Adrenaline filled my belly, silencing the hunger pains. My heart was beating so fast I couldn’t concentrate on anything other than trying to assess what his next move would be.
He took the napkin and wiped his face clean before getting up from the chair, straightening his jacket with such confidence, like I didn’t just spit in his face, humiliating him.
Dark eyes met mine. “You might think you proved yourself by doing what you just did, that you showed courage. But you’re wrong.” He started to push the cart out the door before turning back to face me. “The only thing you did was prove you’re not playing with a full deck, little mouse.”
And then the door shut with a loud thud, and the lights went out, leaving me alone in the dark with just the echo of his words.
“Not playing with a full deck…”Someone who lacks intelligence.
Oh God. I just turned up the heat in the hell I was currently in.
Chapter 8
CASTELLO
Staring at my reflection in the mirror, I couldn’t help but think of my brother. It was kind of impossible not to since it was his damn face staring back at me. I couldn’t stop wondering what his motive was for dating Tatum and not telling me about it—not telling anyone, for that matter. Was she just a fuck twice a week, someone to entertain between his sheets? Or did he actually have feelings for her?
Christ. If he had feelings for her, what the hell would he have said and done if he found out what I was doing to her, what kind of plans I had in store for her and her family?
“I’m sorry, brother,” I whispered as I hung my head, gripping the sides of the bathroom sink.
There was a knock on the door, and I turned my head toward it. “Yeah?”
“I’m all set up, Castello.”
“I’ll be right there.”
I gave my reflection one final glance before straightening and squaring my shoulders. I was doing what needed to be done, whether Carlo would have approved or not. Whether he loved her or not, her family killed him, and it was my duty to avenge his death.
Grabbing a towel on my way out of the bathroom, I tossed it around the back of my neck. When I walked into my bedroom, Joey was standing next to the table where he had all hismagical art supplies, as he called them, laid out.
Joey was a local New Yorker, but the best at what he did. With piercings all over his face, tattoos covering almost every inch of his body, Joey showed an extreme commitment to his art.
He eyed me carefully. “You sure you wanna do this? I mean, don’t get me wrong, as it is now, it’s probably my best work yet. But are you sure you want to, you know…add to it?”
I pulled the chair closer, turning it around before taking a backward seat on it. With my back toward him I answered, “Just do it.”
“You sure? It’s kinda permanent, ya know?”
I gave him a sideways glance over my shoulder. “Would you just shut up and do it?”
“Motherfucker,” he muttered behind me before I heard him shuffling around with the tools he had on the table.
I made up my mind about this the day they lowered my brother and father into the ground. This was something I wanted to do for months, and no one would be able to persuade me otherwise.
Joey settled behind me. “There’s no going back when it’s done, my man. Once it’s on there, it’s on there…like, forever.”
My silence gave him his reply, and then the buzzing sound filled the room. With the first touch of the needle against my skin, I flinched, but after that…nothing. I was numb to pain, never allowing myself to acknowledge it. In fact, I embraced it, letting my body absorb every last bite, soaking in the tiniest sting on my flesh.
For two hours, Joey and I sat in silence, the only sound that of the machine forcing the ink under my skin. Joey knew I wasn’t the talking type. Discussing every day, mundane issues wasn’t something I took part in. As a matter of fact, talking would be too distracting, taking my focus away from the hundred thousand times that needle pierced my skin. I didn’t want to miss a fucking moment of it as I engraved my skin with my grief.
“And we’re done.”
Joey moved back, and I rolled my shoulders, easing my stiff muscles.
“You wanna see it before I wrap it?”
“No.”