Page 65 of Tormented Diamonds

“Becca…”

She snaps her head over her shoulder, the dark circles under her eyes a stark contrast against her pale skin and tangled blonde hair. “I don’t want a present, Gianni. I want my father back. Unless you can wrap that up with a pretty red bow,please leave me alone.”

No, but I can do the next best thing.

“Would you settle for a monster in chains?”

A spark ignites her blank stare. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“Maybe.” I fold my arms across my chest and lean against the doorframe. “If what you think I’m saying is that I have the man who killed your father strung up like a pair of cheap Christmas lights, then, yeah. I guess I am.”

“Don’t lie to me, Gianni,” she says softly, her fingers gripping the edge of the window seat so hard her arm is shaking.

“I wouldn’t dare.”

At least, not anymore.

It’s as if the weight on her shoulders triples, driving them forward and her legs flat. She struggles to catch a full breath, the color that’s been missing for two days flooding her cheeks. “How?”

I shrug. “Small towns have their advantages … like locals who know who belongs in them and who doesn’t. When they see something or someone they don’t recognize, they take matters into their own hands.”

“The residents caught him?”

“Not exactly. They did what every tech-obsessed American does these days. They filmed him. Turns out a man driving a car with Rhode Island plates who stops to fill up a two-gallon can of gasoline raises a few red flags. Paulie asked around and finessed a young girl into sending him a video she’d taken.”

“Is it …him?”

She means Flynn, the man whose blood I promised would spill at her feet. My hatred for that bastard grows deeper each day it’s not fulfilled. I haven’t told her about my call with Carrera. Since dropping the news of her father’s death on her, there hasn’t been time.

Thatchanges tonight.

“No. The coward sent someone to do his dirty work for him. However, it seems the hired muscle didn’t have the forethought of his benefactor. The shit-for-brains drove his own car to the scene of the crime.”

She stares at me, not a hint of emotion on her face. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to do what I promised, Doc. I’m going to make him pay, slowly and painfully, until he begs for death.”

Only then do I see a flicker of life in her eyes. “I want to watch.”

I stiffen, her words drilling into the darkest part of my mind. It’s a “no-turning-back” decision. As my wife, Becca’s hands will never be clean, but I never wanted them dripping with blood. However, the thought of sharing this part of me with her…

Fuck, it does something to me.

“You don’t know what you’re asking.”

The room crackles with tension as she swings her legs around and slams her bare feet on the floor. “Don’t tell me what I want. You’re not the one who sent her father off to slaughter.”

“No. I’m the one who murdered his girlfriend, remember?”

Not the response either of us expected, but damn it, I need her to understand what she’s asking. This isn’t a movie she can walk away from when the credits roll.

“It’s not your decision,” she hisses, stomping past me toward the bathroom.

I grab her arm and spin her toward me. “You don’t know what you’re asking because the man you’d see carrying out his promise is someone you can never erase from your memory. You’ve never seen the real me, Becca.”

“I watched you shoot your father in cold blood.”

I laugh, my lip curling into a dark smile. “That was a level-two kill.Torch operates at a ten.”