Page 323 of When We Fall: Part Two
“If you get him first, you will bring him to me.”
“I don’t fucking work for you.”
“No, but if you don’t fall in line now, I may have to break a promise to my sister. I really don’t want to fucking do that, Lorenzo. I only just got her.”
“You had her,” I said thickly.
He inclined his head. “I did. We had a lot of catching up to do.”
“Did you fucking hurt her?Touchher? Anson said she was OK, but…”
“Oh, I didn’t hurt her. Touch her? Mm, a little, but I was only getting to know her. And she was quite well when we parted ways. I would even go as far as saying she was happy.” He dug beneath his black shirt and pulled out a small vial of blood on a necklace. “A parting gift from her. She bleeds so prettily.”
“You’re fucking sick,” I snarled.
“Yes. They say I’m a sociopath. A psychopath.” He let out a loud laugh. “They’re all so funny with their labels. I am worse than those things, though. I am a man who wants revenge for my mother. For my brother. For my girl. For my sister. And I won’t stop until I have it. Now you can fall in line or get buried beneath it. The choice is yours.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Stay in line,” he repeated. “I can let you pretend you own this city, or I can blatantly show my power. You choose. I must warn you, it can get bloody.”
“The city is mine,” I said fiercely. “I fought for it.”
“And what a fight.” He smiled. “Tell you what. I’ll allow you to run your business in my kingdom. But when I make a request, you comply. Easy enough?”
“What sort of request?”
He shrugged. “I want people brought to me. I want information. That’s all. The underground is going to change. It will be where the wicked suffer, not the innocent. It’s a new world, Lorenzo, and I’m the new monster in town. Be a good guy and don’t piss me off. Don’t hurt innocent people. Everything will work out fine if you follow the rules.”
“I don’t hurt innocent people.”
“I think my sister would disagree, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m trying to see what she saw in you. Maybe it’s the suit. That’s nice. Armani?”
I ground my teeth at him. He was a fucking asshole.
“Do we have a deal?” He smiled at me.
I had no idea what else the madman could want, but if all he was doing was cleaning up the pricks off the street, then I could abide by those rules.
“Fine,” I said.
“Perfect. Sign here.” He pulled a contract from his jacket and pushed it across the table at me.
I stared down at it, reading the exact same things he’d said. There wasn’t much in the contract past that. He’d get to pay me a visit whenever he wanted. I’d give him information if I had it, or I’d die. Pretty standard, fucked up shit.
I grabbed the pen the waitress had left behind, but he tutted at me.
“What?” I frowned at him.
“I only do deals in blood.” He brought a knife out and looked pointedly at me.
Sighing, I gave him my hand. He twirled the knife before piercing the tip of my finger. I watched his eyes darken as he stared down at the bead of blood that came out.
I quickly tugged my finger away, knowing damn well the stories I’d heard about him eating people were true.
I pressed my finger to the contract, and he cut his finger and marked the page next to mine in his blood.
“Excellent. We have a deal. Might want to get a bandage on that finger of yours. Wouldn’t want the world to know you bleed like every other man out there on the streets.” Dante got to his feet and tucked the contract into his jacket.
