Page 24 of Possessed
“You can’t…you can’t fucking get away with this!” he snarls.
“Really?” I say drily. “What would make you think that?”
He shakes his head wildly. The gunfire in the background has taken a fresh surge as my team gets in on the action. Raoul’s machine pistols chatter wildly, and I hear the answering fire from the Russians. Unless they’ve brought in a goddamn tank, my men will keep them busy there while I deal with fucking Eduardo.
“But I’m family, goddammit,” Eduardo wheedles. He backs against the raw brick wall of a nearby building. His eyes dart about as he looks frantically around him. But there’s nowhere to go now. He’s staring down the barrel of my gun, and cousin or not, it’s not wavering.
“You’re no family of mine,” I snap back.
Realizing he can’t play that card, Eduardo changes tactics. “You spoiled little shit,” he snarls. “You had everything going for you with this thing of ours. You were a made man…had everything I ever fought for…and yet here you stand, pissing it away.”
“I mademyself, you cunt,” I snarl. “This world you fight for…this…” I sweep my hand to where bodies are scattered. “This is bullshit.” I spit on the floor, trying to clear the copper tang from my mouth. “This world is all about pain and torture. You deal in death, selling lives, peddling poison to kids. The only thing I don’t understand is how you’ve blinded my father to how evil you are.”
“Fuck you!” he roars, then lunges at me. I barely blink as I put a slug in his thigh. He drops to the floor, clutching his leg. He doesn’t scream, though; I have to give him credit for that. When he glares up at me again, he’s grinning insanely.
“You think you’re so fucking smart,” he sneers. “Your dear old Papa keeps us around becauseweknow where the fucking bodies are buried.”
I shrug. It’s no surprise to me that my father’s a killer. I learned my trade at his knee.
“What of it?” I say. I aim the gun barrel to a point in the center of his chest.
“And you…you’re just like him,” Eduardo continues. “Trusting the wrong people.” His chuckle is hoarse, pure evil. “Like that rat you keep at your side.” I feel my aim waver. What the fuck is he talking about? His expression changes as he realizes he’s struck a nerve. “You think that fucker is your friend? That smug cunt you call your ‘second’?” He laughs again. Is he talking about Mateo? The idea’s ridiculous. Mateo Ricci’s been my right hand since I left my father’s empire. We’ve been joined at the hip…he breathes my fucking air, goddammit.
“Bullshit!” I snap back. “You’ll say anything to try to get to me.”
“You’re right,” he says. “But it’s true – the fucker’s been playing you. Anyhow, if I really wanted to get to you, what I’d tell you…” he starts to laugh. “What I’d tell you is that among those bodies we buried is your own sainted mother.”
My heart fucking stops.
“You…you fucking liar!” I roar, feeling the pistol recoil as I put another bullet in his other thigh. Eduardo screams this time, but the sound gurgles with maniacal laughter beneath it.
“You don’t believe me, you fool? Where’d you think she’s been all these years? Retired in Florid?” He laughs again. “Your papa fucking killed her, man; slit her throat. They stuck her in the sand twenty miles outta town.” I’m shaking my head, fighting back pain and rage as he cackles at me. And then the sound is drowned out as a light sweeps from overhead, and a voice rings out over a loudspeaker. Sirens wail in the distance. The gunfire had distracted me from the sound of looming helicopter blades. Or maybe it was the pounding of my heart in my ears that drowned it out. Eduardo has slumped back against the wall, his face ashen. Yet he’s still fucking grinning.
“Say goodbye to your freedom, cousin,” he rasps out. “Looks like your friend just sold you out.”
