Page 182 of Chalk Outline

“Depends on how you look at it. They ruined mine first. Drugs became your mom’s whole world. She spent her time with Dick while I was away and sold my son to the devil. I had to take something in return.” His voice slices through the room. Smoke swirls around him. “I got rid of the accent quickly. I started working undercover. I told them to send me to any shithole they need me in. Wherever, no matter how long, I’m ready. That’s how I learned how this world works, how nobodies become somebodies. You know. Someone helps you along the way, and you take the bull by its horns; it’s called karma.”

Those are not the same blue eyes I remember. They’re cold and empty.

Soulless.

“Everyone was after Romina for what she did in the circus. The hunt began, and the rumors spread overseas. All because she saved a baby. I could have given them her whereabouts and her identity, but I didn’t.I didn’t.“ He shakes his head as if he should get a medal for it. “I wanted to play, and I was finally ready, so I sent Romina a distress signal from the circus. She came right away, and to my surprise, she came with Winona. Her bodyguard was busy with a girl I paid to distract him. There she was… the girlI saved. Every good game has a few rules, even when there are no rules. You still have to orchestrate it carefully. That day at the circus was an experiment. What happens when you inflict chaos?”

He flicks the cigarette to the ground and snarls as he stubs it out under his shoe.

“She wasn’t a target, just a tool. I gave my men simple orders, but I’ll admit they were a bit psychotic for my taste. I like clever tricks. I don’t like killing people unless I have to, but the panic in her eyes was uncanny. That was a thrill unlike any other,” he stares at me like a psycho. “There are two kinds of people in this world: those who choose themselves and those who put others above themselves. You, Romina, Winona, are part of the latter.”

My nostrils flare.

“Because we’re not you, who always prioritize himself.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I respect that, son. You’re all the same. Nothing wrong with that.”

“So, what is?” I grind my teeth together.

He smacks his lips together.

“The last time I saw you was on your fourteenth birthday when you found my phone.” He proceeds, but I remember it differently.

“It was stolen a minute later when you left me in the circus again.”

He issues a low chuckle of displeasure. “Typical.”

Blind, hot rage boils inside me, yet I remain calm.

“I loved you more than him. You were special, but you were weak. There was something inside you that screamed weakness. I saw it, they saw it.”

A long pause stretches.

“No matter how much the world tried to break you, you never lost your ability to love. Harder. Fiercer. You would do anything for love. Anything forher,“ he adds.

Weakness isn’t a bad thing when she is also my secret weapon. I’d rather be vulnerable around her than heartless around them.

“What do you mean you loved me more thanhim? Who ishe?“ I ask.

“Your brother.”

My eyebrows knit together. “Brother?”

“Half-brother.” He rolls his eyes. “He’s my son.”

“Half-brother…”

“You know...” James drawls, and my eyes zoom in on a wry smirk that taunts me. “The one you killed.”

“What…?” I grimace.

“Think, Reeve.”

The thoughts clash into a chaotic jumble until one surfaces.

“Who sent you?” I bark again.

“My dad!” Larson yells, spitting blood on the grass.