Jimmy started crying, begging for his life.
I closed my eyes and saw Sasha. Her hair would whip in the wind so wild, she would threaten to cut it. And on our best days, I would tell her no, that it was beautiful, and she’d smile so damn big. We’d had our problems, but her light shouldn’t have been extinguished by a man like him. I snapped my eyes open. “You took what was mine, Jimmy.”
“I didn’t. She said you weren’t with her anymore. She said—”
I let the chain fall from the cuff of my long-sleeved shirt. The clank of the rusted metal on the cement revved the beast in me.
Jimmy’s rapid breathing turned to a wheeze at the sight of my chain, and he recoiled in his chair. “Please, Rome. Don’t do this to me. Don’t turn on me when I’ve been family—”
Letting him finish the sentence and use our family as a negotiation card would have been criminal. You can only hold back a monster for so long. I whipped the chain forcefully enough across his face that it tore away most of his cheek.
Some men believed in waiting a few minutes to let the pain sink in, but I piled it on. Pulling a knife from my pocket, I shoved it into his thigh. His scream fed my need to torture.
“Did she beg for her life? Tell me you made it easy on her.” My plea was real. I whispered the last word, “Please.”
“Rome, I swear it was quick. I shot her, man. I shot her, and she was gone pretty fast. I—”
“Where?”
“Huh?”
“Where did you shoot her?” I weighed the knife in my hand. It was nice and balanced. I’d had it sharpened just a week ago. It’d cut through his flesh precisely.
“Her stomach.”
“Right where she was growing my baby?” I asked so softly, some members leaned forward to hear me. “Right in the place where your stomach acid can eat away at your body for as long as an hour before you die?”
“It wasn’t that long. I . . . the baby was mine,” he blubbered as I stood over him.
I glanced around the room. Mario was shaking his head, and Cade and Bastian glared at the man in front of me. Everyone either squirmed in their seat because they normally didn’t handle the killing or they looked on excitedly to see the fucker go. When I met his girlfriend’s gaze, I glanced back at him. “What if your little woman over there was pregnant and I gutted her like a fucking fish?”
For a moment, he looked hopeful. “You mean like one for one? I’d be hurt, Rome.” He looked at her with a love so fake I almost laughed at it. “If that’s what it takes, though . . .”
I turned my head toward Katalina. She lifted an eyebrow at me, completely and utterly unfazed by the turn of events. Her mouth kicked up in one corner, and she looked as though she dared me to try.
“Were you part of this, Katie?” I tilted my head toward Jimmy, knowing he was dead as a doornail either way but wanting to know if I needed to kill her too. I would kill everyone to avenge my child.
“Part of my boyfriend continually cheating on me with your girlfriend?” She asked the question in disbelief. A scoff left her mouth, and her face twisted as if she were sick to her stomach before she whispered, “Seriously? Does it even matter?”
I shook my head. This was the shit no person should be a part of. The mob afforded you luxuries, but it plagued you with despondency too.
“The truth will come to light,” she muttered.
“My truth is in his death,” I replied.
She shrugged her shoulders like him dying didn’t mean a thing to her. “No skin off my back.”
“You little bitch!” he spat.
I cut into his stomach. He gasped and scrambled to cover the blood gushing out.
“You reap what you sow. Your stomach acid will kill you if the lack of blood in your veins doesn’t first.”
“You’re fucked in the head.” Tears sprang to Jimmy’s eyes as they bulged at the amount of blood soaking through his shirt. “Sasha told me how you killed all those people, how you’re a monster. She was fucking happy that baby had a chance of not being yours, and I bet she was thankful I killed them both, because a baby by you—”
I took his arm and yanked him off his chair. I snapped the shoulder out of place and sat on his back. I didn’t give him time to recover, jamming the knife into it. “I want you to know that as you’re lying facedown on the cement, you’re getting stabbed in the back just like you stabbed us all in the back.” I got up and let him blubber in his own blood. I walked to Katalina and crossed my arms over my chest. “Want to kiss him goodbye?”
She unfolded her legs. She wore tight dark jeans and pink stilettos that matched her sweater. Suddenly, the stilettos looked fierce, like she’d walked in with sheep’s clothing and now gave me a glimpse of the wolf beneath. Even with those heels, the top of her head barely reached my chin. Still, she went toe-to-toe with me. “I always see my men off. Haven’t you heard?”