Page 44 of Volatile Obsessions

“Are you out of your goddamn mind? Why the fuck would you do that, Rome? Why? When?”

“Almost two years ago,” I started, gazing off toward the marina as the harrowing memory of that blood bath began flooding me. “Do you really need to ask why, though? You know what went down, mate. Bottom line is, he deserved it. Why do you think he stopped fucking with me after forcing me to bury my blood? It wasn’t because he wanted to. He wasn’t doing it out of the kindness of his heart. He had to leave me alone, Vic. After what he did, he knew I’d come for him. So I laid low, kept my head down. I made myself out to be a man destroyed, someone he’d no longer consider a threat. And he bought it. I made him believe that. I made him believe he was in the clear.”

“And then you hit him when he least expected it. Unprotected. Completely blindsided,” Vic said quietly, pulling me back into the present.

I nodded. “Exactly. He never saw me coming.”

A thoughtful silence fell between us then. Nothing strained or excruciatingly long, but long enough for both of us to process what I’d just come clean about.

“How’d you do it?” he asked after a while, reaching inside the inner pocket of his jacket to retrieve a perfectly rolled blunt and his lighter.

I scoffed as he sparked it up. “What didn’t I do is more like it.”

Vic took a few hits, sucking it in deeper and deeper before letting out a mass cloud. “So now Liza’s out for revenge…” he stated, passing me the cigarillo.

“Yep.”

“How long have you been running from her?”

“A little over a year,” I admitted, taking a long pull.

“Has she had any luck finding you?”

Nodding, I tipped my head back and exhaled. “Why do you think I was so willing to leave New York? I was already looking for someplace new to go when you rang.”

“So you’ve seen her?” he questioned.

“No, she’s not shown her face, but she leaves me clues at the most random times.”

Vic’s head cocked to one side, curiosity painted clearly on his face. “Clues? Like?”

“White lilies, Minstrels, those pink notebooks she used to carry everywhere, packs of Benson and Hedges. The list goes on. Anything and everything that could possibly make me think of her, she leaves it,” I explained, passing back the blunt.

“And where does she leave it?”

“Anywhere she knows I’ll see it. It’s like she has someone following me, memorizing my daily schedule. There were a few times I found some items in my flat, too.”

“She’s going all out then.”

“Seems that way,” I agreed. “I figured she’d have given up by now, what with how long it’s been, but the more time passes, the angrier I feel she becomes. She won’t stop until I’m dead. Won’t be too long until she shows up here if she’s already called you.”

Vic scoffed through his nose as he took another hit. “I’d like to say I sounded very convincing,” he said, holding in his puff. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about, but we’ll add her to the list of shit to handle.”

“Adding her on the list next to Lux?” I couldn’t help but laugh, scrubbing a hand down my face. “Fuck me, that damned letter is cursed or some shit.”

“Lux and Liza, two peas in a demonic pod.” He laughed, too, and clapped me on the shoulder, offering me the cigarillo again. “They’re one in the same, brother, one in the fucking same.”

Were they ever.

This whole whiskey charade proved it.

Revenge was clearly their forte and something they weren’t afraid to dish out.

“How did you even meet Lux?” I couldn’t help but ask, because once again, what were the chances he’d find someone in Miami who could pass for Liza’s long lost sister?

Vic sucked in a heap of air through his teeth as I pulled a few hits. “It’s a long story, something we’ll leave for another day. Just know that, when I first saw her from afar, I thought she was Liza. That’s the only reason why I approached her.”

“And when you realized she wasn’t? What happened then?”

“I helped her anyway.” He hitched a shoulder. “She damn well needed it, the poor street rat.”

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