Page 101 of Empire of Carnage

“Come find the Satanic Shrine when you are ready.”

“You know my ties run deeper than politics. I can’t abandon my country.” I told her.

“We both know you’ve already trained your replacement, and that she’s more than capable of taking over once you decide to step down.Wheneveryou decide to step down. This will be the first time leadership is passed without bloodshed, am I wrong?”

She knew too much, but everything she knew seemed to be the truth. I’d been training Dominico’s daughter Gabriella to take my place for the last twenty years. Her father passed five years after working for me and I didn’t hesitate to take her under my wing. There was something in her eyes that reminded me of everything I could have been. It made me want to give her more than the chances I was offered, just to see where she would go with them. Maybe I was projecting but my therapist didn’t seem to think that was an issue.

I had broken a generational cycle.

It was enough.

She stepped out of my office, leather boots clad with buckles all the way up to her knees clinking together as she walked away from me.

So fucking typical, I couldn’t even retire in peace.

The overworked Latina curse.

Payasada.