Page 81 of Cruel Knots

Ignoring his crocodile tears, Damien continues. “Who did you get in touch with?”

“The man who came to the house yesterday morning,” says the older man. “He paid us and asked us to get in touch with someone else. That’s how we planned the raid with their men.”

“What’s the name of the man you spoke to?” Mikhail asks.

“Jerry.”

“Jerry Morelli?” Mikhail guesses.

“Maybe. He didn’t tell me his last name.”

“What else can you tell us about the people you worked for?” Damien asks.

The man shakes his head. “Everything happened in the span of a single day. There was no conversation apart from the raid they were planning. Besides, they didn’t want us to do anything other than opening the gates for them.”

Moving forward, Mikhail grabs the man by his throat. “You don’t sound stupid, Perez. Why did you get involved with this man in the first place? Don’t we pay you enough?”

“I’m sick of living here,” Perez says, gazing at me with dead eyes. “I don’t even mind dying. I just need a release from this place that’s so full of secrets, it chokes the life out of me.”

“You were nearly dead when we found you on the streets,” says Mikhail in a grim tone. “There was no one to care for you or feed you. We took you in and this is how you repay us? You want to die and don’t give a shit about betraying the people who saved your life?”

“I’ll make him choke on those words, brother,” I say in a cold, promising tone. “We’ll see whether he begs me to spare him or not.”

“Kill me,” says Perez. “I’m ready.”

Does he think dying by my hands is going to be easy? I’ll give him a tour of hell before he goes knocking there.

“You can start,” Damien commands in a grim voice.

“I almost forgot about something,” I say. “There’s someone else who needs to see me do this.”

Mikhail glances at Damien who’s staring straight at me.

“Who?” Damien asks.

“Lucia.”

“Why?”

“You’ve allowed her to stay here,” I say with a cold smile. “She must know who I am. What I am.”

“You want her to be scared of you?” Mikhail asks with a frown.

“I want her to see me exactly the way she sees Damien.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Mikhail protests. “She’ll never accept us if she sees this side of you.”

“It’s okay,” says Damien. “Lucia’s tougher than you think. Besides, it’s time we stopped pretending. She must know who we are and what we do. It’s the only way to make her truly ours.”

Mikhail doesn’t look happy at the prospect of exposing Lucia to the monster that lurks inside me. He wants to coddle her but she has to know what we’ve become because of her. She has to know how her brother killed the humanity inside each of us.

24

Lucia

My heavy eyelids slowly open but squeeze shut again. I blink against the bright morning sunshine coming in through the window.

When did I get here? I wonder, finding myself in my room.

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