“If we’re going to do this, we’d need supplies.”
“I’ve taken care of everything.” He smiled wide. “Just meet here tonight at eight and be ready.”
I lost count at how many lives we took that trip; it took weeks to get the smell of blood off my skin. After the first few kills with my bare hands, I started to feel alive again. I tapped into a part of me that I refused to acknowledge when Sienna was near. We were young, but I knew there was a part of me that was different. She made my life seem so much better, lighter, when she was with me. But now, she was gone and Tieri was right. Beating the Coppolas out of that land, then tipping off my father so he made his move and claimed the land as ours was a sweet victory.
There were a few times when I’d lose myself in a kill. I wasn’t blind to everything, and I did notice that Tieri would slip away occasionally, and once I caught him looking at me with a strange expression almost as though he wondered if I’d noticed his absence. Maybe I should have questioned what he was up to then, but I really didn’t care. I was happy getting my next fix feeding lives to the reaper.
Papa never asked questions when we returned, although he did mention some articles he’d read in the local paper about the Santoro Brothers. I thought a part of him knew, but he also would have understood I needed something to slap me out of the state I was in. He knew I needed to live in the dark now.
“There’s that look again,” Vinni muttered as he loudly sucked the last part of his drink through the straw, bringing me back to the present. “The one that says you’re here but you’re really not.”
“How can you put that shit in your body?” I ignored his comment as I dropped the rest of my sandwich in the trash bin and brushed my fingers clean. Vinni shrugged as he finished off his second burger from McDonald’s then homed in on the fries. My stomach rolled at the thought of that disgusting fast-food inside me, and I spun the rest of my water in the bottom of the bottle.
“I have to fuel up for tonight.” He grinned as he used his teeth to bite a hole in the ketchup pouch and spread it in a line across a fry. “Mona is coming in from town, and she’s hungry.”
“Birthday Mona?” I asked, referring to the girl Niccola had gotten him for his birthday.
“Yup.”
“Mona? The one Niccola test drove?”
“I’ve gotten past that on account of she’s so bendy and is willing to try just about anything.”
“I see.” My water bottle joined my sandwich in the waste bin, and I rested my arms on my thighs, feeling the stress. I’d hatched a plan with The Finder after his visit to my office. We’d decided it was time to throw off Nonna so she’d focus on me and not Sienna.
“Has Ugo checked in?” He lowered his voice when Sofia waved at us from the parking lot. We often ate lunch outside of the office, needing a break from the phones and chaos of inside.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“And?”
“She settled in well and is starting to dig around.”
“Figures. She adapts well to change.” He licked his fingers and paused for a moment while he thought. “Does she want kids?” I shot him a strange look. “Have you guys ever talked about that?”
“I don’t know.” I looked away, feeling uncomfortable. “I guess we’re just trying to get us right before that conversation can happen.”
“Mm.” He nodded, and I stood, not wanting to talk about this with him anymore.
“I have a meeting in ten and a date tonight, so…” I wanted to worm right out of my skin at what I’d just said. “I’ll see you later.”
“Are we still doing to the plan at Non—”
“Yeah.”
“I planted the—”
“Good.” I cut him off again.
“Okay, then. I’ll see you later.”
I dressed in my Keton suit, the same one I wore at the murder of Bria and Roberto. If I was going to do this, I needed to make it look legit. Nonna knew fashion, and she would be expecting me to dress my best to impress my date. Opening my top drawer, I pulled out my gold cufflinks and inserted them through the little holes in my cuffs.
The whole time I dressed, I kept watch on my other cell phone. Tieri and I had made quite a name for ourselves in the media after the massacres of the Rosario family. Not to mention the odd job we’d done for those who helped us along the way. They never saw our faces; they only knew our voices. Some jobs were bigger than others, but the worst thing was whenSiennahad called. I should have recognized the gasp on the other end, but I didn’t. I’d never forget her hurt and confusion when she approached me on it in the hotel room in New York. I’d also never forget how I downplayed what I did. I was a soulless monster then, and yet she had gotten past it. Along with so many other things, and still I doubted her.
The fact that Tieri had set me up for her to call when she met with him still sat wrong with me. I should have had him killed for that, but The Finder told me to wait. He told me he was looking into something and needed Tieri alive for the time being. I glanced in the mirror and remembered one of my first Rosario family kills. Blood had soaked into my mask, so I’d torn it off, needing air. My knife sliced through his organs like butter. He screamed and cried, but I felt nothing but excitement, happy to be ridding the Earth of one more villain. Tieri was standing across the room from me with a look of satisfaction on his face…or at least that was how I read it at the time.
The sound of a car door opening had my mind shift back to Sienna. I opened the drawer and fingered the cool fabric of her silky teddy. I wasn’t sure how much longer I wanted to do this. I slammed the drawer shut, leaned my arms on the dresser, and bowed my head, mentally preparing myself for what was going to happen tonight.