Page 114 of A Taste Of Darkness

“Just in case.” Milo went into the kitchen, and I could hear him open the windows there as well. When he was back in the same room as me, he came over to me, cradling my face in his hands. “I just need to know you’re okay. For the past three months, I could make sure you were alright. Leaving you all alone again is scary.”

I didn’t want to, tried fighting it, but the corners of my lips still tugged up into a smile. “Okay, let’s make a deal.”

“What deal?” He cocked his head, sighing deeply.

“You can stay another two hours, make sure everything’s alright, and then you’ll be on your way. I’ll even add that tomorrow morning, you can pick me up and drive me over to Flora’s place to get Soup. And if you’re feeling extra clingy tomorrow, I’ll let you come shopping with Flora and me. Though, you’ll have to wait outside the stores and carry my bags.”

“That doesn’t sound like the best deal to me.” Milo intertwined our hands. “But I’ll take it.”

“Why do I feel like someone’s still going to spend all night watching my apartment door?” I watched as Milo walked away, probably to check the rest of my apartment for anything dangerous.

I honestly wasn’t sure why he worried so much about something happening to me. In my mind, he dealt with everyone who was trying to harm me, and I couldn’t remember having any other enemies.

“I’ll try my best not to send someone,” he promised, his voice coming from my bedroom now.

“Did something happen that you’re not telling me about?” I walked over to my bedroom, just to see Milo check every inch of the room.

“No.” He picked up my digital alarm clock, pointing some kind of light at every surface of it. “It just… I don’t know. I have a feeling that something bad is about to happen.”

Now that didn’t sound good.

58

EERIE PREMONITIONS

Milo Marucci

After thoroughly examining every inch of Sterlie’s place, I felt better about leaving her there all by herself.

Nothing was bugged, so nobody was watching, or listening in on her. And when I left, nobody suspicious was near the building either, so I wrote it off as temporary insanity.

I was simply worried about my girlfriend as any good boyfriend would, is all.

Just that by the time I reached Tartarus, the feeling still hadn’t vanished despite feeling a little more at ease.

There was a little voice in the back of my head telling me to go check on her, but I was just being paranoid, so I ignored it as best as I could.

However, that didn’t stop me from sending her a message every fifteen minutes.

My first stop at Tartarus was the basement, checking on my cousins to see if they were willing to speak now. Neither of them knew what happened in the past three months, so I was eager to see their reactions when I told them that my papà was dead and they now answered to me.

Lucky for me, I had a picture of my father’s dead body to prove it, otherwise, they wouldn’t have believed me at first. It didn’t matter, all of them were about to get on a plane and go back home and never return, so they’d see for themselves.

As I unlocked the door to Pino’s cell, the stench of sweaty, old air hit me right in the face. It was worse than the one inside of Sterlie’s apartment.

Pino sat on his bed, watching TV without bothering to even acknowledge me. I was a bit surprised that he gave in and asked my guys for those things. He looked well-fed, not dehydrated, and far less distressed now.

No wonder he looked better since he was no longer being tortured with awful noises all day and night long.

His ankles were cuffed, though, so he couldn’t run, and his wrists were tied as well, so he couldn’t fight my men or me. The cuffs must’ve been the only bad thing about his current living situation—apart from the fact that he was being held captive and hadn’t seen the outside world or breathed fresh air in months.

“And so we meet again,” I said, closing the door behind me.

Pino didn’t look at me. “Nice of you to stop by again. I thought you forgot about me.”

“I was… busy.” I took a glance at the TV, rolling my eyes when I saw he was watching a kids' cartoon. “I see you finally gave in.”

He shrugged. “My option was between a long and painful death or a bullet after talking. Either way, I was going to end up dead, so I might as well talk and get shit in return.”

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