Page 21 of Veil of Secrets

I take three steps from the body before I hear the scrape of movement behind us.

Luca tenses beside me.

I pivot—no hesitation.

Another figure emerges from the shadows beyond the last beam of the hanging lamp. He’s young. Barely old enough to shave right. Cheap bomber jacket, red laces on his boots, trying too hard to look like a man who’s earned the stripes.

He hasn’t.

But he has a gun.

It’s shaking in his hand.

His voice isn’t.

“You think you scare people?” he yells. “Fuck you!”

The barrel’s pointed right at my chest.

Luca is frozen like he’s not sure whether to reach for his piece or run.

I don’t reach for the blade.

I walk forward.

“You don’t want to do that,” Luca mutters, almost too low to hear.

I keep moving.

The kid’s hands tighten on the grip. His feet stay planted. Dumb courage. Or just no idea what the hell he’s gotten himself into.

“I’m not trying to scare you,” I say, voice even.

“I said back off!”

“I’m just done talking.”

I reach him before he reacts.

Grab the wrist holding the gun, twist hard. There’s a snap—maybe his thumb. Doesn’t matter. The weapon clatters to the boards.

He opens his mouth to scream.

I slam his head into the rail behind him.

Wood cracks.

So does his skull.

The impact rings out over the water, sick and final. He crumples fast, deadweight to the ground. Blood pours from the split above his ear, down his neck, soaking his collar.

His legs twitch once, then stop.

Luca exhales sharply behind me. “Jesus Christ.”

I turn. Look him in the eye.

He doesn’t speak right away.

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