69

69
Adriano
The city lights blurred against the windshield as the car sped, heading to where Zero had asked to meet.
The air inside the car was tense as Matteo drove faster. My heart hammered against my chest – not from fear, but from anticipation.
Would Alex be dead when I got there? The thought sent a dark thrill through me. My stepbrother had always been too curious for his own good. Always poking around where he didn’t belong.
“Sir,” Matteo’s voice broke through my violent thoughts.
“What is it?”
“I don’t get it. Why are we going to the hospital instead of your office?”
Heat flashed through me. Matteo was loyal, but sometimes he asked too many questions. Some secrets were meant to stay buried with the dead.
“Mind your own business,” I said coldly. “Just drive.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” he apologized, and the tension in the car went back to how it was before.
When he finally pulled into the hospital parking lot, the weight in my chest grew heavier. The fluorescent glow from the windows made the building look sterile and cold. My instincts screamed that nothing good waited for me inside, but I shoved it aside.
I spotted Zero leaning against the wall by the entrance, cigarette dangling from his lips. He straightened the moment he saw me, crushing the smoke under his boot.
“Sir,” he said, walking toward me.
I slammed the car door shut. “This better be good news. Tell me Alex is dead.”
He motioned for me to follow. “Not out here, sir. Come inside.”
“I’ll be back,” I told Matteo before following Zero into the building.
The halls smelled of antiseptic and stale air. My eyes scanned every corner. Two of Zero’s men stood guard outside a private room. They stepped aside when they saw us coming.
“So, tell me,” I demanded as we stepped inside the room, my voice dark and cold. “Where is Alex’s body?”
What happened next shocked me to my core. Zero dropped to his knees right there in the room. The man who had never failed me, who had killed dozens without blinking, was on his knees looking terrified.
“Sir, I tracked him down,” he whispered, his voice shaking. “But...”
“But what?” I grabbed him by his shirt, fury burning in my chest. “Where the hell is Alex?”
“He was here this morning when I called you. I had men watching him, but...” Sweat was pouring down his face now. “He’s gone. He escaped.”
My vision went red with rage and panic. “You know how I feel about failure,” I stated, my voice deadly quiet.
“Please, sir. Give me a few days. I’ll find him, I swear it. I’ll turn this city upside down if I have to.”
Zero explained everything – how Alex had been getting treatment, how he’d posted guards, how somehow my stepbrother had vanished without a trace. Each word made my anger burn hotter.
“Are you still the killer I hired?” I snarled. “You let him slip through your fingers and now you’re here making excuses.”
“I’m sorry, sir. I’m begging you. Just give me time. I’ll bring him to you dead or alive.”
I wanted to kill him right there. This man who I’d trusted with cleaning up my mess had let me down. But Zero had never failed me before. Not once. And I needed Alex found.
“Fine,” I said, finally giving in. “Three days. You have three days to bring Alex to me. Don’t disappoint me again.”
“Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.”
I left him there and walked back to the car, my mind spinning with dark thoughts. When I finally reached where Matteo had parked, I opened the door and hopped in.
“Where to now, sir?”
“To the company.”
We drove in silence, but my thoughts were screaming. Did Alex know what I’d done? Had he figured out that father’s death wasn’t an accident?
And if he was still alive, still hiding somewhere in my city, then everyone I cared about was in danger.
The thought of Alex coming after Azalea made my blood boil. My stepbrother had always been jealous of what I had. If he couldn’t destroy me directly, he might go after her.
“Matteo,” I said suddenly. “Find bodyguards for Azalea and her sister. The best you can get.”
“What! Why?”
Because my stepbrother is alive and knows too much, I thought. Because I killed my own father, and now I have to kill my brother too.
“Just do it. Stop asking questions.”
“Yes, sir.”
My phone buzzed. When I saw Azalea’s name on the screen, something warm spread through my chest, pushing away the cold fear. She’d never texted me before.
“Hey, are you busy?”
There was a cute little emoji that made me smile despite everything. How could she make me feel light when my world was crumbling around me?
“No, do you need something?”
“I miss you.”
She missed me. The man who’d killed his own father. If she knew what I really was, she’d run screaming. But right now, in this moment, she was mine. Pure and innocent and loving a monster.
My heart started racing for a completely different reason now. Heat spread through my body as I remembered her soft skin, her sweet taste, and the way she’d looked at me like I was her hero instead of a murderer.
But how was I supposed to answer? I’d never been good with soft words. My hands were better at breaking things than building them.
“Thank you.”
“Is that all?”
Damn. Even in this, I was failing. I could kill a man without blinking, but I couldn’t tell my wife I missed her.
“Matteo,” I said, swallowing my pride. “I have a... friend who needs advice.”
“Sure, sir. What’s the problem?”
“His wife texted him saying she missed him. He said thank you. She asked if that was all.” I felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment. “What should he say?”
Matteo smiled in the rearview mirror. “Your friend isn’t very romantic, is he? That’s not what she wants to hear.”
“Then what should I say... I mean, what should my friend say?”
“Sir,” Matteo said gently, and I could hear the amusement in his voice, “didn’t you say this was about your friend?”
Heat crawled up my neck. He knew. Of course, he knew.
“Yes. I just misspoke.”
“Oh, I get it,” he said, but I knew he didn’t believe me. “Well, if she’s his wife, he should tell her he misses her too. Be honest about his feelings.”
Right. Honest. If only he knew how impossible that was for someone like me.
“I miss you too, Wife.”
Her response was another cute emoji that made my chest feel tight and warm. For a moment, I forgot about Alex, about the danger, about the blood on my hands. All I could think about was her smile, her laugh, and the way she made me feel.
My body reacted instantly, remembering how she’d felt in my arms, how she’d looked beneath me, trusting, beautiful, and mine. My pants grew uncomfortably tight.
“Sir, about your family...” Matteo’s voice cut through my heated thoughts. Good thing too – I was getting hard thinking about her.
My family. The father I’d killed. The stepbrother I was hunting.
“Bury them,” I replied coldly, my voice empty of feeling. “They weren’t my family.”
I heard Matteo sigh. He probably had questions about why I seemed so cold about their deaths, but he was smart enough not to ask.
“I don’t want you talking about them again,” I warned.
“But the news might say terrible things about you. They’ll call you ungrateful, heartless.”
A dark laugh escaped me. “Let them try. No one writes about me and lives to tell about it in this city.”
The only reason anyone knew those bodies were related to me was my father’s car. The license plate and his name on the side had given it away.
Otherwise, those burned corpses would have been just another tragedy. Just another family destroyed by violence.
Like I’d destroyed my own family.
The drive to my office felt endless, but finally we arrived. The day passed in a blur of meetings and business, but all I could think about was going home. Going home to Azalea. Going home to the one pure thing in my blood-stained life.
When evening came, I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door. My body was already anticipating what waited for me at home, but my mind was still dark with worry.
“Time to go, Matteo. Drive.”
The killer in me was angry that Alex had escaped. Worried about what he might know, what he might do.
But the man in me – what was left of him – was hungry for something else entirely. Something soft, sweet, and innocent.
Tonight, I’d try to forget about family secrets and blood guilt. Tonight, I’d lose myself in the only person who looked at me and saw something worth loving.
Even if she didn’t know she was loving a monster.