Vice(54)

“Sam, please!”

It’s not Plato pleading with me now; it’s Natalia. She arrives in front of me, dropping to her knees at my side, and she’s crying hard. “There’s already too much death,” she whispers. “Persephone was enough. Don’t you die, too. Don’t you f*cking die. You’re supposed to take me away from this place.”

The words are like a slap in the face. I’ve daydreamed about asking her to leave with me sure enough, but I never thought she’d straight up ask to come with me when I leave. If I leave. I feel the fire draining from my body. Letting go of Harrison, I shove the son of a bitch forward, and he topples over, falling face first into the grass.

“You have no idea…how f*cked you are now, my friend,” he rasps out. “Fernando’s not going to be happy when he finds out you’ve been messing around with his daughter. When he confirms you’ve been messing around with her.”

“Shut your mouth, *. You’re lucky I don’t try and stick something sharp and serrated up your ass.”

Harrison’s men draw closer. He’s mad. So f*cking mad. Mad enough that I expect him to order one of them to shoot, but before he can say the words, an enraged shout goes up on the other side of the lawn. It’s Fernando. And he has his ball hammer in his hand.

The wolves appear to be done with their meal. Most of them have gone, vanished back into the forest. I see two of them slowly heading away from the house, melting into the shadows once more, leaving Persephone’s remains strewn across the lawn. Fernando is the epitome of madness; he stalks across the grass, smashing his hammer into whatever pieces of her he can find—a leg, stripped to the bone; the hollowed-out shell of her torso; her skull—and the sound of shattering bone fills my ears.

So. Fucked. Up.

Natalia stifles a gasp when she sees what her father is doing. Harrison grins. “That’s what he’s going to do to lover boy here when I tell him what I just heard. You’re supposed to take me away from this place,” he snaps, mimicking Natalia is a high-pitched voice. “How long has he kept you here for, little Natalia? How hard has he worked to ensure you never leave? And now this cunt shows up and he plans on taking you away from him? Oh, no. No, no, no. He’s not going to like that one bit.”

Natalia looks like she’s about to fly at the bastard. I want to stop her from trying to scratch his eyes out, but I still have eight rifles aimed at my head, and one false move will get me killed. “Natalia. Stay calm. He’s not going to say anything to Fernando.”

Harrison wears a look of mock surprise. “I’m not? Why the f*ck would I sit on a juicy piece of information like that? You’ve embarrassed me. Made a fool out of me. You just tried to strangle me to death. Hasn’t done much to cement a brotherly camaraderie between us, Garrett.”

“If you think you can get the words out of your mouth and order your men to shoot me before I kill you, then by all means, go ahead. But ask yourself…while you were sitting around on your ass, wearing those J Crew khakis of yours in Afghanistan, what do you think I was doing? Was I sipping motherf*cking mai tais and relaxing by the pool? Or was I killing countless motherf*ckers with my bare hands?”

“Kechu! Natalia! I was beginning to wonder where you had both gotten to! You missed all of the fun.” Fernando arrives at Harrison’s side, still holding on to his ball hammer. His face is splattered with blood, his hair standing on end, and his shirt is ripped at the collar. I can picture all too well Persephone struggling with him as he dragged her across the lawn. He wouldn’t have cared. He wouldn’t have blinked an eyelid as he hauled her out in front of everyone toward her death.

“My, my, Kechu. You have guns pointed at your head again. You have a real knack for getting yourself into trouble, it would seem. Might I ask, Harrison, what our guest has done to warrant such unfriendly behavior this time?” He sounds so civilized, so reasonable, his voice calm and even, and yet it looks like he’s just crawled out of hell.

Harrison shoots me a quick glance out of the corner of his eye. He wants to tell Fernando what he just heard Natalia say, but he’s also considering what I just said to him as well. I’ll f*cking kill him if he opens his mouth. Fernando will keep me chained on the lawn until tomorrow, when the wolves return hungry again, but it’s the potential repercussions Natalia might have to endure that are bothering me most. Harrison must see the look on my face. He must see that I f*cking meant what I said, and he must be pretty confident in my abilities to carry about my promise. He grinds his teeth together, scowling. “I was trying to punish this little punk, and he came out of nowhere. He prevented me from carrying out your justice.”

Fernando frowns. “Why would you do that, Kechu? This man belongs to me,” he says, pointing to Plato. He interfered when I brought that treacherous bitch out here. He tried to assault me in order to set her free. Surely you don’t think I can tolerate that kind of behavior? If I did, the fragile ecosystem here would quickly fall into disarray. My business would not operate anymore. I would no longer be able to provide comfort and security for my daughter.”

He sounds legitimately hurt, like he can’t understand why I might possibly consider doing such a thing to him. “He’s a human being,” I snarl. “And you were about to kill his friend. He can’t help caring. He can’t help wanting to save her.”