Page 48 of Shadow Man

“That’s it.”

“Will you ever tell me why I was stolen by Bratva?” I blurt out, needing confirmation suddenly. “I’m assuming it was Bratva… Nice Russian men don’t tend to rape and humiliate you for days and days.”

My admittance is so heavy it forces both of our gazes to the floor.

“It was the same trafficking ring that Santiago and I were targeting last year, yes,” he admits reluctantly. “The same group Eve infiltrated in Miami... They got to you through her.” He shifts his weight, and I know he’s lying about something.

“Why didn't you tell me this before?”

He shrugs.

That’s it? That’s all I’m worth?

“You said I was ‘making my own right’ earlier. Is that what you’re doing now?”Are you trying to make up for something, Joseph?

“I try.” His mask slips again, and I see the wasteland of the war he wages with himself. He was a US Marine once. Decorated. Honorable. Eve told me all about it. It’s where he met Dante: The man who turns everything he touches to darkness. “I mitigate the damage where I can. When I kill, I kill for a reason. It wasn’t always that way.”

Bruised.The word hits me out of nowhere. It’s what he is. He’s damaged fruit. Below his surface, he’s as mutilated as I am.

The door opens. Vi reappears, out of breath and with a roll of black gaffer tape in her hand. I lift the gun back to shoulder height just in time.

“Found this in the trunk,” she announces. “Let’s tie him up and go.”

20

Joseph

Iwait until I hear the screech of tires outside, and then I’m ripping off the gaffer tape that’s binding my hands and my feet together. I don’t know whether Anna wound it too thin on purpose, or if she underestimated my strength. Either way, I’m free in a matter of seconds.

I must be out of my mind letting her leave like this. Outside, Colombia is descending into a cloud of cartel gun smoke. Fernandez is already hurling accusations at Gomez and the rest ofLos Cinco Grandes. Retaliation is the word on the street in every city across the country, and it has only been a matter of hours since the bodies were discovered. In a day, the same streets will flow with blood. Governments will fall for this. Corruption will rise. This is a chess game where every player chooses white. He who controls the coke channels, controls this place. I should know. This was my fucking life before Dante and I walked away from it.

But amid all the chaos, she’s coming back to life out here. She’s a butterfly emerging from a blood-soaked chrysalis, and it’s stunning to watch. She killed to defend herself, she snatched the power back for herself, and that’s the most beautiful metamorphosis of all.

I’m high on it.

Willing to take chances for it.

Willing to piss Dante off for it.

I’m slackening her leash and keeping my distance. I say slackening… I’m not letting her off it completely. I know where she’s going, or I will when I pull up the stats on the GPS tracking device I attached to the wheelbase of Gomez’s car. As soon as I have a location, I’ll be building an invisible fortress around her. I can only give her four days grace before Dante arrives, but it’s a start. It’s a show of fucking faith.

I rise to my feet and roll my aching shoulders back. The room still smells of vanilla, orange blossom and sex. When she screamed my name earlier, when her fingers unleashed those six months of hurt and suppression, I found myself palming her cunt to get a taste of it. Feeling her throb against my skin had nearly undone me. Being that close to her had damn near consumed me.

And then she asked the question.

Bratva.

Did I know more?I know everything. Is guilt one of the seven deadly sins? If not, then it should be.

My cell starts ringing as I’m walking out of the door.

“Dante.”

“Grayson. I’ve put the word out to the Five that we had nothing to do with Santa Perdito.”

“Think they’ll buy it?”

“They better,” he says coldly. “If shit doesn’t die down, I’ll be joining you at that table in a couple of days.”

---