Page 27 of Greed
Done destroying, he sat on the Chesterfield and watched the cushion feathers float to the ground.
Softly, softly.
They whispered on a silent wind, not a care in the world.
He roared at them and punched his thighs.
This was not how it was meant to go. He didn’t give a fuck about shooting that stuck up Lazarus dick, but he was almost found out! If it weren’t for the serum, he’d not have recovered from the stun Lilo gave him in time to escape.
Donald frowned. If Lilo had known it was him, she wouldneverhave hurt him. Not his princess.
If he’d been allowed to head to the station to interview the surviving witness as he’d planned—alone—then Lilo wouldn’t have been there, and neither would that jerk-off.
There were too many ifs in this scenario, and Donald was over it. He’d been swimming in if-infested waters his entire life.Ifhe wrote a better piece, he’d have won the Pulitzer instead of Michael Prowler from the Times.Ifhe’d been a little more forceful with Lilo, she wouldn’t have left him.Ifhe had been born first instead of his brother Milo the Senator, he’d have been treated like a champion. Instead, Donald had to always come second. Nominated for the Pulitzer wasn’t enough in his parents eyes… so Donald was going to win it, no matter what cost.
He wanted it.
He needed it.
He would damned well get it, no matter the cost.
The power was fading in his veins, and the sense of greed diminishing. The serum only lasted an hour or two, and the people he received it from would only give more as long as he fulfilled his end of the bargain—make the public hate the Deadly Seven. Fine with him. He could use the situation he orchestrated to write an exposé on what really went on in the minds of the Seven. Despite the public nickname for them, they’d never really been death dealers. Always preferring to wrap criminals up in a neat little bow before handing them over to the authorities. It drove Donald nuts. They had the power to kill, so why not? Why not rid the city of the sinners?
The city was over crowded, stinking, and in chaos. With the population teetering on seven million, getting rid of the gutter trash would do everyone a favor.
A few months ago, Donald had been drinking in the bar on Fitzgerald, drowning his despair in a glass of scotch. Lilo had left him. After their two-year relationship, he couldn’t believe his princess left him. She’d never done anything without his approval, but that friend of hers… the doctor. She’d gotten in Lilo’s ear and poisoned her against Donald. That bitch had turned his girl against him. If Lilo had been home to cook dinner when she’d said she was, instead of parading around during that attack on First, then they would never have gotten into a fight. Donald would have been the reporter to get the story, and he needed it more than her.
Vigilante or Superhero, my ass.
Well, he’d get Lilo back. She wouldn’t survive long without him. Not when he’d commanded everything in her life. She wouldn’t be satisfied without him. She’d come crawling back soon.
Soon he’d have the story, and the wealth to back him up.
That night in the bar was when the white-haired woman had first appeared in his life. At first he thought all his dreams had come true. Who needed Lilo when this beautiful woman was about to give him a pity fuck. He’d get over his princess. Rebound and drown his sorrows.
But the lady offered him something else. An opportunity.
She’d asked him what it would take to give him hope again, and he’d repliedto end the Deadly Seven… as long as he was the one to cover the story.
Then he added, to have Lilo back.
And while he was fantasizing, he included fame and fortune.
Why not? If he was being honest with himself, he wanted it all.
She took him back to a warehouse just outside of town. There she changed into an all-white leather costume, the polar opposite of what the Deadly Seven wore. She wore a bird mask on the top half of her face. For a minute, he thought he’d entered some underground kinky scene, but there were others like him there. They called her Falcon behind her back. She made it clear she was an enforcer for someone else, someone important, and if any of them were having second thoughts, they should leave. When a man stepped forward to take her up on the offer to leave, she snapped his neck.
No one said a word after that.
It was in this warehouse, with the other strangers that he’d been given the serum.
His phone rang, snapping him back to the present.
Donald got up and kicked items away until he found his cell under a coffee table.
He answered it. “What?”
Silence on the other end. He checked the calling display and recognized the burner cell phone number linked to her—Falcon.Shit.
