I’m hating him more and more as time passes.
“Work for me and I can have my men stop the attacks on their shipments,” he tries again, calmly. “I can have them pull out of the war.”
“I'm sure they'll do that after you die,” I reply slowly.
“They won't,” he says it with such certainty, I know it's not a lie. “Even if you kill me, I've already given the order for the other families to move—the Ximenez. The Romanos. This family will be wiped out within a week.”
“… Then I'll kill them next.” I tilt my head, a calculated gesture to appear relaxed. Unbothered. “After you.”
August blinks. For the first time, his mouth opens and closes soundlessly, with uncertainty.
“Even... for what you are, you can’t fight an entire continent of families.”
“You don’t know what I am, August.” I shift as I say the words. My voice changes into something lighter and higher. Until I’ve become a woman with familiar soft features. A woman with beautiful black braids, bright golden eyes and dark skin, and the voice that leaves my lips isn’t mine…
It’s Evelyn’s.
“I can do anything.”
I can see I’ve unnerved him, by the way his fingers twitch at his sides. By the way his heart rate spikes. He may have been looking for me… but there is no way I am what he expected.
“I can give the glory back to the Taiga family,” he tries to negotiate with me, the snake. “With my investments and support I could put everything back the way it was. Their shipments. Their routes.”
“Is this your way of begging for your life?” My eyes—Evie’s eyes—narrow unforgivingly as I step forward. “They’ve made do without your money before.”
“Not this time they won’t.” Again, with that certainty I hate. “I'm satisfied enough with you, fake Adler.”
Something about those words makes my feet stop.
“I already have men hidden inside this family. You'll be fighting multiple battles without knowing who you can trust.” He watches me knowingly, though I know by now he’s only grasping at straws. “Without the guns. Without your… Aster.”
My mask cracks, if only for a moment.
When my eyes snap to Reuben, I don't see him.
I see Aster’s body.
And I can’t hear the beating of his heart. I can't sense any warmth from him.
My gun trembles. Again, there’s that pain, coursing through me.
And August the bastard, he finds his lifeline.
He finds my weakness.
“There won’t be any need for further bloodshed,” he adds softly.
The kindness in his eyes is false, made small by the glimmer of triumph that gleams there.
Still, my hand trembles. Still, I must fight to keep the tears away. I must dig my fingers into my skin to hold them back. To hide my weakness.
“Don’t listen to him,” Xavier’s voice is there by my ear.
But I can feel the hatred in Baal’s glare from here, like needles against my skin.
Unwelcoming. Hostile. Blaming me.
Because I am the reason his brother died.
