Page 152 of The Devil Can Be Kind

The instant I turned the final corner, I saw two things simultaneously. The first: Ada laying crumpled in a pool of blood. The second: Ricardo Lopez with a baretta pointed directly at my wife.

The anguish and hatred that filled me coalesced into a roar as I slammed against the man who threatened to extinguish the life of the only person I had ever truly loved.

The gun exploded somewhere near my head as I tackled Ricardo to the floor. Trapping him beneath me as I beat into his face with my bare fists. His blood splattered across me as I smashed my knuckles against his skull over and over again, the contours of his face disappearing beneath them until nothing but a bloody mass of grotesque skin and bone remained.

I knew he was dead, but I couldn’t stop. I was as deranged as the man whose brain was now scattered across the stones before me.

“Marco!” Jesse’s voice registered somewhere in the back of my mind, but I scarcely even heard it.

I was too late to save her.

Tears clouded my vision, and I howled in anguish, completely lost to the madness.

“MARCO!”

I felt myself be dragged backwards, away from the bloody stump of a man I’d created.

Jesse’s face swam in front of my eyes, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying, the world and his words muffled as if submerged in muddy water.

My head jerked sharply to the side and the pain of the blow drove the delirious silence away in an instant.

“ADA NEEDS YOU!”

Ada.

Ada needs you.

It was enough to snap me out of my insanity.

When I stilled against the hands restraining me, Jesse nodded to the men and I fell to the floor, crawling to the crumpled body of my wife.

Blood stained her white dress and grew bigger with every second. Her beautiful, delicate face almost unrecognizable amongst the damage Ricardo had caused.

A sob tore through my chest as a pain worse than death consumed me.

CHAPTER

THIRTY

ADALYN

Beep. Beep.

The distant sound of automated machinery cut through the quiet.

I turned away from the noise, desperate to fall back into the serenity of silence and I winced. In the back of my mind, I noted the glaring light threatening to perforate the peaceful darkness. I sighed and a sharp stab of pain broke through my senses.

Ricardo. The garden. The bang.

My eyes flew open, and I gasped in sudden panic.

I was in an unfamiliar room, dominated by bright white light. My heart fluttered in my chest and the whirring of machinery nearby picked up its pace.

It took me a moment to recognize it as a hospital.

I made a motion to sit up when a gentle hand on my arm prevented me from moving any further.

“Ada, calm down. You’re alright. You’re safe.”

---