Page 83 of Shadow Man

“On the bed, against the wall… I’m not sure Eve will appreciate us fucking in her kitchen, though.” Her laughter breaks through her battle lines.

“Then we need our own kitchen someday.”

“Maybe we do.”

There’s a pause as she traces my jaw with her fingers. “You may have this big, frozen wall around your heart, Joseph Grayson, but it was still big enough to beat for the both of us when—”

“Oh, stop with the bullshit,” drawls a bored voice. “He’s just some lucky asshole who drinks all of my bourbon and aims a gun better than me.” Dante’s standing across the aisle, arms crossed, one eyebrow cocked in disdain. “When you two have finished sucking each other off, you might want to notice we’ve landed. My wife is waiting for me, and it’s been a while since my dick has enjoyed the same attention.”

“Youstillcan't help yourself, can you, Santiago?” Anna glares at him as she unclips her belt. “Third time’s a charm, you know?” She waves her fist in his direction with a scowl.

“If it means not having to listen to you word vomit for hours on end, then go right ahead,” he responds dryly.

“What’s that?” I say, pointing to the iPad in his hand.

“New trouble,” he says, holding it out to me. “Roman Peters believes we have issues in New York again. Some Bratva piece of shit called Benni Morozov who’s not staying dead.”

“Want me to handle it?” I rise to my feet and scan my eyes over the email from the FBI special agent.

“We’ll monitor it. If needs be, I’ll let Sanders know.”

“And Colombia?”

“I’ve giving Viviana an army and a month to introduce the new Santiago cartel order. If she can’t fortify the distribution channels in that time, we’ll think again.”

I watch him exit the jet into Eve’s waiting arms, suppressing another smirk as he spins his wife around on the spot like a lovesick fool.

“Do you think Eve and I will ever be close again?” asks Anna anxiously, following my gaze. “We haven’t spoken in so long…”

“Don’t sweat it.” I draw her into my embrace, feeling her arms twist around my waist as she seeks out my reassurance. “Good friends always stay close, no matter what the fucking distance is.”

“True,” she whispers, placing her cheek against my chest. “But shadows stay even closer.”

Epilogue

One month later

It’s past midnight. The warehouses are deathly silent. The light rests on the surface of the water like a vengeance that never dies.

I’m tempted to dive in and disperse the worst of it. Then I remember what he’s done. What they’ve all done, and I resolve to leave the diving to those who still have a splash of morality left in this world.

I hear the car pulling up behind me, followed by the heavy slam of a door. The click clack of his metal cane shoots sparks off the concrete while I stand and wait for him. As he draws closer, I hear snatches of his labored breathing, courtesy of the lung surgery and the tracheostomy he required after the first three bullets hit the side of his face and chest. The subsequent two hit him in the thigh, crippling his walk indefinitely. He’s adapted to his new body, though. He’s grown in so many other ways.

“Viviana,” he greets gruffly, his accent still thick and generous, despite living these past two years in the healing environment of the sunshine state. “You did well,mi vida. You befriended the weakness, perverted it to your advantage, and now you’ve rooted yourself in the organization like a festering, weeping sore. I couldn’t be more proud of you if you’d killed them yourself.”

I turn to face him, recoiling slightly as I always do. The day they killed him, they let the monster on the inside climb out and obliterate his skin with scars.

But he didn’t die.

Not completely.

They left him in a lake of blood when they dived headfirst into the same stretch of water running alongside us. They never checked to see if he was striking a bargain with another devil in his stillness.

He bought his anonymity and freedom from a crooked system.

He paid handsomely to disappear back into the shadows.

And now he’s back to reap the revenge we both so richly deserve.

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