Page 127 of The Ripper

CHAPTER 25

THE NEEDLE IN THE HAYSTACK

GRIMM

Fuck is right,” Midnight laughed as she jumped on the table next to Hannibal, and the kid winced.

~ Call me stupid, but I think he’s afraid of her.

“So, if we assume she’s the daughter of a drug lord, we can also assume something happened to make her leave and change her identity, something her father is guilty of, otherwise he would have never allowed her to go. That’s where we start,” she patted him on the shoulder. “Look for tragic events in Colombia in the last twenty years, give or take.”

“But why would her father kidnap her?” Damiano interrupted her, and she giggled like a child offered candy.

“Let’s say you have a daughter, not that there’s a woman on this planet who would carry your child, but hypothetically speaking. You give her a way out of your dangerous criminal world, but you keep an eye on her because, after all, she’s your daughter, you want her to be safe, right?” she began.

“Right,” he said hesitantly.

“Fast forward some years, your sweet little daughter ends up dating this guy,” she pointed at me. “The fucking Grim Reaper, what do you do?”

“And he also starts killing every bodyguard you sent to protect her,” I added.

“I kill him,” Damiano said with a shrug, grinning at me.

“Right, because instead of being smart, you’re just a pretty boy, aren’t you?” she rolled her eyes. “Killing him would start a war with the Bratva, what are the odds of you winning that war?”

It was my turn to grin.

“Okay, tesoro, I get it,” he raised his arms defensively.

“I’ll go take another look at her apartment,” Klaus stood up and placed his palm on my shoulder. “Are you going to be alright?”

“Yes,” I reassured him.

“Promise not to kill anyone?” He raised his index finger at me in a scolding way.

“Fuck right off,” I shoved him away, and he laughed as he turned and walked towards his motorcycle.

Damiano stood up and lit a cigarette while he eyed Midnight, as if he didn’t know if he wanted to kill her or eat her. I wasn’t sure, but she didn’t give him a second glance and leaned over Hannibal’s shoulder and said something to him that I couldn’t hear, to which the boy just nodded and went back to his computer.

It was clear that Midnight and Hannibal were familiar with each other because they had probably talked during some, or maybe even all, of her missions, since the kid was the only hacker to ever keep up with us.

“Did you go through her things?” she asked out of nowhere.

“Yes, I tore open all the boxes in my apartment and found nothing.”

Except for her smell.

It was everywhere.

I could sense it in my nostrils as if she constantly passed me, flipping that long hair and swaying her beautiful hips, but it was different from what I felt when she was physically next to me. It wasn’t peaceful anymore.

Her ghost greedily haunted me, not allowing me even a second of quiet, turning me back to what I was before I’d touched her for the first time. No. Worse than him.

“She worked at Northwestern Memorial, right?” She turned her back to us and lifted her T-shirt, revealing the burn scars on her back, but she quickly covered up after she took out two guns and threw them onto the table.

I didn’t ask what happened to her, because it wasn’t any of my business and I knew she wouldn’t have told us anyway, but Damiano froze in place, his eyes wide and his body tense, but if Midnight noticed his staring, she didn’t say anything.

“Did you pick her up that night?” she asked as she started pulling knives out of all sorts of places on her body.

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