Page 78 of Merciful Lies

Those two bastards interfered in my business. They tried to take what’s mine. To manipulate me. They killed my wife’s brother. Set her apartment on fire.

I think of how Anna looked the first time she came to me. She was willing to pay her brother’s debts with her body, and yeah, I let her.

I manipulated the whole thing just so I could have her.

I should regret it. I should feel bad, or something. But I don’t.

Anna belongs to me, and I was going to have her any way I could get her.

The fact someone else tried to get to her pisses me off. That Sanchez thought he could hurt the woman I love, even if he didn’t know she was mine, fills me with rage.

I think of how O’Doyle kept dicking around with me. Flaunting his daughter. Acting like we could maybe make some sort of alliance if I dumped my wife and married that simpering conceited child of his.

And I get mad.

Motherfuckers.

Dead motherfuckers. Both of them.

I sit in my office with my thoughts and my rage, and I think about my unborn child, and something else hits me.

Pride. And then fear.

Yeah, I was afraid when I got the call about Anna being taken to the hospital. For the first time in my life, I care about something, about someone, more than I do myself.

Suddenly, I realize being afraid doesn’t make me a coward. It makes me human, and that’s something I was beginning to doubt.

My humanity.

But I am human. Very human. I was alone before, but I am not now.

Anna is my family. She’s at home, growing our baby. Doing it for me. Cause she loves me, and my heart squeezes in my chest.

I’m going to be worthy of her. I will work every day to prove my worth.

If I have to hunt down every piece of shit threat to my organization and break their necks with my bare hands to keep her safe, I will.

But I don’t think I’ll have to. I think squeezing the others, letting them know who’s the real king of this city will work for me.

It’s not about who works harder, it’s about who works smarter. And I don’t need a degree to run this town.

No. They’ll find Sanchez, and they will bring him to me. Because it’s the only way I’ll allow them to get back to business as usual in my fucking town.

And make no mistake, this is my fucking town.

I own it. And I run it.

If they didn’t know that before, they do now. You don’t walk into a viper’s lair and fuck with him.

Not unless you want to die. And I got no problem with killing.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE-ANNA

Something snaps. A balloon or something. I twitch and I struggle to sit up in bed.

My eyes dart to the alarm clock and I see it’s not even daylight yet. I feel groggy and out of sorts, but then my stomach cramps and I clutch it. I wince as a shudder rolls through me.

Then I feel it.

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