Page 47 of The Ecstasy of Sin

ME

Love you too, brother.

RYKER

Fuck.

It’s a good thing the sun has dipped low enough to the horizon that it won’t be glaringly obvious that I’ve got blood sprayed all over my chest and arms when I step out into the world again. I take off my jacket and use the partially clean inside to wipe myself down, before tossing the ruined leather over Simon’s corpse.

This is the second jacket I’ve ruined this week. I’m going to need to buy an entire storage locker full of leather jackets at this rate.

I look both ways down the alley before I step out, making sure no one is around. I rejoin the flow of people moving downthe main street again, pretending I didn’t just massacre another human being moments ago.

Darkness swallows the city within the twenty minutes it takes for me to reach the shelter from where I lost track of Wren. I wander around the back of the building, leaning against the wall in the pitch darkness, my face illuminated by my phone’s screen as I confirm she’s still inside.

A message comes in. I open the group chat.

RYKER

Dom, I’m calling a fucking intervention.

TORIN

Do I even want to know?

RYKER

This motherfucker is killing people left and right in the middle of the fucking city.

GHOST

Sounds like a party.

RYKER

I’m the one that has to clean up the mess, you fuck.

GHOST

That sounds like a you problem.

RYKER

Well, I’m making it everyone’s problem now.

ME

He deserved it.

RYKER

That’s literally what you said about the last guy. THE ONE YOU KILLED LAST NIGHT, MIGHT I ADD.

TORIN

Damn, Dom. Even I don’t kill that often, and it’s my career.

GHOST