Page 19 of Savage Rule

“My Chihuahua.”

“Oh.”

“You seem disappointed.”

Shaking my head, I say, “I thought maybe it was a lover. Or a daughter.”

He groans as he goes to sit at the edge of the bed, a safe distance from the oozing stain that was Jorge’s life.

“Would it make it better if I said Lulu is all of I left of my wife? She carried that thing around in a purse. Now I do.” Tilting his head, he studies me. “Why did you kill Jorge?”

“I told you. He annoyed me.”

“Everyone is annoying. Why did you kill him?”

Because Jorge was a bad person. Because I could sense real evil inside him, just like I have every other person I’ve killed. Because that is my way of justifying what I do.

“I don’t know why I did it.” I wrinkle my nose at him.

“Liar,” he says.

I lean against the back of the settee he was just on and peer at Sergio. There is just something about him, maybe it’s the fact that he’s eighty years old or his sad, milky green eyes or the fact that he loves his dog. Mostly, it’s that I don’t sense him being a truly bad person. Criminal, yes. Evil, no.

“You will kill me now.” It’s a statement.

“Those are my orders.”

“Then you better get on with it before Jorge’s men come looking.” When I don’t move, he adds, “Pero coño, girl, do it already.”

My fist tightens around the hilt of the blade still covered in Jorge’s blood. I push off the settee and cautiously, I go to him.He doesn’t move. Doesn’t attempt to get away. Simply sits there watching me.

I set the bloodied knife on the bed beside him and from my boot produce another. I’m not sure why I do this. Using the same weapon has never bothered me before. However, something about Jorge’s blood disgusts me, and it seems like adding insult to injury if I use it against Sergio.

Taking a fistful of his thinning gray hair, I tug his head back and expose his neck. His eyes lock onto mine and it takes everything I have not to avert my gaze. “What will happen to your dog?”

He shuts his lids for a second and sighs deeply. “I pray God protects her.”

My lips pull tight and I growl as I release him. I dig my fingers deep into the pit of my stomach and begin to pace in a circle around Jorge’s body. “Fuck.”

“What’s the matter, girl?”

“Nothing. It’s just heartburn. Or a heart attack.”

“I have aspirin in my pocket.”

I drop my arms to the side and shoot him with an irritated glare. “You’re making this difficult.”

“I thought it was the opposite. If I fight you, it will hurt more and the end result will be the same. I’ll be dead.”

“You don’t know that! You could just as easily overpower me.”

He lets out another sigh. “I’m old and tired, girl. I want to go home.”

My shoulders slump. “Scarlet. My name is Scarlet.” I return to the settee, needing some distance. “Why did you kill Stephen Black?” I hope his answer will be so callus, it will make me want to finish what I started.

But then he says, “He killed my wife.”

That stops me in my tracks and I turn to him. “What?”

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