A1: The Don (GirlxGirl)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

I wracked my brain trying to figure out who could have killed Craig. An old friend. Who could that be? The only person I could think of was Jimmy and he was dead. I may not have seen him die with my own eyes but he had to be dead. Hundreds of people witnessed it and Delaney had killed the man herself. She had nightmares and day terrors about putting a bullet through his brain so I knew he was gone. It couldn't be Jimmy unless a zombie apocalypse was going down in Santa Monica which I highly doubted. So, who could it be?

I didn't have many enemies. A lot of people liked, admired or tolerated me but I couldn't think of anyone who would want me dead. Even my past lovers still loved me, except my ex but who gives a damn what she thinks. She definitely couldn't have killed Craig. The craftsmanship was something of a professional. The way they gouged out his eyes were almost surgical and even the stab wounds were well placed as if they tried to stab him in places that wouldn't kill him immediately and then a final stab to the heart. It was torture. They probably took his eyeballs out while he was still alive. I grimaced at the pain he must've felt. Craig deserved better.

Whoever did this, they were somewhere enjoying themselves. They were playing a game and I was just one of the many pieces they could toy with. I couldn't do anything as of yet. I had to figure out who was behind everything before I took action and they knew that. Right now, they could relax and laugh and play the waiting game until I figured them out or they killed again. I could tell it was going to be a long and strenuous process trying to track them down. The assailant had to be intelligent to give out information about future plans. They had to be confident that they wouldn't get figured out.

But I'd take them down, no matter how long it took. I was the head honcho now and it was my job to protect the Family and that was what I was going to do. They could laugh now but soon I was going to make them pay for the pain they brought to both Craig and Kris.

The ride back to my place was quieter than the one to Craig's. Either everyone was thinking about who could've done something so gruesome or they couldn't get the image of Craig's body out of their head. Seeing a mangled, mutilated body was never easy no matter how many you saw. I was fearful that Delaney may have been traumatized. She had been silent about her nightmares about killing Jimmy but I knew she still had them. They were inevitable. Part of me wished I refused to bring her along to Craig's place.

It could've triggered her, but oddly, Delaney seemed to be taking everything better than everyone else. Everyone else sat in the car with a look of disgust, anger or fright but she seemed emotionless. She looked out of the window, tapped her fingers on her lap and even asked Lin to turn up the radio when one of her favorite songs came on. She seemed so detached from reality. I wasn't sure if it was because of killing Jimmy or because the body just didn't hit her like it hit everyone else. She didn't know Craig so I didn't really expect her to mourn. I wasn't even mourning. After having so many people die, death was normal.

"I'm going to go upstairs and talk to Kris. Make sure he's alright and settled in," I told Delaney when we walked back into my place. I let everyone else go home to get some rest. It was a long night and there was no need to continue investigating. We had time to figure this out and we were going to use every second of it.

"Okay. I'm going to go shower and head to bed. I'll see you in a few?"

"Yeah, I'll see you."

When I knocked on the guest room's door, I tried not to startle Kris. I cleared my throat before and knocked lightly. He had dealt with enough tonight and I bet he was on the edge. I didn't want to scare him. He probably thought someone was after him too after seeing his father so horribly mutilated. "Come in," he called out from the other side the door. His voice was deeper than when I left. It sounded like he may have briefly gotten himself together.