A savage who’d destroy everything in his path. Like Leo, I’d become a man capable of terrible things. Lesson number one, the most important of them all, was control.Ĭontrol of my mind. In private, Leo tutored me on the finer points of being a responsible monster. In public, the Cordova family pretended they had no knowledge of what I was doing. While the Cordova cartel couldn’t go directly after the Toscano mafia, and vice versa, they could chip away at each other in other, underhanded ways-such as supporting my personal vendetta to take the Toscano mafia down. The world of the crime lords is an odd one.

After my retribution was complete, and I sat upon a proverbial mountain of the bodies of the dead, Leo made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. During that bloody year, I gained a reputation in the criminal world as a man you did not want to fuck with. In my grief, my thirst for vengeance had been legendary. He taught me how to draw a man’s death out until it stretched for days, and I’d used the unique skillset he’d given me to get my pound of flesh from the Toscano mafia. Some people deserved to hurt before they died, and Leo made sure they received their punishment in spades. I could appreciate his role in the world, his drive to make those that wronged him suffer. The old me would never have anything in common with a cartel’s torture master, but the new me found Leo’s brand of brutal justice to be something that spoke to my twisted soul.

Lucky for me, the Toscano mafia was enemies with the Cordova cartel, so the Cordovas had a vested interest in seeing me exact my bloody revenge.Īt first, I was just a tool for Leo, but we soon became friends. I’d slaughtered those first two men by sheer luck more than skill, and I probably would be dead if it wasn’t for Leo. Revenge and hatred offered toxic fuel, and I’d gorged on the bitter poison until I became mad with it. For a year, I lived my life with complete reckless abandon. Psychotic, on a break with reality that allowed me to become a remorseless killer. When Leo found me, after I’d managed to kill two members of the Toscano mafia who murdered my wife, I’d been a complete mess. You can’t lose it, not with Layla upstairs. Leo gripped my shoulders, but my anger burned so fierce, I shook with the need to do violence. I’m gonna cut off their limbs one by one. “When I find out who did it, I’ll rip their skin off an inch at a time then throw them into a vat of bleach to drown. “Motherfucker!” I gripped my hands into fists, reigning in my temper. “Until we do,” Leo said in a dark voice, “Layla is in danger.”

Secret Thirst by Evangeline Anderson