An email fromWyatt.No subject.Just a string of passive-aggressive words that read more like a warning than a joke.
Motherfucker.She’s already opened it.
My pulse spikes as a red haze creeps in.I stare at the words again, jaw clenched, chest tight.That smug little bastard thinks he’s clever.He thinks he’s entitled to her time, her attention.He thinks he can intimidate her into liking him.
My knuckles split open when they meet the nearest wall, cracking drywall, sending a spiderweb of destruction I barely register.The pain is sharp, satisfying.My hand drips blood, but I don’t care.I don’t even look at it.
Adrian’s going to get an earful for not flagging that email the second it came in.
I swipe the message and delete it.Not archived.Not recoverable.Adrian set it up right—no digital trace.Just like the man who sent it will be if he keeps this shit up.
I inhale through my nose, the scent of copper thick from my bleeding knuckles, and text Adrian.
He breathes near her again, I want every frame.If he touches her, I’ll stop his pulse.
I pause, then add:
And be faster next time, she shouldn’t have seen that shit.
Wyatt wants to play at being the possessive type.Cute.He has no idea what that actually looks like.Let him keep smiling at her in the office like a harmless boy.Because when the mask slips for good, I’ll be there, with no mask of my own, no mercy either.
Saying my brothers were unhappy when they found out about spice-rack man is an understatement.Whatever.I’m the only one doing the killing and until they slit some throats, they don’t get veto power on who lives.
Adrian doesn’t call.He storms.The elevator doors barely open before he’s on me in my kitchen, sunglasses on, jaw clenched, cane ticking against the tile like a gavel.
“Sloppy,” he says, calm the way a silencer is calm.“You acted on impulse.We had to scrub three exterior cameras and two license plate readers in a six-block radius.I don’t like spending my mornings laundering your obsession.”
“I cleaned my scene,” I say.“No signature, no problem.”
“Yourfaceis a goddamn signature.”He motions and Caleb steps in behind him, a towel-wrapped bag of ice already in his hand like he knew how this would go.
Caleb shoves the ice at me.“PD chatter popped ten minutes after the body was found.Patrol canvas, no names yet.You want me to be able to keep doing the books?Stop adding line items.”
I take the ice.My knuckles don’t deserve the mercy, but I let the cold bite anyway.
Adrian’s cane ticks.“Keep yourself together.You want her?Fine.But if you get us burned because you can’t control yourself, I’ll put you somewhere the sun never shines.Matter of fact, I’ll put her there and you can live with never knowing where she is again.”
“Adrian,” I say, stepping in, voice flat.“You ever say shit about hiding her from me again, and I’ll put you somewhere so dark your cane will never find the floor.”
The room goes tight.Caleb slides between us, palm to Adrian’s chest, eyes on me.“Back off, Cassius.”
“If I wanted him gone, he’d already be dead,” I say.“And we all know it.”
Adrian doesn’t flinch.“Threaten me all you want.You’re going to ruin everything over a woman.I will end it before I let that happen.Even if you kill me for it.”
“You won’t end a fucking thing,” I tell him.“You don’t get to disappear her.Not from me.You think you scare me?I’m the reason you two sleep at night.Your hands are clean, have stayed clean your whole goddamn lives, because mine never have been.You want yourMachineon a leash?Stop fucking choking me with it.”
Caleb’s voice lowers.“You can’t keep going off half-cocked like this.You’ll get arrested or killed.We aren’t going to leave her unprotected but you can’t kill everyone just because they breathe in her direction.”
“I’ll keep her safe,” I shoot back.“I’ll keep us covered.Like I always have.But either of you ever threaten to hide her or take her from me again, and you’ll experience a side of me you’ve only heard alleys whisper about.”
Adrian taps his cane and exhales.“Truce,” he says.
“Fine,” I say.
Caleb nods, tension easing a fraction.“No more bodies.”
I lift the ice back to my split knuckles.
