Page 44 of Demise

“Bones is back.” The voice is static-filled and hardly audible. I lean in, tilting my head.

“He wasn’t meant to come back. I know who fucking took him and that bitch.”

I look up at Paul, recognizing the voice.

Another person says something.

“I don’t fucking care who took him. I got shit going on he doesn’t need to know about. You want to be my right hand, you take him out, like you did his brother.”

“I’ll handle it.”

“Every motherfucker has a punch card. His time is up.”

Paul presses stop. I stare holes into the tape recorder. Leaning back against the wall, because my legs grow weak, I scrub my hand over my mouth.

“Moretti wants you dead. Whatever he’s into now, it’s bigger than anything before. My guess is, he doesn’t want to share or he’s worried you won’t be on board.”

“Goddamn,” I mutter. I don’t mention the things Sweep found in his office. “How did you get this?”

“After Henry told me about John, I wanted to get leverage, see if I could control the situation. I hired someone to tap his office.” His eyes go to the tape recorder. “Didn’t think I’d get this.”

“Do they know?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “This is only you and me.”

I rub my chin.Motherfucker.

“Do you know who the other person is talking?” he asks me.

I nod, feeling my jaw clench. “Nugget.” He killed Samuel, but hewastrying to kill my woman. He was in on all of it. Of course, he was. I knew whoever did this needed help, and now I know who fucking helped him. Goddamn, I’m going to kill that cocksucker.

“I know you have a code. I know this goes against everything, but this is what we’ve been dealt and they’re willing to work with you here. They want to take Moretti down because he’s a renowned gangster. It’ll also make Ron Calvin look very good to the higher-ups.”

I scoff, seething down at the floor. “Yeah.” My brother thinks I’m still questioning this, but my mind is made. Fuck with my blood, you die; fuck with Bexley, you pay before you die.

“Danny,” Paul says, getting my attention. “You do what you have to do. Frame him. Set him up. Do whatever you can to help these leeches because they won’t stop sucking until they’re satisfied.”

I frown, looking back at the tape recorder. “Don’t you worry, big brother. They’ll all fucking burn for this.”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Bexley

I’m leaving the hospital still with crutches. It’s only a Grade 1 sprain, but I’ve still got a few days before I can get rid of these things. I’ve been informed that rest and elevation will make the healing go a lot faster, so that’s what I intend to do.

Passing through town, I find myself heading to A Street, pulling into a parking space once I make it to the flower shop. My stomach twists. The damage has been fixed. It’s as if nothing happened there.

Like a person didn’t lose their life lying on that floor with glass shattered around them. The living just keeps living, and the dead are just gone.

I exhale, rubbing a hand across my cheek, my eyes catching the sun reflecting off something. I narrow them, seeing a woman with a camera. She’s snapping photos of some of the older buildings in town, and suddenly I feel as though something in my life has gone missing and I’ve just found it.

My photography.

I bite my bottom lip, my mind circling back to all those years ago when I’d never go anywhere without the camera Danny bought me. It wasn’t anything fancy, that camera he picked out himself, but I loved it.

The passion I had for photography. Catching a moment of beauty. Someone’s smile, the wrinkles of an old building, Mother Nature’s work.

Like an artist’s sketchbook, my camera captured what I thought was most beautiful. Pictures tell a story of what was. God, I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it until now.

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