Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 151410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151410 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
I kissed her, smiling bitterly against her lips. “If you knew the chaos in my head, you’d give me up.”
“Like you so easily do with me because I’m inconsequential to you.” Her voice was harsh, and she was trying to make her face seem that way too. Rory was many things, but harsh wasn’t one of them. She wasn’t a good liar either, which made it even worse that I forced her to lie constantly.
“You aren’t inconsequential to me, Rory,” I said harshly. If she were, I wouldn’t be scared shitless of what I might do.
“Your actions speak louder than your words.”
She pulled away, but I wouldn’t let her. I tightened my hold on her. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to try. You’re not even trying. You just follow your impulses. You don’t try to be a father to Battista, and you’re not trying to give us a chance.” Aurora’s lips thinned as if she regretted her own words.
I leaned my forehead against hers. “You shouldn’t ask that of me.”
“Why not?” she asked angrily.
“Because for you, I might actually do it. For you, I’ll try.”
Not even twenty-four hours after I’d given Aurora my promise to try for her, to allow something between us to bloom, to take responsibility not just for Battista but also for my emotions and for her, I’d gone on one of the biggest killing sprees of my life. Maybe it had been inevitable.
It was as if my monstrous side had feared being caged in and gone rampant to prove who was still running the show, and it was definitely a side of me that wasn’t fit for a relationship of any form.
Battista and Aurora deserved better. My family deserved better. Hell, even the Camorra deserved better.
I was covered in blood from head to toe, could feel it stick to my face, my eyelids, my lashes. The world around me was cloaked in a pink mist because blood even covered my goddamn eyeballs.
I watched the droplets of blood dripping from my soaked pants and dropping to the floor.
A police officer stepped up to the cell. Young. Overmotivated. Arrogant. Maybe a bit sadistic. I watched him from the corner of my eye. Police had picked me up at the scene of the carnage. I’d sat among the dead bodies and allowed the police to take me with them. I’d been high on adrenaline. If you could overdose on bloodlust, then that had definitely been the moment, but other than with drugs, I hadn’t died. At least not my body. Maybe a part of me had, though. Who could really say? My brain was still too much of a mess to analyze anything.
“We should hose him off,” the young officer said. “Get him out of those clothes and give him a long cold shower.” The excitement in his voice was unmistakable.
“I won’t go in there,” the older officer said. He’d avoided me as if I were the devil. They probably thought I was possessed. “And you better not either.”
“Come on. We’re armed, and he’s not. He’s a spoiled brat, but without his dad here, what can he do? He’s at our mercy.”
I watched their interaction through half closed eyes.
“Bernie, you need to learn a thing or two. You’re new.”
Bernie scoffed. “You mean bow down to the mob?”
The older officer sighed. “Just don’t go in there.” He turned and walked out of the cell block, leaving young, naive Bernie alone with me and a couple of drunkards in neighboring cells.
Bernie stepped closer to the bars with a nasty grin. I didn’t move and stared at my blood-covered hands. “Not so loudmouthed now?” he taunted. I didn’t remember being loudmouthed. Usually, I was silent and lethal.
“You should listen to your colleague,” I murmured.
He grabbed the keys and pulled the taser gun. Unlocking the door, he pointed the taser gun at me and stepped into the cell. Without warning, he shot the taser at me. The wire shot out and the two darts hit my shoulder. My muscles flexed uncontrollably as electricity coursed through my body. My teeth clanged together, and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth as I tried to regain control over my body. My breathing stuttered as I fought to stay on the bench and not topple over.
With a grunt, I forced one arm up and ripped the darts from my body. One of them hadn’t penetrated my skin fully, which was probably why I could move and didn’t have to wait for a break in the electric impulses.
I jerked to my feet and pulled at the wire. Bernie stumbled forward before the wire tore apart. In two steps, I was by his side, grabbed his arm and head and flung him toward the wall. His shoulder blade and chin bone collided with a satisfying crunch with the concrete. His answering roar of pain made me smile. I jerked his head back so his agony-stricken eyes met mine. “Time to play, motherfucker.”