Camilo

The city of Seattle seemed to be in the same state as my heart, buried under a deep layer of snow that kept it still and frozen. It was almost impossible to see ten feet ahead, with thick fog covering it all like a blanket of frost, as barely there noises reached from the street. The tip of my fingers stung with the cold, and my face grew numb after I stood on the rooftop of this twenty-story building for the past thirty minutes. I hated Seattle almost as much as I hated winter, but then again, what I liked or disliked had no say in what my life had come to.

Feeling dead inside, I took out my phone, the one I almost always kept shut down. Moving my finger over the broken screen, I felt the shift of the damaged surface underneath the pad of my thumb as I waited for the screen to light up. Once it did, I opened the group chat of the people I used to consider my family and focused my attention on Chief's text. He was getting married to the lawyer who'd represented me during my trial last year. I had no idea how it happened because the last I knew, he was with Kai, but then again, I didn't care.

While I was stuck in the hell I was born into for the past twelve months, they all kept living their lives. In the beginning, they used to write to me, especially Andrei, but after a few months, even he'd stopped. I never answered any of their calls or texts, so they eventually gave up, which was good… I guess. And yet, even though I knew being away from me kept them all safe, I couldn't help the rage twisting my gut. Not at them but at myself and the decisions I'd made that forced me to be away from him . Away from the missing part of my heart.

Doing what I promised myself not to, and only because it hurt so fucking much, I closed the group chat and opened my photo gallery. I tapped on that one photo where soft sunrays reflected in Shay-Lee's eyes while his gorgeous lips stretched into the most beautiful smile a sucker like me had ever seen as I kissed his cheek. Only the cracks on my screen went right between us and nearly erased my whole face. By some miracle, his side remained untouched, and I could continue to gaze into his stunning eyes for the rest of my life.

My heart ached with the distance separating us, and my stomach flopped with the memory of leaving him behind. Whenever I thought of him, the pain nearly sliced me in two, and in the beginning, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get through this year without going crazy. I was worried sick for his well-being and recovery, but somehow, I was able to block away those thoughts long enough to survive one day at a time. My only comfort was that in a few weeks, I'd finally be free to go back to him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" someone asked, and I turned to look at one of the men I worked with. "My balls are fucking freezing, and I've been here for less than a minute," he tsked, still standing by the emergency exit leading into the building.

"What do you want?" I snapped, irritated at this idiot for infringing on my time alone.

He seemed even more pissed off than I was. "The boss is here, and he's pissed." That was his way of saying I better get my ass in there before he turned on his heels and left me alone.

With my jaw clenched, I ripped my stare away from where he stood only a second ago and looked back at my phone, my heart breaking with how much I missed Shay-Lee.

"Just a little longer, Llorón ," I whispered to myself, somehow praying to God he could hear me. Although, by now, I knew there was no God in this world, only devils. Fucking demons.

Shutting down the phone, I waited until the screen turned black, then walked back inside, my body still cold from standing outside for so long. The resentment and anger I felt thus far only doubled the second I stepped inside the guarded room and saw Dion's smug face looking at me with the same smile from when he came to visit me in jail.

" I knew it was only a matter of time before you'd ask to meet." He grinned, then cocked his head forward. "That must hurt like a bitch," he added, referring to the black eye I was sporting after the guards beat me the fuck up.

They got violent because of how my meeting with my lawyer ended the other day, with me nearly choking him to death after he came up with those sickening files.

"Cut the bullshit," I snarled at him, holding myself together because my urge to kill and destroy was like a living thing, beating and breathing inside me.

"Fine." Dion glanced at the guard standing in the corner of this room, which was enough to make the man step outside. This French fucker owned people everywhere. Once we were alone, he leaned closer to me. "Let's hear you out."

"Get me out of here."

He snorted. "And how would I do that?"

"I know you have your ways."

"Okay, let's say I can get you out of here." He tilted his head aside, still holding my deadly stare. "Why would I do that?"

"So I can kill that motherfucker."

I still refused to believe what that lawyer had shown me was the truth, but even if it wasn't, I had every intention of ending Christian W. Rogers's life in the most brutal way one could ever think of. The thing was, if I ended up locked in here for the rest of my life, I'd never be able to do that, hence why I asked to see this demon to make a deal with him. It took all of my pride to call in a favor from the man behind my brother's death, but Shay-Lee's life meant more to me than anything.

Dion's smile grew bigger. "I have a deal for you."

Hearing those words coming out of his mouth frightened me because I knew a deal with him was no better than a deal with the devil.

"I'll get you out of here and will help you kill Christian without getting caught, but in exchange for a life, you give me a year of yours." He held up his hands and shook his head with a light grin. "As simple as that, can you believe it?"

No , I couldn't, but at this point, I had no other option than to take it. So without stopping to dive deeper into his words, I nodded.

"We have a deal."

Back to the present, I focused my eyes on Dion, who was sitting on a leather couch in this fancy room that one could mistake for a proper office. Only just a couple of hours ago, pounds of drugs were sorted on the same table Dion was now resting his legs on.

"What is that?" Dion asked, kicking a box that was on the table closer to me.

I had to stop it before it fell off the table and then straightened back up.

"A box."

He tsked. "Don't play with me, jackass. What's inside of it?"

I hissed under my breath. "A hand."

He snorted. "That's right. A hand." He dropped his legs from the table and leaned with his legs spread apart, finally sitting like the mob boss he was. "And what did I ask for?"

I kept quiet.

"Answer me before I shove that hand down your throat."

"A head."

"That's right." Dion got up and walked around the table, picking up the box before coming to a stop in front of me. "I asked for this motherfucker's head, and you give me a hand?" He opened the lid, yet the chopped limb did little to shift me.

After all, I was the one to chop it off and then put it in this box.

Removing my eyes from the amputated hand, I met Dion's stare. "I don't kill."

Dion studied me before he held the box in one hand, and one of his men quickly came to take it from him without Dion even saying a word.

"You're my hound, just like they are." He referred to all the men standing around us that would shoot me in a heartbeat. "And just like any other hound I own, you do as you're told."

Gone were the days I'd been one of his Gatti . And more than once, the things he'd forced me to do made me miss that damn Gatto mask. But no matter how many times he threatened me and how determined he was to break me into being his dog, there were things I'd never do.

"I don't kill," I hissed through gritted teeth, not afraid of his vicious eyes.

But my words didn't seem to scare him off, as he just smirked like the crazy fucker he was. "Didn't you kill him ?" He licked his lips. "Oh, that's right, you didn't just kill him. You butchered him."

My chest tightened, and I held my breath, trying to keep it cool, even though his mockery was enough to stir awake the beast within me. My palms felt hot and wet, like they were still covered with his blood, and I knew that if I looked down, all I'd see was red. My nose scrunched up with the sudden stench of blood and burning flesh that flooded me as my head pounded with the sounds of his screams. Screams that went on for days until what had been left of him could no longer resemble a human. My skin turned cold, and my knees grew weak as my heart beat like crazy, and I felt like I was about to pass out when Dion laughed.

"My God, wasn't that an exciting sight," he chuckled, pleasure oozing with his sadistic joy. "You, my sweet dog, are an artist. I swear to God, not even I had the stomach to do what you did to that scum." He moved closer and then grabbed my jaw.

The pain from his fingers digging into my skin snapped me out of my sick head, and I stared back at him.

"It's why I want you to work for me. Because I see your talent, Camilo, your true talent."

To be a cold-blooded monster who could rip a man's body apart with its bare hands? A beast who enjoyed watching another human being writhing in pain until it was too great to move? But Christian wasn't a human being. He was a rapist. A devil who hurt the one thing I loved most in this world. And same as any other rapist, he deserved death. So whatever Dion was trying to prove was utter bullshit. The only man I'd killed was Christian, and only because he deserved it.

"It doesn't matter what you want," I rasped, not afraid of him. "I have two more weeks with you, then I'm done."

Silence drew between us before Dion's brows pulled close. "What are you talking about?"

Not minding the other men in the room, my sole focus was on him. "Our deal. Next month, it will be one year, meaning it's over."

My heart raced as his expression slowly shifted from confused to amused.

"Next month will only mark the end of the first out of five years you owe me."

Pissed off at his nonsense, my jaw twitched, and I stepped closer, nearly headbutting him. "What?"

He only smirked, holding my gaze as if I wasn't a spit away from killing him. "That was our deal, Camilo. A year for each life taken." He lifted his hand, holding four fingers in the air. "On that little plane crash we organized to give you Christian on a silver platter, with no questions asked, four people had died." He added another finger. "Then you murdered Christian." With five fingers up, he waved his hand before patting my cheek. "So give me a little smile, will you? We're going to have so much more fun together."

My whole body was burning with my rage, and without thinking about my actions, I pulled out my gun and pointed it at his head. Ignoring the guns his men quickly aimed at me, I spoke. "You son of a bitch, you tricked me."

Unfazed by the barrel pressed against his temple, Dion smiled like the sick monster he was. "It's not my fault you were too dumb to listen." He snorted. "But that can be expected of a dog."

"I'd rather just kill you now and die than serve you one more day," I rasped, my voice deep and low.

"You can, but just know that if you pull that trigger, not only would you pull it on me and yourself, but on your sweet baby, as well."

The mention of Shay-Lee was all it took to force the raging monster inside me to stop, and I swallowed hard before taking down the gun.

"That's right, Camilo. I have a man ready to kill your whore at any moment, so remember that the next time you're about to do something stupid like this."

Feeling like a fool, I stayed rooted to the floor as Dion turned around and walked back to the couch. "Someone get me something to drink," he ordered before looking back at me. "And you, you're lucky I enjoy you so much, or you would have been dead long ago."

He might as well have done it because living for four more years in this hell would be worse than death. In order to get rid of one devil, I made a deal with another, and now, I was paying the price. One year was too much, so four more?

My breath shuddered as the room began closing around me. There was no way I'd make it, no fucking way I could go through this torture for another second.

"Now, go get some rest, Camilo, because first thing tomorrow morning, you're flying to Switzerland for some unfinished business I have there."

Unable to hear a word he was saying, I got out of that room and out of that building. Walking straight into the freezing night, I turned into the first alley I spotted. "Fuck," I screamed and punched the wall, only the ache spreading through my tensed fist wasn't enough to overcome the one in my chest, and I threw another punch, and another one, and another one. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." I pressed my head to the cold wall and cried, cursing the day I'd exchanged one prison with another. Breaking my own hand wasn't even enough to distract me from this nightmare, and for a second, I thought of pulling out my gun and ending it there and then. But as my finger grazed the trigger, I thought about my mom and how she'd left me. And then I thought about him, about the love of my life, and that time I snuck in to visit him in the hospital. He was asleep, unaware of my stolen visit that lasted for no more than a few minutes, but it gave me enough power to get through those lonely months.

" I'll be back to you before you know it." I kissed the top of his head, lingering for as long as I could before pulling away. "It will be so fast it will almost feel like a dream." That was what I'd promised him, so how could I betray him even more than I already had?

Taking a deep breath, I let go of the gun. I might have sold my soul to the devil, yet Shay-Lee was the one holding my heart. And for as long as he'd have it, I had no choice but to grit my teeth and accept my fate because I'd return to him come hell or high water.

Come.

Hell.

Or.

High.

Water.