Page 52 of Blood & Heartache

“Well, that’s just fucking bullshit.” I snarled. “No one asked him to do that. How could he? The bastard didn’t even say goodbye or that he was sorry. The golden boy would never skip the chance to prove himself to me. It’s not who he is.”

“Tin,” Ryker said, trying to draw my attention, but I didn’t want to be distracted or consoled right now. “Tin-Tin, look at me.”

“No,” I whispered, my voice hoarse with held-back emotion. “No, this shouldn’t have happened. How did this happen? Where did he get the gun?” Finally, I turned to look at Ryker. “Why were you even here?”

Ryker held my gaze now that life was returning to his eyes, but instead of numbness, they reflected heartache. “I tried to help him understand, to realize he was being used. Athos manipulated Gunner from the very beginning, and he never stood a chance. All I wanted was to understand how he’d gotten so twisted up in his view of you, but everything went wrong. Once he figured out the big picture and discovered he’d been a pawn, it was all over. He wanted his last act alive to show you how sorry he was. That the real monster wasn’t you, it was him.”

Falling back on my ass, I just sat there staring at Ryker, trying to get my brain to understand the words he’d just spoken. “He was a plant? This whole time he’d been working for my uncle? Athos, he’s the one behind all this? The demon who drove Gunner to this point is none other than blood?”

“In part, yes, but he’s only one branch of the network that’s been seeded into the Caprioni Family,” Ryker explained. “Athos is just a pawn of the founding families. They’re the real enemy. They hold Harvey and Flora’s leashes as well, putting them into play so they’d be ready for the day you returned if Athos couldn’t take control of things from within. Seems he had his own list of people to be your lieutenants, but Gunner was the only one who made the final cut.”

As rage, pain, and heartbreak flooded my body, Darkness offered her balm of comforting numbness—which I accepted eagerly. Athos needed to pay for what he did, and I knew she was the right person to make that happen. Grabbing the gun out of the pool of blood, I shoved to my feet and closed my eyes, sinking into myself. Darkness wrapped me in her arms, whispering promises of blood and revenge, which I wholeheartedly agreed with.

This time we will do it together, I warned her. I want to see the look on that man’s face as his life slowly slips away by our hand.

Very well, together it is…

A grin grew on my face as I exited the room, knowing the hunt was on. Everything fell away with each step clearing my mind to the task at hand. My uncle was going to understand firsthand what the Raffa clan had done to me.

A hand grabbed my arm, to which I instantly responded by slamming my elbow backward, twisting to grab the arm of the offending hand that dared to touch me and forced the person to the floor.

“You dare to touch me?” I demanded, my voice deeper and rougher than normal.

“Lady Astin, please… you shouldn’t be walking on your leg,” the blubbering man at my feet said.

Scoffing, I tossed him away. “Don’t presume to tell me what to do. Astin might see value in your words, but I do not.”

“I… I don’t understand,” he muttered as he picked himself off the floor. “What’s happened to you?”

Narrowing my eyes, I glared at him for a moment, then grunted before turning away and walking down the hall. “I was created in the pits of hell to do what’s necessary. That’s all you need to understand. Don’t get in my way, or the next time I’ll kill you.”

Retracing the path we’d taken to get to the dead man’s room, I spotted a guard posted at one of the doors. This would be where I started my hunt. No matter who was in the room, they would be guilty of something. When the guard saw me coming, his eyes grew wide in fear, and he started to shift from foot to foot.

What a weak, pathetic excuse for a man. How could someone like that be of use to us? Darkness demanded of me.

It was shocking to be present as Darkness controlled my body but allowed me to somehow share space in my brain with her. I wasn’t in control of anything, but for the first time, I was aware of what was happening as she called the shots.

“Mistress,” the guard greeted when I came to a halt before him.

“Open the door,” I ordered.

He nodded and fumbled with his keycard, missing the slot to swipe it twice. Finally, on the third try, he managed to get it to work and entered a five-digit number into the keypad. At the sound of the door buzzing, I shoved him out of my way and yanked the door open. Stepping into the small space, I found it wasn’t the prey I was hunting, but this sack of flesh would still be able to give me the information I wanted.

“Astin, what happened to you? Are you hurt?” the man asked, leaping to his feet and rounding the table but stopped when he spotted the gun pointed at him. “Squirt, what are you doing?”

“Not squirt,” I stated, then gestured with the gun. “Sit.”

The man wasn’t an idiot and did as he was told.

“I’ll give you until the count of three to tell me what I want to know before I shoot,” I explained. “One…”

“Hold on, what the fuck is going on here?”

“Two…”

“Astin, this isn’t funny. I don’t know what game you’re playing at—”

“Three.” Pulling the trigger, I shot him in the kneecap, knowing it would hurt like a fucking bitch but keep him alive.