Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
He tightened his jaw and looked down at the table. “I broke up you and Isabella.”
“And you felt like shit about it and still do. You are not him, Edric. You feel remorse and guilt and empathy. You are not a psychopath.”
“You did call me a narcissist.”
“A narcissist is not a psychopath. And you aren’t a narcissist either, because you care. You care about me and your family, okay? I’m sorry I said that.”
He moved his arms to the surface of the table, hunched forward slightly.
“We’ve both made good money. Let’s open a business together.”
“So I can run it into the ground?”
“Keep that attitude, and you’re going to manifest your worst fears, Edric. And for the other thing you just said . . . are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“I fully admit I’ve lost it with this one.”
I was shocked the Skull King even had a wife. Didn’t seem like someone who would even entertain marriage.
“We crossed paths, one thing led to another, it just happened.”
“Does anyone else know?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then end it. End it now.”
“It’s complicated—”
“Your life is literally on the line. It’s not that complicated.”
“She didn’t want to marry him. It was an arranged marriage sort of thing. She doesn’t love him but he’s obsessed with her, and . . . we just connect. She’s not just some woman I’m sleeping with.”
“Jesus Christ, Edric. You’re doing it again.”
“Doing what again?”
“You only want what you can’t have. Isabella and now this woman. You don’t actually give a damn. You like being able to play house without having to pay the mortgage. You like the intimacy without the commitment. Because you know it can’t go anywhere. Because you know it’s doomed. But in this case, you aren’t doomed—you’re dead.”
He dropped his face into his hands and ran his fingers deep through his hair. “Yeah . . . maybe you’re right.”
“End it and leave the Skull Kings.”
“I don’t know if I can leave.”
“If he doesn’t even know who you are, you can probably slip out. Cosa Nostra will protect you if there’s trouble.”
“They won’t do shit for me.”
“But they’ll do it for me,” I said. “So tell me you’re going to end it.”
His face was still in his hands.
“Edric.”
He gave a sigh and finally straightened. “Yeah, I’ll end it.”
“Edric.”
“I said I’ll fucking end it.”
Prologue VI
Constantine
I sat in the car, all the lights off because I’d been sitting at the curb for hours.
Finally, my target left the closed restaurant and got into his Bentley.
I watched him drive up the street before I fired off a text. On the move.
When his taillights started to fade, I started the car and pulled onto the road. The road he was on came to a three-way stop, and I took another street so I’d come out on his left and look less conspicuous.
When I got there, he’d just finished his pause at the stop sign, then continued on his way.
I turned right and pulled in behind him.
Then my phone rang, and I saw Edric’s name on the screen. I ignored his call and directed it to voicemail because I was busy.
But he called again. “Jesus, what?” I answered the call and put it on speaker. “I’m busy right now, Edric.”
“He knows, and he’s coming to kill me,” he said breathlessly, like he was literally sprinting down the street.
I immediately pulled the car over, abandoning the operation in the blink of an eye. “All right, I’ll get there as fast as I can. What’s your move?”
“I don’t fucking know. Run and hide.” He hung up.
I immediately called Tommaso, who probably wasn’t even awake right now. It was one in the morning, and he usually sent the rest of us out to do these kinds of operations. But he answered and spoke normally. “What is it, Con?”
“The Skull King is about to kill my brother, and I need your help.”
“My help?”
I pulled back onto the road and headed to the airport, where our stash of planes was parked. “You know I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t have to.” I wasn’t enough of a force to oppose the Skull King. He’d cut me open and hang me to bleed in his meat locker.
“I warned you—”
“I told him to get out, but he didn’t listen.”
“Then that’s not my problem, Con. He made his decision.”
“Well, I’m headed to the airport because I’m not going to let my brother die. So if you don’t want me to fucking die too, then you better help me.”
It was less than an hour flight there, but it was even quicker than that because we were able to just take off and push the engines faster than air traffic controllers would normally allow—but no one was on duty at the moment.
We landed in Florence, had our connections pick us up in SUVs already loaded with guns, and we headed into the heart of the city.