Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
One man lay on the ground, unmoving. Another man sat on top of him, still ripping a pocket knife out of the body below him.
Even with the movement, blood was flung everywhere, splattering across the face of one of those creepy antique dolls that gave even me the heebie-jeebies.
It was even creepier now, dripping actual blood over its lily-white skin, making it look all the more grotesque.
My gaze slid back down to the guy all in black with black-and-white face makeup.
The knife was still in his hand, the entire thing soaked in blood, dripping at a lazy pace onto the floor.
The guy himself was panting, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
And it was no wonder.
The body under him? He’d been stabbed dozens of times.
Those eyes stared unblinking up at the ceiling out from an all-too-familiar face.
A movement at my side had me looking over at Dom, who nodded to the side.
Turning, I saw Hazel standing there, frozen in place.
“Fuck,” I hissed.
There was no protecting her from this, no trying to paint over the gritty reality of my life and my profession when it was spread out before her in vivid detail.
I watched, though, as her shock seemed to morph into something else. Something more calm, more accepting?
No.
That couldn’t be it.
“Ant,” she said, her voice low, but the kid heard it, his head whipping up. “You saved me,” she said. “I thought it might be you, but you saved me.”
The kid moved slowly, stretching up to his feet with the predatory grace of a cat, and turned to face Hazel.
“You did good,” he said, giving her a nod. “But you’re bleeding,” he added, taking a step toward her.
“Don’t touch her,” I snapped, moving closer.
His gaze slid up from Hazel’s bloody neck to me.
His hands spread, the knife pressed to his palm with just the pressure of his thumb.
“I wouldn’t hurt her. I know she’s yours.”
“And how would you know that?” I asked.
To that, a smirk twisted up on his features, made almost menacing by the face paint. “Well, I just meant that she worked here, for you. But it’s good information to clock away that she’s yours-yours.”
“Why are you storing anything away?” Domenico asked, grabbing the kid’s wrist hard enough that it had to hurt, but Ant didn’t even flinch. Dom took the knife, dropping it down onto the body.
“Because that’s how you get the attention of an organization as insulated as this one,” Ant said, shrugging.
“Did you kill Big Ed?” I asked.
“No,” he and Hazel said in unison.
“No,” Hazel repeated. “He,” she said, gesturing toward the body without looking at it, “did it. He said so before… before I got away.”
“We gotta contain this,” Dom said when we all heard the laughter of some of the other employees moving around outside.
“I got it,” Hazel said, nodding.
“No, babe. I should take you home. Get you—”
“I got it,” she repeated, chin lifting higher. “I will send everyone home. Then you can do… whatever it is you need to do.”
Without waiting for any more objections from me, she turned and walked out the door.
I could hear her voice rise to be heard over the other voices, but I couldn’t make out anything she said.
“You can lock me in here if you need to call the boss and shit,” Ant offered.
“Who the fuck is this kid?” Dom asked, voicing what I was wondering too.
“Ant. Ant Marino. Antonio, if we’re being specific. But I haven’t ever gone by that.”
“Marino,” I repeated. That was an Italian last name, though it didn’t ring any specific bells for me.
“My old man’s old man worked for your boss’s old man back in the day. Took one to the back of the head during that war with the Russians. My gran panicked, thinking they’d come for the family next, and moved the family out of the area.”
“Then why are you back?” Dom asked.
“Saw more of a future here than I did over in Bumfuck Nowhere, Wyoming.”
“Fair,” Dom said, shrugging. “And once I got here, I figured I’d shoot my shot.”
“By working as a performer in the woods?”
“By keeping an eye on the place, seeing where I might be able to fit in. Figured if I saw you often enough, I might gain some favor.”
“And what about this? What happened here?” I asked, waving toward the body.
“I saw Hazel take over for Brit. Then once the last group came out, she went in. Then I saw one of your guys go in.”
“What made you go in too?”
“Dunno if you’ve ever seen a guy about to do some shady shit, but I have. Fuck looked like a cartoon villain, half going in, checking both directions, then slipping inside. Suspicious as fuck. So I went in just to see what was up. Didn’t expect to see him scoping out Hazel, creeping up on her and shit.”