Page 126 of The Ripper

“Why did you have to go?” I asked the grave, opening my eyes to read over her name again.

“What am I going to do?” I continued with the questions, countless of them, bumping my head against the stone with each one as though the pain I was inflicting on myself would somehow bring me the answer to my unending sorrow.

I couldn’t tell how long I sat there, watching an unmoving stone, reading her name over and over again, but when I got up, I had an idea about what I had to do to go back to Grimm. I just hoped it would work.

Julio was waiting outside the door, sitting on the grass and picking at his cuticles, his eyes bloodshot, although he had wiped the tears away.

He glanced at me when he heard the lock, then stood up and dusted off his jeans before hanging his arm around my shoulders and walking me out of the cemetery.

We didn’t speak until we were back in the car, where he lit a cigarette and offered it to me, then lit another one for himself.

“You were always a handful, you know?” He smiled rather bitterly as he held the cigarette between his thumb and index finger, taking a long drag out of it before starting the engine. “Ever since you were little, you were trouble incarnate, and you turned into a menace after her death, but you’ve changed so much since you went away,” he whispered in the last sentence.

“How do you know I’ve changed?” I blew the smoke out the window, looking at the streets I used to walk, the community I used to belong to, yet never felt like I fit in.

“Come on, Reina, you really think dad didn’t keep tabs on you these past nine years? He always had someone following you around, making sure you were safe,” his tone carried anger as his words made me shiver.

“I’m sorry, I must have not heard you right? He had me followed?” I raised my voice, then took a long drag, the filter damp with my saliva as I released it from my lips.

“Yeah, nothing but smooth sailing for the first three years. We would get updates and photos every week, you seemed happier each month. Then that guy died, so did the next, and the next, and the next,” he continued calmly.

My heart skipped a beat. Grimm had told me he had killed fifteen men whom I had dated, but he never mentioned killing anyone else in my name.

“How many?” I asked through my teeth.

“Fourteen,” he answered, his jaw clenching as his eyes stayed put on the road ahead. “We couldn’t figure out why our men started dropping like flies in a mission as simple as following you around, so we sent Leon to Chicago,” a grin curved his lips.

My whole body tensed when I heard that name, and I put out the cigarette and lit another one, shaking my head and laughing nervously.

Leon Alvarez was another one of Julio’s friends whom I was close with, but he, unlike Raul, was a ticking time bomb, because you would never know if he woke up as the Harley-obsessed biker, or the vicious killer. Granted, his second personality only came out when he felt threatened, but the thought of that man following me around sent shivers down my spine.

“Is Leon dead too?”

Julio turned his head towards me, the corner of his mouth curving up into a smirk. “No. He was always too far away to be seen. Imagine our surprise when we found out your boyfriend was the one killing our men.”

I smiled internally.

“He probably considered them a threat. He doesn’t take lightly to threats, especially those directed at me.”

“Oh, we know. We’ve seen him in action. He’s a crazy motherfucker.”

“Don’t call him that!”

Julio’s eyebrows shot up for a few seconds before he shook his head and sighed, parking the car in front of the mansion.

“You know, it’s funny how you blame dad for everything bad that happened in your life, and then you go and fall in love with someone worse than him. How much do you even know about the Bratva, Reina? How much do you know about this guy you’ve so easily given yourself to?”

I pressed my lips in a thin line and looked down at my hands, remembering what it felt like to have them held by him, what it felt like to have them kissed and caressed by him.

“We don’t choose the people we fall in love with, Julio,” I whispered, the anger in me slowly subsiding as I looked up at him. “I don’t care about what he does when he goes out,” I shrugged. “I only care about what he does and who he is when he’s with me, and while he may be a killer, a mobster, and a villain in someone else’s story, he’s the best man in the world in mine.”

Julio watched me for a long time, then he slowly nodded and smiled.

“You sounded just like our mom right now.”

That’s the last thing he said before getting out of the car and leaving me alone in the passenger seat, his tall frame disappearing inside the house as his words washed over me like cold, truthful waves.

Fuck.

---