I climb out of the hole and reach for the gasoline I dragged out here with the final parts of the body.
It’s not even like my killings have drawn any unwanted attention recently. Graham has been missing for close to a week, and no one has so much as filed a missing persons report.
There’s no reason for me to be sent to babysit some woman when my time is much better spent disposing of oxygen thieves.
Once I’ve poured the gas over the body, I fish out a packet of matches, light one, and throw it into the hole, watching with too much enjoyment as Graham catches alight.
He should get used to the heat because I hear it’s hot in hell.
Satisfied he’s burning and that the fire isn’t going to jump to the nearby trees, I fish out my replacement phone and get back to the email I’ve been ignoring, reading through the details I read earlier before moving on to the rest.
Camilla De Marco, the new queen of the De Marco mafia family, wants a guard on her housekeeper as the family navigates a series of leadership challenges from outsideenemies. But that doesn’t explain why we have anything to do with this.
The security services we offer are very niche, and usually only extend to potential victims while we hunt down the perpetrators, but from what I can tell, this Chloe Weaver has more than enough access to security.
Which begs the question, why the hell are we involved at all?
There are some details about her fleeing another mafia family when she was a teenager, but they’re scarce at best. How she ended up in New York with the De Marcos is unclear, and either the boss doesn’t know or he doesn’t see fit to tell me.
The more I learn about this assignment, the less I like it.
“This is going to suck, Graham,” I tell the burning body, but once again he doesn’t reply.
Maybe the boss thinks I need some socialization with people who I’m not about to kill, and perhaps he has a point.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
DAMON
NOW
Ishouldn’t be here.
If there’s one place in this city I shouldn’t be, it’s camped outside the De Marco family estate hoping to catch a glimpse of Chloe.
But if I’m going to make this call anywhere, here is as good a place as any.
There are three guards doing a check of the perimeter, telling me I have little chance of getting past them without getting myself gunned down, but at least I can pretend to be doing recon while I brief my father.
The phone rings a few times before finally connecting. “Damon,” he greets. “I assume you’ll be headed home soon.”
I hesitate. As soon as I tell him we’ve found Chloe, everything changes. Ronan is already so fucking angry at me, is this just going to escalate things between us more?
But I have a responsibility to my father, to the family, to make sure we take care of any and all threats, even the ones that hurt.
“There’s been a…complication.”
“What kind of complication? I was led to believe Crew and the girl have been found.”
I roll my eyes. Camilla isn’t just a girl. She’s the head of a family just as large as ours, but Salvatore is nothing if not a misogynist. “They have,” I confirm. “But while we’ve been here, we found Chloe.”
Silence greets me for so long I pull the phone from my ear to check if the call is still connected.
“I’d hoped she was dead,” he replies.
“Well, she’s not. She’s alive and well.”
“And the child?”
