to the darkest part of my soul. For so long this day had been my greatest nightmare, a fear beyond measure. But fuck, today felt like a rebirth, like a homecoming to my true self.
My palms were sticky with her blood and it felt perfect. I had never before killed a woman, much less caused one pain on purpose, but after watching the recording, she’d become faceless to me, a mere target I needed to eradicate.
No street race could ever compete with the thrill, the absolute high of a kill, and even less with the power rush of torture.
Denying one’s nature is living a lie. Only drugs in all shapes and forms had made it possible. No more.
People finally had a reason for the nickname they gave my brothers and me.
The monsters of Las Vegas.
My monstrous side had come out to play but the revelry had only just begun.
Remo and I were similar in looks, but that wasn’t our most striking similarity. His cruelty and brutality had appalled me most of my life because it reflected a part of me I despised. Today I made peace with him and me.
I had Dinara to thank for that.
She turned her head and blinked at me, her chest heaving. “Will it always be like this?”
“Like what?” I asked hoarsely. I wasn’t even sure why my throat ached. Unlike our victim I hadn’t screamed. I had hardly said anything at all.
She drew in a deep breath as if she needed time to sort her thoughts, to form the right words. “I’m equally horrified and disgusted by what we did as I’m feeling exhilarated and empowered. Will it always be like that? This conflict tearing at my chest because I lost myself completely to the bloodlust. Just pulling the trigger is different, but this…this personal kill…” She sighed.
I moved closer to her and sank down on my knees beside her. “I don’t know.”
She searched my eyes. “What do you feel, Adamo?”
I considered lying, masking my true feelings. “Not horror. Not disgust.” My gaze strayed toward the corpses, waiting for a flicker of regret, any kind of emotion a normal person would feel, but there was nothing, only the need to repeat what I just experienced. When I looked back at Dinara, realization filled her expression. The monster was difficult to hide once you took it out to play. “You like it more every time we do it.”
I smiled darkly. “You know what they call us Falcones.”
Remo and Nino would be so proud of me if they could have seen me like this. Pride goes before a fall. I’d always given them shit for what they did, for what they enjoyed doing, and now here I was.
She pushed into a sitting position and reached for my hand, linking our fingers. Our palms stuck together with the blood of our victim. “I couldn’t have done this without you. I can’t go on without you.”
“You want to stick to our plan? Even your mother?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “I want to make them pay, every single one of them. They must bleed.”
I squeezed her hand. “And bleed they will, Dinara. Their screams will drive away the ghosts their actions left in your soul.”
Dinara shook her head with a small smile. She pressed a kiss to my lips. It tasted of blood and tears, and even that didn’t disgust me. “Poet and killer. You never cease to surprise me, Adamo.” Her eyes shone with resolve. “I think I’m falling for you.”
Surprise washed through me. “What happened to not yet?”
Dinara shook her head. “Why should I be scared?”
There were probably a hundred reasons why our emotions should scare us, but I didn’t give a damn about a single one of them. I cradled her neck, pulling her closer. “I’ll go every step of the way with you. I’ll give you the justice you deserve, even if it takes my last breath.”
“No,” she whispered. “Neither of us is going to give their last breath for these disgusting creatures. We are going to live when their blood has long been spilled.”
I kissed her again, harder this time, my tongue parting her lips. My hand roamed her back.
Dinara pulled away with a shake of her head. “I can’t. Not like this.” She motioned at her blood-covered state. “Not beside them.” She nodded at the bodies. “Could you?”
I wished the answer would have been no but my veins pulsed with the remnants of adrenaline from the kill and desire. I could have fucked Dinara