Page 35 of Stalk (Assassin’s Kiss Duet #1)

Mattia

I want to scream out from where I’m hiding behind the privacy bushes.

I was trying my hardest not to intervene—to give Ren the chance to take care of this scumbag by themselves.

For a second there, I thought they would pull it off, but Ren didn’t use enough force when they tried to pierce the creepy asshole’s carotid artery.

I’ve been in the shadows long enough now.

The smart thing to do would be to grab my gun from its holster and shoot the playboy motherfucker in the back of the head. But my rage controls me, and I want to have some fun with this nasty bastard before I remove him from this world.

Scumbag holds Ren under the water, and Ren doesn’t even fight him.

God damn it, Ren! They can be so fucking stupid sometimes.

Whatever . I’ll berate them later, after I save their ass.

I step out from the bushes, steady and quiet, careful not to step on a twig or something else that could blow my cover.

Once I’m fully in the scumbag’s line of sight, I rush at him.

Luckily, he’s so preoccupied with trying to drown Ren that he doesn’t notice me until the last second.

“What the?—”

Asshat doesn’t have a chance to finish his sentence before I pull him back by his stupid, shoulder-length golden hair.

I yank him over the side of the hot tub and then drag him down to the hard floor below.

He grabs at my ankles, but fury and hatred fuels my body, and I break away from his hands as though I have the strength of ten men.

“What the fuck are you doi?—”

Using all of my strength, I stomp on his nose.

He screams out in pain. Quickly, I glance up at the hot tub to make sure Ren has resurfaced.

They have, which is good. Because if they’d already drowned, I was going to beat them up a bit while conducting CPR, just to piss them off.

They lean over the side of the tub, panting.

The stupid motherfucker on the ground is still shouting.

“Shut up, stronzo.”

He rolls to his side and attempts to get up, but before he can do so, I stomp down on him again, this time in the middle of his back. I wish I was wearing my steel toed boots, but alas, they are back in Venice.

For some added pleasure, I decide to waterboard him.

I am not sure it’s worth the extra effort, but I also don’t care.

I pick the scumbag back up by his arms and throw him toward the water.

He falls, but catches himself on the edge, avoiding the water entirely.

That’s okay, though. I grip him by the nape of his neck and dunk him.

Once he’s under, I glance at Ren. “Really? You couldn’t put up a fight?” I can’t help but berate them.

Ren’s eyes fill with tears. God damn it. “I–I’m sorry.”

I need a cigarette. I want to say more things to him, but asswipe has stopped flailing, and I’m not letting him go the easy way. “Talk later.”

Before letting the man go, I hold out my arm to Ren. “Get me my knife.”

With shaky hands, Ren pushes up the sleeve of my hoodie, then unsheathes my blade and hands it to me.

“Grazie.”

Ren watches with terrified, child-like eyes as I take scumbag out of the water and drag him out onto the floor once again. His eyes blink up at me a bit. He turns his head to the side and spits out some water.

With my knife secured in my dominant hand, I slice one cheekbone open. Then the other. His blood swirls against the water droplets on his face, watering down the crimson, like a watercolor painting on a human canvas. Scumbag yells out again, but this time it’s softer. Hoarse.

Eccellente.

I move to crouch over his body, weighing down his shifty hands by standing on them with each of my feet. The dumbass yells louder. I roll my eyes, then carve an “x” into his left pectoral. The scream gets louder.

“Do not make me cut out your tongue, you slimy piece of trash,” I growl.

His eyes are wide and alert now, but his mouth snaps shut. I feel Ren’s eyes on me. I’m sure they’re horrified by what they’re witnessing. I don’t care. I don’t have time to soothe them.

Now, back to work. I won’t play with my toy much longer, but my artwork is not yet complete.

I drag the tip of my blade across his other pectoral.

Scumbag squirms underneath me, and I smile.

My knife moves lower, to the top of the ribs.

When I spot the first intercostal space as he hyperventilates, his body flexing, I stab.

Hard. He can’t control the scream this time.

Fed up with the noise and not wanting any nosy neighbors poking around, I seek help from Ren.

“Find me something to put in this bastard’s mouth,” I order. When I look up, Ren hasn’t moved. “Christ, Ren. Give me something. Anything.”

They finally move, reaching for their backpack. They retrieve their shirt and tear off a piece. Then, they ball it up and toss it to me.

“There. Was that so hard?” I ask with a glare.

I shove the fabric into the guy’s mouth, then wipe the sweat from my forehead.

I stab him a few more times in the lower intercostal spaces on both sides of his rib cage until his entire chest is a bloody, watery mess.

I’m almost ready to get the job done, but before I do so, I rip down his obnoxious swim shorts and stab him from the root all the way down to the head of his soft, unimpressive dick.

That’s got to hurt.

His eyes bulge and tears stream down his red face. He looks into my eyes, and I stare right back, loving that I get to be his own personal demon to drag him to hell where he belongs. Scumbag doesn’t scream. He just stares at me, consumed by his pain and no longer seeing a way out of his situation.

It’s the perfect time to strike. With one last swipe of my knife, I slit his throat and watch the blood pour out and down his chest. In seconds, his head flops to the side and he exhales his last breath.

With that, I stand up, walk to the hot tub, and dunk my knife into the water to clean it off. Ren hasn’t moved, but their eyes follow my body like a magnet. After resheathing my knife, I stare them down. “Dude. Get out of the fucking tub.”

I expect Ren to remain nonverbal and to do as I say. I wasn’t expecting them to suddenly throw up over the side of the hot tub and then start sobbing.

Fuck.

Unlike the dead guy laying on the ground, I remove Ren from the tub as gently as possible. I’m surprised when they don’t flinch at my touch, due to all that they just witnessed. I set Ren on a towel nearby and wipe their mouth off with my sleeve.

I tenderly trace their jawline with the back of my knuckles. “Deep breaths, okay?”

Ren manages a small nod.

When I turn around, I notice just how bad the state of the patio is. Dead guy bleeding out near the doors that lead back into the house. Turned over side table. Glass on the floor.

Worth it.

There’s no way I’ll be able to clean up this mess quickly and alone. Ren needs to get out of here as soon as possible, too. I retrieve my cell phone from my bag and call Marco.

He answers after the first ring. “Aggiornamento?”

“Sì. Ren sta bene. You have our location?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to need you to clean up. Ren needs to get out of here.”

“Va bene. I will meet you soon.” With that, Marco hangs up.

I move back over to Ren and gingerly place my hands on top of their shoulders. “We’re getting out of here soon. Marco is coming.”

“Blood,” they whisper.

“Eh?”

They point at my face. I touch my cheek and then bring my hand down to look at my fingers. They’re drenched in blood.

“Thank you,” I tell Ren.

I’ve already made one hell of a mess, so I take another towel from the ground and dip it into the hot tub, then rub down my face, neck, and hands.

It’s dark outside, but you never know if you’ll come face-to-face with someone near a streetlight.

I’m sure I missed some blood, but it’s got to be better now.

“He was supposed to be shot,” Ren murmurs when I come back to them.

“What?”

They swallow roughly. “My instructions were to poison him, wait until he passed out, and then shoot him.”

“Why so specific?” I press.

Ren sighs. “He was a high profile drug dealer.”

I look over my shoulder at the dead scumbag. “And now… now it looks like he’s been tortured when it was meant to look like a simple assassination or something?”

“I think so. Either way, Catherine will know I had help.”

Fanculo. They don’t say it, but we both know Ren would never be capable of making such a mess or torturing someone like I did. I just had to have a temper tantrum.

When Marco arrives, it’s go time.

“You have to get this cleaned up as fast as possible,” I tell him once he’s done surveying the mess I’ve left. “I’m sorry I cannot help, but?—”

“Is okay, Mattia.”

My pulse races. “I lost control. But Ren said—Ren said they had specific instructions for this one. Their boss will know they did not do this.”

I can tell from the way Marco’s face becomes more wrinkly that he understands.

We’ve known for a while now that Ren’s boss is up to something.

If Catherine knows that Ren has not only failed but gotten help to complete their assignment, I have no doubt that the consequence will be the end of Ren’s life.

I think that may have been her goal in assigning this hit to Ren in the first place.

“Cosa dovremmo fare?” Marco whispers. What should we do?

“Partiamo stasera. Tutti noi.” We leave tonight. All of us.

Marco nods. “I will get to work. No longer than two hours, with travel.”

“How?”

He shakes his head at me. “I have backup for these things.” Normally, I would question that, but not tonight. Not right now. “You take the car. Get packed and cleaned up. I will be back as soon as I can.”

“Okay.”

I turn to leave, but Marco grabs my bicep tightly. “Be more careful than normal, yes?”

“I promise.”