relishing in the sound of breaking bone. The monster inside me purred in delight as he cried out in agony.
“They’re more than you’ll ever be, you worthless piece of shit,” I gritted out between clenched teeth as I swung the hammer at his ribs. How a man can laugh maniacally between breaking bones I’ll never know, but this crazy fucker did. What he didn’t realize was that he was fueling me. If he had cried and pleaded, I may not have had the fortitude to do these things. Somewhere in the back of my mind the woman that I used to be was huddled in a dark corner, watching me beat this man to death and she was sick to her stomach. The Beast that’d been created because of my family’s deaths was in charge now. This wasn’t something that my loving husband and parents would have wanted for me, but it’s the path I was currently on.
I moved back to my bag and drew out a knife. Santos and I both watched in fascinated horror as I ripped through his shirt then drew it over the skin on his chest, the blade biting deep. Dark red blood welled, then dripped down. “Do whatever you want. Even if you kill me, the Guzman Cartel will finish killing the rest of your family. They’ll gut every one of you like stray dogs,” he panted. I couldn’t really tell if he was going insane from the pain or if the guy was just nuts to begin with.
I smiled slowly at him and finally I saw the first flash of fear enter his eyes. It wasn’t a pleasant smile. It was a smile of realization. “I don’t have any family left.” My steady gaze held his as I stabbed the knife into the top of his left thigh. The wail that escaped his lips was long and thready. Once he was finished, I cocked my head, wondering if he was almost done. The noises he was making were getting lower, quieter. My guess was his body was going into shock and beginning to numb the pain. “There’s no one left for them to come for, except me.”
“Then they’ll kill you.” He bared his teeth at me.
“Good, but not before I finish, and they’ll be too late to save you.”
His eyes widened at my reply. I was satisfied. He finally looked petrified. I couldn’t inflict much more pain on him. I’d been here for too long already and it was time to end this. Taking a fist full of his black hair in my left hand, I jerked his head back as I stood over him in the dingy apartment. Staring down at him dispassionately, I held my blade to his throat and let it bite deep as I dragged it from one side of his neck to the other.
I felt his blood pour into my glove and over my hand. It felt hot on my skin. I maintained eye contact with him—the Beast inside of me required it—until the light in them was gone. I dropped his head and stared down at the mess.
Before, I couldn’t feel anything except pain, anger, and hate. Now I was feeling something else. It wasn’t euphoria or happiness. It was satisfaction. The Beast curled up within me to sleep. I knew this man deserved everything I had done to him. I was sure that what he’d done to my family, to Maria Romano, wasn’t the first time he’d hurt people. Did that make it right? In the eyes of most? Probably not. For me? In that moment, it was what I needed.
I washed up, gathered all of my stuff, and quickly left the building. I walked steadily down the street, head down, so that when the police car went screaming by no one even noticed me.One down, seven to go.
