Page 76 of Sweet Misery

She deserved a chance.

“Mass! Man, come on,” Ren pleaded.

I hung my head as Mass mumbled.

Roe dragged me over to them, or maybe I’d gone willingly. I wasn’t sure because I wasn’t all in my head.

“A-Arianna,” Mass garbled. “Ari? Aria!”

“Mass. Mass, look at me,” Roe said, his voice cracking.

I watched in silence as Mass’s eyes focused on Roe’s face.

“Sh-She’s dead. He killed her. S-She’s gone, man,” Roe choked out.

Mass hung his head, his big body trembling.

“I want her body,” he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I want her to be buried here.”

“He has her body,” Ren murmured, his voice strained.

“Then I’ll fucking go get it.” Mass pushed to his feet, swaying.

Roe caught him as he made to step forward and stumbled.

He needed time. Time we didn’t have.

Not that it mattered. She was gone. Dead.

Ren reached for me and helped me to steady myself.

“I want to kill him. Tonight,” I said fiercely, my voice low and dangerous. “If I die, I’ll join her in the afterlife, but I’m taking him with me.”

“Straight to hell,” Roe said.

“Let’s go,” Ren said fiercely.

Mass nodded. “If you die, we die with you.”

So be it.

24

ARIANNA

Ifelt like I was dying.

In fact, I wasn’t so sure I was still alive as I laid in the back of an SUV, wrapped in plastic, my body soaked from both sweat and water.

I’d taken my lessons with Massimo seriously though. He liked breath play like Roman did. They liked me gasping for air. I’d learned to hold my breath just for them. I’d even played the part of a dying victim.

It had come in handy way better than I thought it would.

And Sever had given me a knife before I was taken.

He’d been in the middle of giving me pants, but I’d been dragged away by Don Saconne’s brutes before I could put them on.

It was the thought that counted.

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