The others trailed behind, too lazy for the hunt.
It’d be just me, Greg, and Harper. My father bailed without a word.
Now it was just the two of us, the room thick with cigar smoke and barely contained hate.
“She was a good fuck,” Greg finally said, like it meant nothing. “Got too clingy, though. You’d think a woman her age would act her damn years. Still, you killing her? That shit’s been bugging me.”
There it fucking was.
I took a slow drag, letting the smoke burn in my lungs before exhaling toward him. “Ah, my bad.”
Why stop there?
“If it can make you feel worse,” I said, leaning forward just enough, “she was crying for you right before I put a bullet here.” I tapped my forehead.
He scoffed. “Poor girl.”
But the way his jaw tightened? That crack in his mask? I saw it.
He wasn’t as unaffected as he wanted me to believe.
It almost made me smile.
Almost.
I leaned back, letting the cigar burn between my fingers.
“Should’ve kept her in line. Might’ve saved her life.”
He leaned forward just a fraction, eyes narrowing. “And what’s gonna save yours?”
I let my smirk deepen. “Nothing, Greg. Just like nothing’s fucking saving yours.”
I extinguished the cigar with a deliberate twist, the embers fizzling out like the last shreds of mercy I’d ever had.
Rising, I towered over him, fists clenched tight—like I was holding back something far worse.
I didn’t spare him a glance as I walked out, but the words still burned my throat.
I’d tear him apart, piece by fucking piece.
And when I was done, he’d beg for death to take him—because it would be the only mercy left.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.”
? André Malraux
Jade
I sighed, feeling like I’d just completed a marathon in heels. My feet were screaming, my back drenched from hours of parade-walking through luxury stores with velvet ropes at the entrances.
We’d tried on enough outfits to open a boutique, and my arms were about to fall off from hauling all the bags.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a new wardrobe, but Monica Lazzio?