Page 82 of PortCity Killers

The image was sharp and brilliant against his closed off blue eyes. If the man hadn’t wanted me dead before, there could be no confusion how he felt now. I forced my shudder down, not wanting to look away from him but too afraid to continue to look into those rotting depths.

“What’s this?” I asked, clearing my throat against the erratic giggle that seemed determined to bust out of me.

I stamped it down, kicking it to the back of my brain where it ran wild, trying to fit the picture in front of me into reality. Because what else do you say when someone presents you with a mutilated human with your ‘name’ carved into their skin? Thank you? What was the fucking etiquette for that?

Valentina spoke with that same tone that said she was smiling, but it wasn’t a pleasant one, and you most certainly wouldn’t like what was coming next. I didn’t turn my back to the man, though, not for a fucking second, “He has a present for you, do you not?”

He raised his hands to me, opening them to reveal a velvet box that one might put a bracelet in.

“Go on, open it.”

He did. Oh, he fucking did. I didn’t bother trying to hide the shuddering breath that left me. Sitting against the black satin inside the box was a bloody, red stump of a tongue. It still looked wet, though I couldn’t tell if it was or not, not from where I had perched myself on the table’s edge. My knees shook under me.

A fucking tongue.

The man was holding his own fucking tongue in a velvet box. An offering if I would just reach out. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to begin to wade through the chaos of my mind as I stared at it.

Was I-did I want this? Or was I absolutely horrified at the thought of this man presenting his own appendage to me like a Christmas gift.

The fact I even had to question myself gave me a whole new set of issues I didn’t want to touch. But he stayed there, arms outstretched, waiting for me to, I don’t know, accept it? As if he was reading my thoughts, Don’s voice smoothed through my trembling limbs.

“Take it, princess. It’s yours now.”

“Mine?” I croaked, breathless.

As much as the sight disgusted—and it fucking disgusted me—I couldn’t help the sick thrill of vengeance that fueled that tiny part of my aching soul. The part that sat by and let people walk all over me bubbled and festered inside of me.

I watched in horror and fascination, waiting for the damn thing to wriggle around. The fleshy end was just as jagged as the lettering on the man’s face. It hadn’t been a smooth, easy procedure, obviously.

“He has been speaking ill of you, has he not?” Don asked.

Sure, he had, I guess. Not enough to warrant his tongue be removed from his skull, but who was I to object? What did I know about proper punishments? I let everyone walk all over me since I was a kid—a sad, scared little girl who didn’t have anyone to protect her but wound up protecting everyone else.

This was not a nice man, and just like the man Don had thrown overboard, this man had malice in his eyes and the devil in his heart.

I swallowed down the bile, swallowed down the fear and the aching pain of another human being harmed and locked them away the same way I had locked away all of my fantasies of killing my step father late at night when everyone was sound asleep. I put it there, and I threw away the key.

This was not a good man. This man was evil. I could feel it rolling off of my skin in the way his palms twitched underneath the box like he was imagining the feeling of flaying me alive the way he was.

I reached out, taking the box in my hand gently and stared right into his decaying soul.

“Smile for your princess,” Valentina cawed, and I saw the viperous mean girl transform into something more. Something much more dangerous to me. A weapon. An avenger. Someone who would be bigger and meaner than the bad guys for you just because she could.

“Take him away now, Don. He’s had his time. I would like to be properly thanked for our gift.”

Lorenzo pulled the man back, who’s eyes still remained on mine. I swallowed the fear just like I used to tell Jaymes to: swallow it whole, like you’re taking yucky medicine. Lorenzo muscled the man out of the room, not that it likely took much, not with the way he was stumbling about. When he was gone, I turned to face the twins. Don knew, I don’t know how he read me so easily, but he did.

He smirked, his eyes alight with a delighted starburst of green, “Did you enjoy your present?”

I walked slowly towards him until I was between his legs, nodding.

“But?”

“No but,” I started, my hand trembling slightly.

I was cut off by Valentina’s scoff, “I told you, you are a terrible liar. What is it now?”

“What will you do with him?” I asked them, my eyes searching between the both of them.

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