Vera

Chapter 7

Santiago

"Check it." I ordered one of my men. He hurriedly walks over to Carlos, an old customer I trade goods with.

"It's all here, Saint." He says placing the duffel bag at my feet and running back to his post behind me.

"Must we do pleasantries. You've traded with me since you took over. You know I'm loyal." Carlos says, putting his hands in his pockets as he rocks on his heels.

He seems antsy, shaky, it could be simple old age, Carlos is pushing 60 and it's showing, but with these recent rumors of Carlos corroborating with a smaller gang that has seemingly tripled, I'm not entirely sure he actually is loyal.

"It's routine, you know how it is." I say, slowly walking towards Carlos.

"Carlos, have you heard any rumors recently?" He shakes his head no quickly and starts to shrink the closer I get.

"Well I have and I hate when people do things behind my back, so I'm going to tell these rumors to your face out of respect. Because you are so loyal to me." I close the distance between Carlos and I by standing right in front of him. He is forced to look up at me to meet my eyes.

"I've heard that you're selling my product to a little gang in the city. Tell me it's just a rumor Carlos." I make sure to drop my voice to a whisper and make it feel as though there's venom in my sentence.

"Santiago-" I interrupt him before he can spit out lies.

"Carlos, first remember who I am, then remember what I do to liars. To snakes." I bore my eyes into his and let the threat in my voice sink in.

"Santiago I'm sorry, they made me an offer I thought was good, but it wasn't. I'm sorry, I won't deal with them ever again." I harden my jaw and clench my fists. I was hoping the rumors weren't true. Carlos has been one of my most consistent buyers and now he's screwed me.

"What do they call themselves?" I spit out, trying to tamp down my anger.

"I mietitori." (The reapers)

I feel a vein tick in my jaw and my teeth grinding together. Fucking traitor. I pull my gun from my waistband and fire two shots to Carlos' knees. The shots send him to the ground in a heap of cries.

"No, please, I have a family." I look into his eyes and pain, fear, and regret swim in them. I try to muster even a pinch of remorse but realize it died a long time ago.

I raise my gun and fire a bullet straight into his heart and watch as the life drains from his eyes.

His life is added to all the others that I've taken, to all the families I've ripped apart, all the blood I've spilled, but just like all the others I shove him into the depths of my mind and get back to my life. Back to the mafia.

"Clean this up, deposit the money, and don't contact me for the rest of the night." I walk out the warehouse and get in my car. It's 10pm and I desperately need to sleep but whenever I arrive home sleep never wants me.

I decided to mull over my week rather than focus on my lack of sleep.

The only good part about my week is meeting that girl, lighting. I wish she would have told me her name. If she did I would have tracked her down by now.

I've thought about her constantly this week and it's making me insane. Everytime I think about the way she looked up at me through her thick, long lashes it sends blood straight to my cock, so essentially my week has consisted of cold showers.

Although now with this new information about the small gang, I mietitori, it has my blood boiling.
(The reapers)

That's why I snapped on Carlos. That name was the name of an old rival gang that cost me a good friend, but I killed him. I killed the pathetic man that took his life, that took C's life.

I focus back on where I'm going instead of the skeletons in my closet and realize I've unconsciously driven myself to a diner. I drive by it everyday but have never actually gone inside. Why not start now?

I park and walk into the diner, inhaling the smell of burgers and grease. The diner is quite small but seems like it was trapped in the 1970's. There are booths lining the walls and a counter directly in front of the kitchen with an older man cooking and a small old lady behind the counter.

"Choose wherever you'd like to sit and I'll be right with you." She says in a thick country accent. I nod at her and look for a place to sit. Everywhere is fairly empty. About a quarter of the diner is full, so about 10 people are scattered around.

As I scan the diner I see brown hair in the back of the diner in a booth. I look closer and start tilting my lips in a slight smile.

It's the girl from the race. She's deeply immersed in her laptop with a half eaten burger and fries next to it. I stalk over to her table and stand next to the open side.

"Is this seat taken?" I ask, making her head snap up to mine. There's shock clear on her face, but she quickly recovers with a mask of steel.

"Will you go away if I say yes?" She asks with a fire that burns deep in her eyes.

"Nope." I smirk, loving how she glares at me. She then darts her eyes to the seat and back to her computer.

"I guess it's free then." She says without looking back at me. My smirk widens as I take my seat.