Page 62 of Mila: The Godfather

Her voice.

Mila was always easy to read.

She could never fool me until she did.

Until she started to pretend she was satisfied with the life she had here with me. I should’ve known that she needed more.

But then I did know, didn’t I? I just chose to turn a blind eye because, as long as she was here with me, all would be okay. She was safe, but she’s not safe now.

Her words replay in my mind, torturing me further.

One day.

Her one day.

Fuck.

Dread, fury, and desolation curl in my stomach, enraging me. Making me see red.

“You lost them,” I whisper under my breath, in disgust as Nico shakes his head at me with the decency to look remorseful. “You had one job, Nicolas.”

“Boss…” Nicolas, the man who I entrusted with my sister’s safety and to keep an eye on Augustus whispers, looking up at me with fearful eyes.

Good.

He is right to feel fear.

I usually enjoy that look in my enemies, but he isn’t that exactly. My enemy.

No.

He’s my soldier.

A soldier who fucked up, and it puts me in an uncomfortable position because how do I know he didn’t betray me like Augustus? How am I certain that he didn’t conspire against me?

A rat.

I am quiet for a second contemplating all my options.

We all had darkness inside us.

Some of us feed it.

While others fear it.

I don’t fear the dark, no. I feed it. Once I was in the middle, slowly losing my soul to darkness, but my love for my sisters always kept me from going over the edge until one day I was forced to embrace it.

Now, darkness is my only friend.

My ally.

My safe place.

Choice made, I grab my gun and stare at it for a second before putting it in the holster strapped to my chest. “Phoenix. Does the name ring a bell, Nicolas?” The look on his face tells me it does. His eyes grow big and his nostrils flare.

“I swear to God, boss, I—” I cut him off with a wave of my gloved hand before he fed me more bullshit. There is no God. Not in the land of sinners. Not here where the soulless reign.

Where I reign.

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