If only I’d gone home sooner.
If only…
A fist meets my cheek. Pain blunts my senses, snapping the endless loop.
I gasp, finally focusing on Aleksei, who’s now in front of me.
“I’ve lost everyone I cared about.” He pulls up his mask, revealing the same haunted eyes he had all those years ago. “I have no one left, Elias. You need to get it together.”
The agony in his voice drags me back to the night we met. His parents’ blood on my hands. The wretched cry from a teenage boy who had lost everything.
I spared him. I still don’t understand how he can stand beside me instead of hating me.
“A life for a life,” he rasps.
He grips my shoulder and shakes me. “Elias. Focus on your revenge. Keep going. Don’t rest or fall apart until you kill the man who did this to you.”
I nod, my chest heavy. We climb the rear stairwell. He takes back his laptop and taps a few keys.
“Done. Cameras are live again.” Not looking at me, he pulls off his mask and stuffs it under his jacket. “For the vow.”
“No mercy,” I reply, my voice thick.
Aleksei pushes through the doors to the lobby.
We part ways like strangers.
My phone buzzes. A text from Aleksei.
Pawn Alek
I’m here if you need to talk.
I stare at the screen and the printout before sliding into the backseat of my car idling at the curb.
Thundering cracks of flames mix with her sweet voice.
The voice of my salvation. The voice of the woman who set everything in motion.
The voice of the one person I could never give up.
“Maybe you need someone to care about you,” she whispers.
Clutching my head, a loud scream rips out of my throat.
The memories batter and twist, relentless.
Stop. Stop it. Stop. It hurts. Everything fucking hurts.
A bomb detonates inside my head.
My mind shatters.
Chapter 39: INTERLUDE - THE NIGHT OF? KNIVES
Kian
Past: Chicago, February Twenty-Eighth, Twenty Years Ago
