Page 41 of Tainted Love

His other hand drifts into his jacket pocket.

He pulls out a small derringer pistol and points it at my face.

I gasp and turn away to avoid looking death in the eyes.

Any second now, I’ll hear the bullet. It’ll fire straight at me and pierce my skull.

Will I even feel it? Will it hurt? Or will the shock be so intense, I’ll black out dead before I even hit the floor?

God, I fucking hope it’s that last one.

A shadow darts into the entryway, knocking the gun out of Spencer’s old hands. I look up to see Dante standing over him with a wire twisted between his fingers. He wraps it twice around Spencer’s translucent throat and pulls hard at both ends.

I scream and my knees give out beneath me, forcing me down to the floor. Spencer scratches at Dante’s arms but the old man can do nothing but choke on his own spit and blood. I can’t turn away, my eyes locked on Dante’s cold stare as he steals a life right in front of me.

Finally, Spencer topples to the floor and Dante releases the wire. It peels off his skin, leaving a dripping, red smile behind on his frail, wrinkled neck.

“Dante?” I whisper.

He bends over to grab my arm and pull me to my feet. I stare into his eyes, dark and cold as ice. He scoops my clutch off the floor and holds it out to me.

“Go.”

I take it from him with trembling fingers and spin around to pull the door open.

Get dressed. Go home. Forget you ever met me.

What the hell is going on?

Chapter 13

Dante

I knew it was too good to last.

What the hell was I thinking in the first place? That I could be normal? That I have a place in this world other than behind the barrel of a gun? No, it was too good to last. Men like me don’t get happy endings. We don’t get the girl.

We get the girl killed.

I drag Spencer’s body away from the front door by his feet, leaving a line of blood along the hardwood floor as it seeps from his throat. I didn’t want to do this, but Spencer’s been in Snake Eyes since before I was even born. He was just following orders. He knows our protocols better than anybody and he wouldn’t give a shit how I felt about her. It’s not the death an agent of his caliber deserved, but it’s what he got.

That look in her eyes. Lucy will never speak to me again but that’s where this was going to end from the start. It should have happened last night when I had the chance to control the outcome.

I drop Spencer onto the couch and throw a blanket over him. Someone will find him eventually and he’ll get a proper burial out of it. Maybe. There’s no time to worry about that right now anyway.

Snake Eyes is exposed. By noon, everyone in the country will know about it — the Zappia family included. They’ve seen my tattoo before. It won’t take long for them to connect the dots. I can’t wait around and chance it.

It’s time to say goodbye to Chicago.

I rush upstairs and grab my Code Zero kit from the closet. We all have one. Cash, clothing, burner phones, new IDs and passports — everything we need to make a clean break. There should be a text message on the phone already with instructions to tell me what I’m supposed to do next.

I turn on the phone and wait for the message to come in.

There’s nothing. No coordinates. No code words. No explanations.

I dial a number. He answers before the first ring.

“Dante? Is that you?”

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