Page 16 of Lines Drawn
“S–sam,” he whimpers.
“Okay, nice to meet you, Sam. I’m Tennant, and that’s Emilio.”
He nods. “I know. P–please, just kill me.”
I give him a small smile. “Why do you want to die so badly, Sam?”
He shakes his head vigorously. “I…I don’t wanna die, but I don’t want to be tortured either! That’s not what I signed up for.”
“What did you sign up for then?”
“I…”
“He’s not going to tell us shit,” Emilio says.
Sam cries and his face goes pale when Emilio takes a step toward him. “Easy, Little Monster. Have some patience. Let Sam talk. If he helps us, we’ll help him, right?”
I look up and hope Emilio will go along with my game. It’ll be so much easier to get results if he trusts me.
He sneers, as his emerald eyes flash with a dangerous fire. I don’t let it bother me, the little mostro doesn’t scare me. I won’t deny that he’s good, and efficient in what he does, but there’s still some honing to be done.
“Fine.”
I look back to Sam and try for a friendly expression. “Now, what didn’t you sign up for, Sam?”
“I…I thought it was just going to be a fire. No problem, right? I’ve set hundreds of them. But well…then you caught me.”
I hum in sympathy. “Yes, we did. Who told you to start the fire?”
“I…I don’t know.” Emilio scoffs. “I really don’t! It was some woman. I only saw her face once. She had scary blue eyes, like yours, but a bit darker in color. And brown hair. It was smoothed back, and she wore a pantsuit—probably cost more than what I make in a year. She simply told me I was to teach some guys how I start my fires, and if I did, she’d never tell the feds it was me.” He sniffs. “I’ve set so many fires and never got caught. I don’t know how she found me, but she did.”
“Thank you, Sam. Is there anything else you need to tell us?”
He looks at me with large, fearful brown eyes. “N…no,” he whispers. “I’ve told you all I know. Please…please, don’t do to me what you did to them.”
“Shhh, it’s okay. We won’t.”
On quick feet, Emilio moves behind Sam, grabs him by the hair, making the young man whimper, and slits his throat.
I get blood all over my front, but it doesn’t bother me, these clothes aren’t mine anyway.
Once Sam is dead, Emilio tosses him to the ground. “It’s definitely the feds then,” he says quietly. “A mysterious woman was the one who was giving orders to the guy Marcus and Keegan dealt with, remember?”
“We knew Court wasn’t the one behind it, that it wouldn’t stop with him, but fucking hell, they couldn’t give us more than a fucking month to get our shit together?” I shake my head in disgust.
“Apparently, they think we’re weak, Grande Mostro.”—I snort at the way he turns the name I’ve been calling him on me—“They thought they were getting one over on us.”
“I do love proving people wrong,” I muse.
“Me, too.”
“Let’s go, there’s nothing for us here.” Reaching into my pocket, I pull out the earbuds and toss them onto Sam’s body, to be disposed of with everything else.
I turn for the door, but Emilio stops me. “Wait.” I look at him and enjoy the way he seems to struggle with finding the right words to say. It takes him a moment, his frustration clear as he tries to organize his thoughts.
“How are you not jealous?” he finally asks. “That I’m with Hollis. And Roman is with Ignacio. I…I don’t understand?”
“What is there to be jealous of? I am Hollis’s, and he is allowed to do what he wants. He owns me, not the other way around. Similar to how you are not jealous of Cristian and your Master.” I try hard not to sneer. “You are not a threat to me. Benjamin isn’t a threat to my relationship with my other lovers—he’s part of it, even if he doesn’t have anything more than friendship with them. Roman and Ignacio…that’s harder because I don’t like Ignacio, but I will tolerate him so long as Roman and Benjamin still have feelings for him. And whatever Jude has with Antonio, it is something he cannot get from the rest of us, so it works.”
