Page 143 of Possession

I stare back, unmoving. “I wanted to be the one to put every cut and bruise on your body. I wanted to do to you one-hundred-fold what you did to my wife.”

His head falls. It’s so quiet in the garage, I have no problem hearing him mutter, “Cunt.”

I circle him as I speak. “I’d say you’re not making a very good case for yourself. A smart man would beg for his life.”

“I’m not begging for shit.”

When I stop in front of him, he spits blood and phlegm on the floor between us.

I slide my hands into my pockets. “You know what your problem is?”

“You,” he grunts. “You’ve been my fucking problem since you showed up. Damian practically had a hard-on for you since the day you took that fucking bullet.”

I don’t argue. “Damian was weak. If he didn’t have an army surrounding him, he would’ve hidden under a rock. I was man enough to step up. You weren’t. Look at us now.”

He pulls in a labored breath and wheezes on an exhale. “No one is crazy enough to do what you did. That shit’ll get you killed. Doesn’t make you smart, asshole. Makes you crazy.”

“Maybe so,” I agree. I remember the day I was shot. I thought my mother would lose two sons to the Marino family. I thought I failed. “Proved I can’t be killed. You’ll never beat me, Nic. You tried, over and over. I’m always one step ahead of you. And you know what?”

His head bobs once.

I don’t wait for him to guess or ask. I move the few steps toward the table decorated with every tool that can be used to torture a human. I don’t need any of them. I shrug my sport coat down my arms and fold it before laying it across the back of a chair before I unbutton my cuffs and roll them up my forearms.

I lied when I said I missed out on the fun part. I have no desire to torture anyone. I don’t get off on that—I’m no monster. I go straight for the medical supplies and pluck a pair of gloves from the box.

His head pops up when the latex snaps against my skin. “I was going to let you go down with the rest of them.”

His battered and bloody expression is confused. If it didn’t look painful for him to pull his brows together in a frown, I bet he would.

I take a step, lean down to look him in the eyes, and lower my voice. “Very soon, this is all going to go away. If I didn’t hate you so much, I’d keep you around just for you to experience it. If you were here, I’d hit you with every-fucking-thing. Distributing. Trafficking. Money laundering. I’d even get you charged under the RICO act. But what I’d really get you for is rape.”

His breathing speeds as he jerks in his chair even though he’s trapped. “What the fuck?”

“That’s right. I’m not who you think I am.”

And just when I thought he was drained of life and energy, his body wracks. His chair almost tips backward, but I reach out to steady him. I snake my gloved fingers north and wrap them around his neck.

Then, I squeeze.

His eyes bulge and he croaks, “You’re a—?”

I choke off his words with a tighter grip and continue to whisper. “You didn’t stand a chance. I’m the man who’s going to take down Alba, the Jackals, and the Marinos—including your fucking father. I can’t wait for him to rot away for the rest of his life in federal prison.”

If I thought he was freaking out before, it’s nothing compared to now. And he can’t utter a word since I’ve cut off his oxygen.

“You’re going to escape the justice system and prison. I get to take care of you my own way because you tried to take something from me.”

His eyes start to water, and he shakes under my hold.

“How does this feel?” I whisper, thinking back to the surveillance video when he did this exact thing to the woman I plan to spend the rest of my life with. “To not breathe? To have a hand wrapped around your neck? To have someone threaten you?”

He fights for air.

“I bet there’s nothing more you want than oxygen. You should’ve thought about that before you laid a finger on my wife. You put bruises on her neck. Cuts on her face,” I growl. “You actually fuckingtouchedher and thought you’d get away with it.”

Killing Damian was a knee-jerk decision. I didn’t plan it or strategize or think it through.

Since I don’t do anything that isn’t completely deliberate and methodical, I’m not sure who to be grateful for to be the lucky man who ended up with Landyn.

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