Page 98 of Reaper & Ruin
The gunshot echoed through the room one last time.
For a moment, there was silence. Just the soft rustle of the wind through the trees outside, the faint murmur of the gangsters still waiting beyond the walls.
Gio turned to me, his face unreadable. “Let’s get our girl and go home.”
I stared right back, lips parted. “You get in the car.” I swallowed hard. “I need to do something first.
The need to do something was why, a few hours later, blood pooled beneath my boots, thick and congealing in dark smears across the wooden floor. The metallic stench hung in the air, mixing with the acrid tang of cleaning chemicals. Every breath tasted of iron, every movement dragged through the weight of exhaustion.
I bent down, gripping the limp legs of another body. Danika worked beside me, her motions eerily calm, like she was handling routine paperwork instead of corpses. We’d worked together so many times before that, even though it had been years, we did it efficiently and silently.
We’d been at this for hours. Dragging. Cleaning. Scrubbing. Erasing every trace of the massacre.
Outside, the horizon bled into deep oranges and purples as the sun began its descent. The glow of twilight through the shattered window illuminated the chaos: overturned chairs, splintered tables, and the dark stains that refused to fade despite our efforts.
“Quiet, isn’t it? Is that why you picked this house?” I muttered, my voice rough and low as I straightened, wiping the back of my hand across my forehead. The streak of blood I left behind didn’t escape my notice.
Danika didn’t pause in her work, crouched near the wall with a sponge in hand. “Quiet’s better. Means I can think.”
I understood that more than I would have liked.
The last body, a man whose face was unrecognizable from a gunshot wound, lay slumped near the porch steps. Together, we dragged him outside, chucking him into the back of an SUV.
Danika leaned against the car when we finished, her breathing harsh.
She broke the quiet first, her voice softer than I’d expected as she spoke in Russian.“I was going to let you go, you know. I went into the basement to get something, and then I was goingto come upstairs and let you go home.”She wiped a hand over her face.“I only kidnapped you to be a bitch. I was never going to hurt you for real, Atlas. Or either of your precious toys.”
I turned to look at her, her face half-lit by the fading light. She didn’t meet my gaze, her eyes fixed somewhere distant, maybe on the horizon, maybe on something only she could see.
“You were?”I asked, keeping my tone neutral, though my heartbeat picked up at the admission.“When did you change your mind?”
She crossed her arms over her chest.“I needed The Company to think I was doing what they paid me for. Giorgio forked over a fortune to get his son killed without repercussions, and it was a good payday.”She hesitated, then added in a quieter tone,“But when I was sent the file on Giovanni, I… I saw you. A glimpse of you in a picture. So I followed the clues, and then I found Heather. After that, I found you for real. I found out you weren’t dead. That was when I changed my mind; the second I knew Giovanni was yours and that you weren’t really gone.”
I rubbed a hand over my face again.“So you did all this to pretend? And to annoy me?”
“I was so mad when I found out you were alive. Mostly because I thought you’d planned it and just dumped me.”She drawled.“But even if I were mad, I still wouldn’t kill you. I never could.”
Her words struck something deep, a knot of conflicting emotions tangling in my chest.“I didn’t mean to leave you,”I said, the words barely above a whisper.“Dani, I swear it wasn’t on purpose.”
“I know,”she said simply. There was no accusation in her voice, just an eerie calm that unnerved me more than her anger ever could.“I understand. If it had been my brother in that bed, I would never have killed him either. Older sisters have astrange sense of loyalty, even when their siblings don’t always deserve it.”
We stood there; the tension stretching between us until she finally glanced my way. Her lips twitched into a faint, almost tired smirk.
“Guess I better be off.”She yawned.“What with my now probably wanted status? The Company will send chasers any minute now, and I’m tired of murdering people today. It’s wreaked havoc on my manicure.”
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the matches and lighter fluid Gio had managed to smuggle earlier on.“You died in a fire tonight, so you won’t be going anywhere.”
Her eyebrows lifted, but she didn’t interrupt, waiting for me to explain.
“After killing Giovanni, Giorgio came here,”I continued, keeping my voice even.“He shorted you on payment. Things got heated. His men died. Yours too. The house went up in flames, and so did you. What’s left of your body won’t be recognizable.”
Danika tilted her head, her smirk widening slightly.“Hmm. Poetic. I do love a good arson.”
I wasn’t in the mood for jokes.“It’s the only way. After this, you disappear, Dani. You can’t be you ever again.”
Her gaze turned thoughtful, distant again, as she processed my plan. For the first time in years, I thought I saw a flicker of peace in her cold eyes.
“I’ll disappear,”she breathed.“If I feel like it. You just leave all that to me. Maybe I’ll stick around and haunt your pretty boy toy for a few weeks. Or maybe have sleepovers with your girl.”
