Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Nero’s throat dried, and he glanced at the bottle of soda resting at his feet, unsure whether he wanted to drink something a stranger had been consuming fuck knew how long ago. It could as well be piss for all he knew. “I’m sorry. My father… the whole cartel destroyed the lives of many people. I guess not many are as determined as you.”
“The other men who participated in the massacre are dead. Raul Moreno was the last on my list. But I’m hardly an angel. What he did set me and my mother on a path that has no happy ending and destroyed many lives in the process. There is no redemption in violence.”
Nero watched Miguel’s Adam’s apple when he inhaled the smoke and once again noticed the date tattooed on Miguel’s neck. If that was when he’d first killed, then he must have committed the murder at a very young age.
“Will you—” The image of Miguel putting a gun to his own head flashed through Nero’s mind, and he cleared his throat, eager to remind Miguel that there was more to life than revenge. This man was damaged by what had happened to him in the past, but it would have been a waste if he just ended things instead of starting afresh. “I’m sure your mother is waiting for you at home.”
Miguel shook his head. “She doesn’t need me anymore. She’ll hear about today’s outcome soon enough, and understand what happened. For years now, I planned to put a bullet in Raul Moreno, and then go to the closest cemetery, find an empty grave and lie down there. I don’t want some innocent person to find me, but gravediggers are accustomed to death.” He exhaled and passed his gaze over Nero’s face. “Don’t worry, I can wait.”
Discomfort twisted Nero’s guts, but he put on a smile and slapped his grim companion’s thigh as they passed a village with a name on a road sign. “Is that what your father and sisters would have wanted for you?”
“They’re dead, Nero. It doesn’t matter what they might want. I became what my mother needed me to be, and now I’m done,” he said and glanced at the map. Nero was beginning to understand why Miguel was the way he was if he lived dipped in this kind of emotional tar.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t turn into something else. We had fun those past two nights, didn’t we?”
“So? We were passing the time. I’m not gonna say no to a glass of good tequila just because I know the joy won’t last. Until earlier today I didn’t even know I’d be seeing the Cannibal.”
“But you did. Life’s full of surprises. You never know what’s behind the corner. Did you never dream of anything?” Nero asked, shocked by the extent of Miguel’s nihilism. He considered himself a cynic, but this took the cake.
Miguel pointed to the left when they hit a fork in the road but seemed thoughtful as he chewed the cigarette hanging off his lip. “I never thought beyond Raul’s death. It didn’t seem to matter.”
“But you still have a mother. She must miss you if you’re her only remaining kid,” Nero said, even though he had never experienced a loving home and based his assumptions on what he’d seen on TV.
“I did what she wanted me to, that will be enough for her. Stop pressing. What is this interrogation? Since when do you care if I go home or not?” Miguel asked, shooting Nero a dark glare.
“I don’t know, Miguel,” Nero snapped as they passed a little supermarket on the outskirts of the village they’d rather not be seen in. “Maybe because you’ve grown on me.”
Miguel slouched and glanced his way, unreadable as any other reptile. “Like a tumor. I ruined your life today.”
Nero scowled. “Maybe. But maybe you just freed me. When we were in the air, I had the time to ask myself why hadn’t I done it myself.”
“Why haven’t you, if it’s what you wanted?”
Because a part of Nero was afraid of Father the same way he had been as a child.
But that wasn’t something he was willing to share. “I don’t know.”
“Lazy,” Miguel answered for him, as if it was his job to antagonize Nero even though they worked so well together.
Nero shrugged. “And killing yourself isn’t? You could have a family. Start over.”
He must have hit a nerve because Miguel lost his cool and slapped his hand against the dashboard. “Let’s get this over with once and for all! There will be no family! I’m a fucking faggot, Nero! I’m not starting a family, I’m not going back home to disappoint my mother, and I’m fucked up, okay? I don’t know how to be this! I don’t want to deal with it!” He shoved the cigarette out of the window and grabbed another, flushing deeply. He looked like a stick of dynamite and the lighter in his hand was mortal danger.