Page 54 of Chaos & Corruption

“That the best you got, Reggiano? Your girl gave me more hell.” He throws a punch one I dodge as I throw all my weight into him and knock him to the ground. He continues to taunt me about Victoria, and I snap. His voice fades and my ears start to ring as I pummel my fists into his face.

Blood oozes from his mouth.

His nose.

His whole fucking face.

I grab him by the ears, lifting his face to mine.

“Look at me, motherfucker,” I growl. He moans something unintelligible as he tries to open his eyes. When he finally succeeds, I lean in close. “Take a good, long look at my face. I did this to you, and I’ll do it to any one who dares to lay a motherfucking hand on my girl.”

Tear them all to shreds.

“Your girl thinks she’s going to take down the Scorpio Society.” He spits some more blood. “Kill you. Kill her.”

“Not if I kill you first,” I sneer, my grip tightening around his ears. With adrenaline pulsing in my veins, I smash the back of his head onto a boulder.

Once.

Twice.

Over and over.

The ringing in my ears stops just in time for me to hear his skull split open and still I don’t stop smashing his head against the rock. It’s like I’m having some sort of outer body experience. I have no control. Mila shouts at me, but for the life of me I can’t make out what she says, I’m too taken by the blood covering my hands. I release my hold on Jennings just as someone grabs the back of my shirt and pulls me to my feet.

“Jesus. What the fuck did you do, kid?”

I try to catch my breath as I turn around. My eyes dart from Mr. Bianci to Riggs. Behind them that Parrish guy stands with a hysterical Mila. He covers hers eyes and tries to shield from the carnage, but my guess he’s too late.

She just watched me murder Jennings in cold blood. It doesn’t matter that he was her assailant too, she’ll never erase the image from her mind. Every time she looks at me, she’ll see the blood on my hands.

I bring my eyes back to Mr. Bianci.

“It had to be done,” I rasp.

Now, he can never hurt her.

My girl with the mis-matched eyes is safe.

Twenty

Alex Reggiano

An hourago I woke up wishing and praying it was all a dream. I told myself any minute Coach Riley would storm into my room, ordering me to get my ass in gear. That we had a game to win.

But one look at my hands told me otherwise and now I can’t stop staring at the cuts and bruises on my knuckles. I can’t stop reliving every brutal detail from last night. In the back of my head I think I knew it would end like it did, that I would take a life, but I didn’t bank on how I’d feel afterwards. I was too concerned with avenging what happened to Victoria, to acknowledge I’d have to live the rest of my life with someone else’s blood on my hands.

A knock sounds on the door and I tear my eyes away from my hands. Lifting my head, I try stare at the closed door to Victoria’s bedroom and try to find my voice.

After Mr. Bianci pulled me off of Jennings, he ordered Riggs to take me and Mila back to our apartment building. I was covered in blood and there were cameras all over our building. Luckily, Victoria’s uncle was a mastermind in cutting surveillance footage.

Once we got inside the building, Riggs decided it would be best if me and Mila stayed in one apartment. Since I didn’t know if Robinson was released yet, we opted for Mila’s and Victoria’s place in case he showed up. The last thing anyone needed was for him to come home and start asking questions.

Riggs went down to my apartment, grabbing me some clean clothes and ordered me to take a shower. When I was finished, he took my blood-stained clothes and dumped them in a trash bag.

I knew he had questions, that it wouldn’t be long before he and Mr. Bianci sat me down and made me fess up to everything, but I didn’t have it in me to talk.

Killing someone will do that to you.

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