Page 28 of By Blade, I Love
“We sat on two piece-of-shit chairs outside a warehouse on a farm…and talked.”
I stared at him across the table, watched him take a few more bites of my leftover food before he seemed finished.
“Icarus is a nutcase,” he said simply. “His motivations are unclear, which is why he’s so lethal. It seems like he plays the game just for the thrill of it.”
“Like you.”
“Not quite,” he said. “I don’t kill people for fun.” He pushed his empty plate aside then took a drink from his glass. “We had a long conversation, and he basically said we could yield to the Skull King and lose thirty percent of our profits—or he’ll kill us all. I said we were open to negotiation, and he obviously wasn’t.”
“And he just let you go?”
“Said he would give me time to reconsider. Said he would take down all the gangs one by one until Cosa Nostra is the last one standing. And then he’ll come for us next.”
“If he wants Cosa Nostra gone, why didn’t he just kill all of you, then?”
He stared at his drink for a moment before he gave a slow shrug. “Said he liked me.”
“He liked you?” I asked with slight incredulity.
“He respected me, is probably a better way of phrasing it.”
“What did you say to make him feel that way?”
“I didn’t show fear. Talked shit straight to his face. Didn’t cave to his demands.”
“But you’re making his job more difficult.”
He gave another shrug. “Everyone in this business appreciates a challenge. Appreciates that rush of adrenaline that brings you so close to death you appreciate life. I suspect he sees me as his equal and wants the game to last a little longer. I’d heard from multiple people that we’re similar…and we are.”
“He sounds like a psychopath.”
“As am I,” I said. “But you haven’t seen that side of me.”
“I think I have.”
A slight smirk moved on to his lips. “No, not really. The butcher doesn’t carve the meat in front of the customer.”
I remembered his wrath when he’d arrived at the house to save me in the shootout. Leo had mentioned what Wolfe had done to the men he’d captured, when he hung them from the tree on our property, the tree he told me not to look at. That seemed violent enough. “So, what now?”
“Pretty straightforward,” he said. “Kill Icarus before he kills us.”
“And what about the Skull King? Won’t you have to deal with him?”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
I was asleep and snuggled into Wolfe’s side when I felt him start to shift away. I jerked awake and opened my eyes, and I squeezed his arm before it could leave my grasp. “Where are you going?” I blurted as I sat up in bed.
His smirk was audible in his voice. “The bathroom.”
“Oh.” I forced my hand to release him. I noticed the light coming through the curtains, as if it was early in the morning.
He chuckled before he left the bed and disappeared from view.
I lay back down, my eyes dead tired but too stubborn to close. He’d come home close to midnight, and we hadn’t gone to sleep for a couple of hours. I think I was exhausted from all the worrying I did.
He returned minutes later, and I latched on to him all over again, snuggled right into his side, using his shoulder as my pillow. Once I felt his heat and the drumming of his heartbeat in his chest, I relaxed again.
He chuckled.
