“I wasn’t certain about him at the time. He?—”
“He’s fucking manipulating you to think that way, Leland. I taught you better than this. Do you remember Sera?”
“Of course I do.”
“She was his sister.”
I hesitate as I try to think of her brother, but I’m struggling to put a face to him. It’s been too long and he was just a passingface among many when I was that age. “You know who this guy is… why the fuck is he so obsessed with me?”
“You saved him, Leland. You saved his life and instead of being happy with that, he wanted more. He pushed his sister out, used her to gain your attention until you felt sorry for her and took her in. You remember that? I told you to leave her the fuck alone and yet you couldn’t.”
“She was a kid.”
“It doesn’t fucking matter in this world. What happened to her because you took her in?”
I grit my teeth, despising any instance where I have to tell Lucas he’s right. “She died.”
“Exactly. And you know how she did too. He knew you liked her, and he wanted to take that from you because we refused to give him what he wanted. He wanted you to have no one so you’d latch on to him. I didn’t like the way he was so focused on you. I didn’t like anything about that kid and should have kept him away from you back then… permanently. He is not innocent, Leland. He will tear your life apart to get what he wants.”
“What’s his name?” I ask.
“He went by Colby back then, but I can’t tell you what he goes by now. His working name is Silencer.”
“How did you hear that he was following me?”
“I have eyes everywhere, Leland. Don’t you dare think that just because you put me behind these walls that I’m not watching everything you’re doing. There’s no way I’d let someone else end things with you.”
“Oh? Does that mean you want to be the one to do it?” I ask, soured by his threats. I hate the idea that Lucas is watching me and really hope he’s saying it as some kind of mind game… his favorite kind of game.
“If I have to,” he says with a laugh. “Don’t fuck up, Leland. I raised you better than that.”
TWENTY-FOUR
LELAND
Age: Seventeen
There’s a girl crying. It’s all I can hear as I stand in the middle of the room surrounded by blood and bodies.
They let me in because I was young, I looked innocent, and they wanted to take advantage of me. And now they all lie dead while I stand over them, watching the blood pool.
I look down at the playing cards scattered across the floor. They were very involved in a game when the first man tried hitting me after I wouldn’t listen to him. They even had their guns out on the table, like peacocks trying to show off, and still…
Not a single one came close to hitting me.
The sound of crying hasn’t stopped. It’s the only noise in this otherwise silent room. For some reason, I start walking toward it, well aware that Lucas will be irritated if I do and would think that I should leave the child here to rot. More than anything, I shouldn’t be showing my face to anyone who I don’t plan to kill.
I mean… really, there’s no reason she can’t escape on her own; she doesn’t sound that young.
I push the door open and realize there’s not one, but two of them. A girl of about seven is sitting on the floor, hugging her knees to herself while she cries. The moment she sees me, she immediately stops crying and stares at me with wary eyes.
The other person, a boy of about fifteen, is leaning against a wall… just standing there. He has a knife in his hand, but his hand shakes and two of his fingers are bent at wrong angles. There are a variety of bruises on his face, some old, some new, and one eye is swollen completely shut.
He seems to stare through me. Like he doesn’t even see that I’m there, that I’m holding a gun, that I could kill him.
He takes a step toward me and I watch him closely, waiting for him to attack me, but he just walks forward. Does he want something from me? Or does he plan to attack me?
But his eyes don’t even seem to see me, and I realize that he wants to walk past me.
