I’m proud of the kid. He didn’t beat the game, but he made it to the final boss, and that’s gotta count for something.
Maybe I could have voiced that to him… if he hadn’t rammed his knee into my cojones and fled, like a stubborn brat.
And now I’m left wondering where he scampered off to… If he’s ever going to show his face again.
I shouldn’t want it, I know that, since hedoeswant to kill me. But if I turned my nose up at everyone who wants to kill me, I’d never speak to anybody. Life might be less stressful, but it’d also be boring as shit. And like most career felons and professional sociopaths, I prefer the threat of potential danger to monotony.
That said, I’d rather know where Angelito is so I can keep my eye on him.
I’ve enlisted my private investigators and a few other sources to track him down. So far, he seems to have vanished. But he has to resurface, eventually. I just have to be patient…
I hate that. I’m too rich and impulsive for things like patience.
In the meantime, though, I will continue to explore stress-relieving methods that revolve around bodies I can pretend are his. As if they’re filling in for him.
Sort of like a… proxy?
Yea, that sounds good. Let’s go with that.
I have an endless catalog of distraction-proxies available here at Edge. If italsohappens to be the only place Angel knows me to visit regularly, well then, that’s just a happy coincidence.
Still, I should get back to the island. I’ve been in the city for a week straight, and while I’m fully confident in Officer Chevelle’s ability to hold down the fort while I’m gone, I need to get home.Make sure it hasn’t burned down or something while I was away.
Oddly enough, I miss it. You wouldn’t think it possible tomisssuch a secluded place where mind-numbing tedium is a way of life, but for me, it’s different.
Alabaster Isle is mine. It’s the only thing in this entire empire thatfullybelongs to me. The cartel, my territories, mybusinesses… They’re all tainted with the blood of the past. But the island, and the people on it, aremyproperty.
I take a shower in the en suite, get redressed and call my driver to bring me to the penthouse suite I have on reserve at The Plaza. My suite at Edge does actually have a bedroom, with a pretty comfortable bed. But something doesn’t feel quite right about sleeping in the sex club where I’ve been freaky all week.
Back at the hotel, in bed, I lie awake for hours. My body is exhausted, but my mind just won’t quit. Reliving the hot sex with the blue-eyed boy, the passion I gave my pajarito through him, and the power I handed over. The aches in my body highlight how alive I feel…
But it’s still just a facade.Make-believe.
He was the understudy, when the star is out there somewhere, among the noisy city that never sleeps.
Sirens and fire engines blare into the night, while I stare up at the dark ceiling, hoping my little bird hasn’t flown too far away.
“Did you miss me?”
Kent’s eyes shift to mine, but he says nothing. Simply grabs my bag and stomps off, toward the door that leads inside from the rooftop helipad.
I chuckle to myself.
“Any progress on… finding an assistant?” He asks cautiously after setting my bag down in my bedroom.
“You know, I’m beginning to think you don’t enjoy spending time with me,” I jest, though in actuality, I’m probably only seventy percent kidding.
“Of course that’s not the case,” he grumbles, stern and emotionless, as usual.
In all the years I’ve known him—going on eighteen now—I don’t think I’ve heard him laugh once. One time, I caught a twitch of something smile-adjacent, when Claude the orderly opened a door into Dr. Templeton and he spilled coffee all over himself. It was pretty funny because Templeton is a douchebag, and Claude seems like the product of some serious inbreeding.
Still, that was the only time I can remember when I thought my Head of Private Security mightactuallybe human, rather than the latest and greatest from Skynet.
Sighing, I pick up my phone. “I promise you, Kent, I’m working on it. I will find someone.”
“Very good, sir.” He turns to leave, but stops when I call.
“It’s better to be overworked than undervalued.”
