Page 147 of Sixth Sin

Because just like all the others, six is finally dead.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

LUCIANO

If you keep knocking on the devil’s door, eventually, he’ll answer.

Those words will haunt me until I go to my grave. The words I spoke to a scared little girl as she held tightly to my arm, begging me with tears in her eyes not to leave her in a strange house.

I didn’t know what to say. Kids weren’t my thing. Never had one, never wanted one. They were just liabilities that people like me used against other people like me. But something about Alexandra Romanov got to me.

She thought I was a good man, just like she thought Dominic was an angel. Neither of us deserved that kind of devotion from such an innocent soul. Better she learned that then than to end up like her siblings one day.

Bending down, I took her chin in my hand, looked her in those trusting green eyes, and told her the truth. “I’m not the hero you seek, little one. I’m the monster hiding in the dark. So, run as far and as fast as you can, because if you keep knocking on the devil’s door, eventually, he’ll answer.”

I never expected her to use my own words as a final goodbye.

Laying the bouquet of red roses beside me on the marble bench, my fingers trace the engraved words, years of regret and searching finally at peace.

Brenda McCallum

Beloved mother and shining star

Brenda McCallum.

I never knew her name. She refused to tell me. The beautiful young girl behind the deli counter with long dark hair and deep blue eyes the color of the Pacific. It was her shy but mysterious smile that captured my attention. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. The guys busted my balls, but I couldn’t get her out of my head.

I went back the next day, and when she saw me, she gave me the same shy smile and handed me my sandwich. I didn’t even have to order. She remembered.

Meatball sub. Extra parmesan.

I waited until her shift ended and took her to dinner at Amalia. Just the look on her face did something to me. It changed me. One night was all we had. But I never forgot my beautiful dark-haired girl, or her shy, mysterious smile. Even after waking up the next morning and finding her gone, I still searched for her. I went back to the deli and dragged the owner into the alley with a gun to his head, but it was all for nothing. The name she gave them was a fake.

I didn’t give up. For years, I followed the same routine, visiting that same deli, day after fucking day. But I never saw her again. I never knew her name.

“You know what’s in there. You’ve always known it.”

Maybe Alexandra was right. Maybe in some way, I have always known it. There was just something about that boy that got under my skin from the minute I caught him stealing my wallet. I chuckle to myself. The balls on that kid—like steel. Not too many fifteen-year-olds would look down the barrel of a gun and mouth off to Luciano Ricci.

That’s why I did what I did.

Because, like I told Dominic the last time I saw him, most people don’t get a second chance to make things right. If you do, don’t fuck it up.

One Year Ago

Something doesn’t feel right.

I can’t explain it. It’s just an ache in my bones that makes me restless. Since Dominic walked out, I’ve been on edge. More than once, I’ve had my phone in my hand but put it down each time.

He’s a grown man. This is his problem.

She’s a grown woman. She’s not my problem.

But on the fourth pace around my desk, my eye catches the calendar. I don’t have a family. No wife or kids. My parents are both dead. What do I care that it’s Christmas Eve?

I don’t.

But that grown man and woman, they sure as hell do. And after the shit I laid down tonight and the truth I have no doubt Dominic dug out of the bowels of the blue vault, I don’t know where their heads are at.

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