Page 84 of Hidden Empire

I’m doing The Lost Reapers a favor by removing him from this earth. He’s a fucking liability.

“Did he crack them? Or haven’t you been able to check yet?”

He looks up, flinching at the sound of my voice.

“I was hoping he punctured a lung, but then he’d get the pleasure of saying he finished you off himself. I’m pleased there’s still a piece left for me.”

“Oh fuck,” he curses, face draining of color.

“Smart enough to be scared of me and yet dumb enough to put yourself in this position,” I remark, curling my lip. “What a waste.”

He makes a move to run, but he’s not nearly quick enough. I have him slammed to the ground, groaning in pain, in a flat second. I stand above him, hovering my boot over his forearm until I find just the right place.

Crunch.

His blood-curdling scream is music to my ears.

“Fuck!” he grunts as I let up, keeping plenty of weight there as a threat.

“It’s not broken yet,” I tell him, even though it’s definitely fractured. “Don’t cry about it, you’ve earned this for yourself, Billy.”

“The Morettis gave me a head start,” he spits like that’s supposed to mean something to me. “We made a deal?—”

“Do I look like a Moretti to you?” I question, pressing harder against his pinned arm. A few more pounds of pressure, and I’ll start seriously cracking bones.

“Fucking Christ!” he cries, groaning and trying to squirm away. “Why do you give a shit?! She’s just some fucking girl!”

“That fucking girl is my girl.”

“No,” he protests, face as white as a ghost.

He’s desperate to believe it isn’t true.

“My. Girl,” I repeat. “My woman, the future mother of my children, my soon-to-be wife,” I trail on, growing angrier with every word. “She’s mine. Should have kept your mouth shut, Bosen. Now look at what you made me do.”

“I didn’t know!” he bursts out pleadingly.

“Do you think that matters?” I snap, losing patience. Time is running out the further and further the boat drifts from shore. “Anyone who thinks about my woman deserves death. And you didn’t just think it, you spoke it into existence.

“I’m s-sorry,” he stutters.

“I don’t care,” I deadpan. “There’s no room for people like you to exist here, and I have no mercy to spare.”

“What are you going to do to me?” he whimpers. There are tears pooling in his eyes, and I see it then, the look of dreaded defeat.

“Well, first, I’m going to kill you,” I answer, relishing the cry he bellows in response. “And then I’m going to let the sharks have you.”

He simply cries harder, fueling my need for his pain. It’s so satisfying to watch him die before I even kill him.

“And tomorrow night, while the fish are devouring the rest of your worthless fucking body, I’ll be devouring my future wife. The woman you wanted so badly, you got yourself killed for it.”

“P-please,” he begs.

It’s no use. As if I’d ever let him keep breathing after the things he said about my girl. My Jade. My precious, too-good-for-this-awful-world girl.

“Only pathetic, weak men die begging for mercy,” I tell him, disgusted to even look at him. The knife I have stored in my belt is heavy in my hand as I pull it out, the silver metal flashing under the boat’s light. “So I guess that’s only fitting, isn’t it?”

Slashing into his femoral artery, I drag my blade up his thigh all the way to his balls, removing them with one deep cut. He squeals like a pig and bleeds even faster than one. His skin shifts into a pale, cold color. But just to be sure, I puncture his jugular before I send his bloodied body crashing into the dark waters below.

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