Page 186 of Creep

He let out a small grunt, and I turned him around, coming face to face with Salvatore Gallo, Miguel Gallo’s heir. The fucker took me in with a look in his eyes that could only be described as fear and arrogance.

Something that was only borne from men who had lived most of their lives being able to get whatever the fuck they wanted.

He wasn’t innocent.

It didn’t matter to me if he was or not. After all, he was merely a stepping stone I needed to get into the skin trade Leo and Luckas were involved with.

But I was telling the truth when I told Lia I didn’t fuck with people who didn’t have skin in the game.

And Salvatore’s skin was so drenched deep in the game, I could see the filth coming off him. I was sure all those people he hurt and terrorized wouldn’t miss him.

“Who the fuck are you?” he asked.

I laughed just as Theo came up to me and handed his gun over. I pointed the gun at his chest. “No one you need to worry about,” I said, pulling the trigger. Blood splattered out from the fucker and onto me. I stayed there on top of him for a moment or two, catching my breath and taking in all the mess beneath me. I hadn’t touched his face, nor did I go my usual route and put a bullet in his head, considering I wanted him to be recognizable for Tacchini.

The bastard looked just like his father.

Unlike his father, he didn’t have the same cunningness that old man Gallo had when he had been Salvatore’s age. Instead, what Salvatore had was a propensity for booze, drugs, and women he could use and hurt, including his young wife back home.

I was thrown out of my thoughts when a bag fell beside me. Theo had grabbed my tools from the car. We worked fast.

There might not be another soul around, but it helped not to linger.

I used the saw and cut off the fucker's head, which took a good amount of time. It wasn’t like cutting through all the flesh and bones was easy. My muscles strained, and I could feel sweat gathering on my back. After, I put it in a waterproof bag. No liquid would leak out this time.

Then, we worked to destroy the body and cleared up all the evidence that could be left behind at the scene. It was late by the time we finished, and I was fucking exhausted. All I wanted to do was get home to Lia, but there was still shit to do. It was only a few hours before the sun rose. I didn’t have much time to prepare before I needed to show up at the location.

Theo turned and looked at me. “Now what?”

I watched him, thinking. Theo was right. The fucking mob was too big for just the two of us to take down. Luckily, I knew another organization who wanted to take these fuckers down even more than I did.

I stood up and patted his cheek affectionately. No matter how many years had passed, I still couldn’t see him as anything else but that lost, scared boy who had followed me around since the moment he was put into the system.

“Now, we call our friends at the FBI.”

47

MAEL

I came to the location.It was remote, empty, and, as I had already guessed, nowhere near where the fucker was holding the women.

The only people around were Tacchini himself and a handful of guards. The fucker wasn’t stupid. He came prepared. And he wouldn’t be easy to kill.

I threw the head down at his shoes. He looked down at it and smiled a little before bending down and unzipping the bag. The ugly mug of Salvatore Gallo came out.

“I did as you asked. Your turn.”

The fucker laughed. I resisted pulling out my knife and plunging it deep into his heart.

“Not yet. You thought a couple of heads would get you in the door?”

I crossed my arms over my chest casually and looked at him. “What would get me in?”

“Patience, Beckett. Why don’t you do me a few more favors, yeah?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. I hadn’t thought it was going to be easy. But the fucker was really testing me.

“Fine, a few more favors.”

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