“Then they came.”
He runs his fingers through his hair.
“The door to my cell burst open, and Zac’s father stood there. I still remember his howl of pain when he saw his son. The tears that brought the strongest man I had ever met to his knees. He cradled his son’s body in his arms, his heart shattered into a million pieces, and I will never forget that moment for as long as I live.”
He places his head in his hands, his voice breaking, and instinctively, I go to him, taking the glass from his fingers and pulling his head to my shoulder.
I can only offer physical comfort. I’m aware that no words are up to the job, and his voice breaks as he whispers, “My brother Simeon was stringing up the men responsible, along with Julius. Nico issuing instructions; the guards scattered, doing the same thing until they all hung like a row of soldiers, naked and bloody from the cuts in their skin courtesy of the blades of my family. The Ravera family. It turns out they were a new mafia family in town. Their stay brief; their hostile takeover unsuccessful.”
I stroke his hair, hoping it’s helping, and his voice is angry as he hisses, “Simeon gave me a machete. He told me to avenge Zac’s death. I was eighteen at the time and had never seen anything like this before. As it turns out, it was an easy ask. One by one, I butchered the men responsible; their dying screams of agony not enough to drive the guilt from my mind. When I finished slaying the men, I collapsed, and when I returned home, I was no longer a kid anymore.”
“I’m so sorry, Joseph. I really am.”
I hold him so tightly it must hurt, tears flowing down my face as I attempt to hold it together.
His next words chill my blood as his voice lowers. “It took days to recover. Zac’s father never did and shot himself the next day through grief. He couldn’t live with what he saw; what happened to his boy, and I had two deaths on my conscience, father, and son. I wasn’t finished with my revenge though. The one thing on my mind was retribution, and I built myself up, and as soon as I could, paid a visit to the diner when Sally finished work. She set me up. One of the men taunted me with it. He told me she was a whore who turned tricks in the night. His whore. He told her to trap me, to set up the operation, and when she left that night, I was waiting.”
I shiver at the venom in his voice.
“I took her to a disused warehouse on the east side of town. I had no compassion, no empathy, merely a cold heart and murderous rage. She begged and pleaded for her life, but I wasn’t listening. I held her against the wall of the cold warehouse and, in Zac’s memory, I spat in her face and sliced the blade from one side of her neck to the other. I savored every expression in her eyes as she died with my hands holding her against the wall of a rotten warehouse. It didn’t help. I had no one left to kill. I was left with the images playing on repeat in my mind and so I shut down. Became the emotionless prick you hadthe misfortune to marry, and only Su Yin has the ability to bleed my pain with pressure points and needles.”
My heart breaks for him. For what he went through, and what he did to avenge his friend’s death. Nothing about this is good – explainable, not forgivable, but it is understandable.
I hold him a wreck of emotion, and as the flames dance in the grate, his shoulders relax, and for the first time since I met him, I really believe there is hope.
CHAPTER 40
JOSEPH
When I wake, it’s with a soft body pressed beside me, her arm flung over my chest, pinning me to the bed, holding me. Her gentle breathing soothes, and along with consciousness comes clarity.
I slept all night.
I can’t even remember getting here. It was an emotional evening, and as my mind races to catch up, I’m more shocked that I slept at all.
I don’t move out of fear of disturbing her and instead think back on what happened in the library.
For some reason, I spoke my truth and held nothing back, bringing the past into the room, hoping to frighten her away. It was as if I couldn’t stop. The moment I spoke, the memories came crashing back. Many times, Su Yin encouraged me to talk about it. To dull the pain, to almost normalize what happened.
Nothing about what happened was normal.
It’s a truth I must live with to my dying day. I owe it to Zac to live on in his memory. Many times, I’ve considered going the same way as his father, but that would be like killing Zac all over again. His memory would die too, and I will not let that happen.
Then there’s Tiffany. She needs me too. She is lost, not as badly broken as me, but afraid of life – of her past.
We are two broken souls who somehow came together, and she gives me purpose and makes me stronger.
Becomes my world.
It took an angel to defeat my nightmares. To hold me while they howled around us, caught in a storm she knows a little about. She has lived this life; witnessed its horror and yet we are both still standing for a reason.
She stirs, a soft groan, a gentle stretch, and a sweet whisper.
“What time is it?”
“Six am.”
“It’s early.”
