She scans me with her gaze before her focus falls to my neck.
“What’s this?” Her hand comes up to touch the side of my neck as she wipes her fingers there before showing them to me. They’re black.
I touch the area where he was nuzzling into me, and my eyes widen as I look at the fingers that are now covered in what appears to be some sort of black paint. My confusion must have Mia worried enough because she immediately races over to Baret.
With my heart pounding in my chest, I scour the faces of the people in attendance, suspicion coursing through my veins. Faces of evil are everywhere you look, covered in their own paint, putting on the show of a civilized organization.
Back near the opened doors to the terrace, my heart drops to my stomach as my eyes connect with his.
Half of a face, watching me from behind the pillar. A hooded man, barely illuminated by the moonlight with an eerie mask of black and white face paint to resemble a skeleton, and black locks hanging down across his forehead and into his eyes.
He turns, vanishing into the darkness just as quickly as he appeared in that room behind me. Silently and with intent.
What I’ve yet to decipher is his overall message. It could be one of two things.
A threat or a warning.
Chapter five
Dirty Hands
Mybossisinhis office when I approach the room, the smell of expensive cigars and Bourbon already lingering in the dimly lit space.
“Is it done yet?” he asks, not even looking up from his stack of papers.
A dry laugh leaves my throat as I approach the desk, excitement stirring beneath my flesh. I sit back in the large leather wing-backed chair facing his desk, throwing both of my leather combat boots on top of it, tossing his pictures and papers across the surface.
“There’s an art to this, Al, but I bet you hear those words more often than not.”
He scowls, grabbing a fallen frame. “That there’s an art to being as unhinged and disrespectful as you?”
“No.” I rest both my hands behind my head, tossing him a demonic smirk. “Is it done yet?”
“Aero, I didn’t assign you to this so you could fuck around. There’s a check waiting—”
“Do I look like a guy who gets off on money?” I snap, standing abruptly.
He swallows, sitting back in his seat, knowing my temperament well enough.
“Just because you let money bend your morality doesn’t mean it affects mine,” I retort.
“You dislike money?” He scoffs. “This is the first I’ve heard. I pay you an arm and a leg for the work you do.”
“Don’t act like you’re not happy to have someone willing to do your dirty work. Gotta keep those politicians’ hands clean, am I right?”
I’m the only one with dirty hands here.
Alastor Abbott was scouring the prison system for a criminal to his liking. One who wasn’t only heartless, but intelligent and ruthless. He found me, knowing I was the bastard child of one of the richest men in town, using this alliance, and paying off the system to release me for his own personal use. Like his own secret weapon to be used as needed, in exchange for my freedom from the life sentence I was given for the crimes they say I’ve committed. No one knows I’ve been released, few even know I exist. Cal made sure of that.
“You know I’m thankful for your service,” he says in all seriousness.
I roll my eyes.
“Especially considering the client.”
“Taking lives is as easy as it sounds. It’s dealing with the weight of that conscience that seeps deep into the bones of the weak that’s difficult to conquer.”
“We all have our talents, our chess moves that put us in a position to win.” He shrugs. “Yours has always been the lack of a soul.”