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“We’re almost at the center. We’ll be through after that,” he explained.

I nodded, barely dodging a spray of blood that flew up the side of my door. I reached up and grabbed the safety handle to ground my ass on the seat.

The smell was terrible. I did my best not to breathe in and out without gagging. Expecting the center to be even worse, I was surprised to see it was almost barren, which I soon saw was done on purpose to give full attention to the three bodies strung up around a grime covered fountain.

Romero stopped and nodded his head as if confirming something.

I looked over the two men and one woman in partial confusion. There were three people from each group.

“Remember that display I was talking about?” Romero asked without waiting for me to answer.

“I hung an outlier, an acolyte, and killed one of David’s delegates. This is their response.

“When I said they were either with me or against me, some began turning on their own people to align with me. I was too lenient and wound up with some fucking roaches at my dinner table. Now, for every person I find that’s been compromised, I replace them with someone that’s proven themselves.

“Do you know how valuable it is to have people ready to tell you anything about another group? I have eyes and ears everywhere.”

Glancing over at him, I met his gaze. He was keeping shit from me and letting me in. Nothing with this man came easy or uncomplicated.

“What incentive do you give these people? And how do you know they aren’t being planted?” I asked.

Grimm took over and explained. “He doesn’t have to give them a damn incentive. They do it on their own. None of them know about the benefits until they’re already in. Like he said, we don’t just let anyone decide they can be a Savage.

“We have…well, they don’t have a title. Let’s just say we have group leaders to keep track of everyone and make sure they fit the bill. Don?

?t ask what that entails. These are people who have been around a long time.”

“So they do this just because?” Arlen jumped in and asked, earning a sigh from Romero.

“When you live in an eternal hell, your ass better make nice with the devil and his advocates,” Grimm stated. “All those people at Cali’s initiation would follow him anywhere. It’s better to believe in something than nothing at all, and when you are a sick fuck like us, it’s nice to know you’re not alone.”

Ugh, the initiation. I hadn’t even known that’s what was happening. When you have goat blood raining down on you and a group of masked men standing over you saying a satanic chant, your mind is too busy wondering what the fuck is happening to pause and take a headcount.

But that was at least a hundred people, and those people would have friends and families, and then their friends would have the same. The chain was never ending.

“This is what they’ve been doing to our people…using them to send a message back.” I looked over at the three corpses, studying each one.

The delegate had been de-robed, a practice David came up with when he wanted someone shamed and killed or someone announced leaving The Order. He was naked, an inverted cross carved straight down his torso so deeply his guts were spilling out.

From my vantage point, I could see larvae wriggling all over them as flies picked at the rest and flew in and out of where his ears used to be.

The woman beside him was missing half her bottom jaw and tongue.

The acolyte had two empty eye sockets beneath a cracked mask. Crows perched on his shoulders and plucked at what was left behind, their beaks covered in blood and bits of flesh from feasting on all three of them.

“Hear no evil, they slice off their ears. See no evil, they remove their eyes. Speak no evil, they cut out their tongues. They usually leave a few words about sin and Satan. Guess they ran out of room,” Grimm deadpanned. “Some people just don’t know how to lose.”

I didn’t know what he meant until a little after Romero hit the gas and took off again. The same flag I’d seen on the stoplight was hung on the side of a building.

“That means we won,” Romero pointed out.

If this was what winning looked like, I’d really fucking hate to be on the losing team.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

I’d done and would continue to do a lot of wrong fucked up shit in my life. Cali was one thing I did right.

I looked over at her every so often, watching the rise and fall of her chest as she slept and clutched a pack of peanuts in her hand. The girl was so unmistakably human and in a way it rubbed off on me. Not a lot, but nonetheless it did.