Envy (Criminal Sins 1)

My heart freezes over as I’m confronted with a pile of pillows, clearly purposefully stuffed under our blanket to make it look like someone was still there.

She’s gone.

The shock only lasts for a second before it’s replaced by unfiltered rage.

30

Angel

Two weeks later...

The little Irish village burns before me.

Cyrus stands at my side, loyal and stoic. We don’t talk; we only watch the flames consume the rival town.

“Nothing,” Cyrus curses. “All this for fucking nothing.”

I wipe blood from my lip. “We’re being led on a wild goose chase,” I growl. The flames outside hardly compare to the nuclear blast that lines my gut. “We need to go straight to the fucking source. I don’t care about the risk. We need to go to America, and I’m not coming back until I have Cat by my side and Enzo Barella’s head on a stick...”

“Sir! Sir! Mr. Kane!”

I keep my eyes trained on the burning town as one of Cyrus’s lackeys runs up to us.

“You have a visitor, Mr. Kane, back at the fortress. I told her she wasn’t allowed inside, but she... she just already was. I don’t know who let her in, but she won’t leave. She says you’re expecting her.”

That catches my attention. I turn to the young red-headed messenger and Cyrus and I both ask the same question at the exact same time.

“Who?”

“A... A Ms. Rivera, sir. Sirs. Luna Rivera.”

The name means nothing to me, but Cyrus immediately turns around and marches back to our car with his cell phone out and up to his ear.

“Who the fuck is Luna Rivera!?” I demand, following the Irish don as he barks orders into his cell phone.

“She’s co-leader of the Rio Syndicate. They know everything about Enzo Barella, and it seems like they’ve finally decided to return my fucking message...” the fiery Irishman whips open the passenger door of the dark green jeep we rode here in. “Get in,” he growls. “We’ve got a meeting with Lady Vengeance herself.”

The older woman has light brown skin and curly black hair. She wears her age with a confident elegance, but there’s an angry pain just behind her focused brown eyes that makes it clear she’s not messing around.

Luna Rivera is all business, and that business is revenge.

“I hear you’re having troubles with Enzo Barella,” she says, gently playing with her empty ring finger.

“That’s a fucking understatement,” I growl.

Luna seems unfazed by my rage. In fact, she almost appears to relish it. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get here before that happened,” she says. There’s a genuine, if controlled, sympathy in her voice, but her tone hardly wavers. “For our organization to survive, we have to stay in the shadows. If we were easy to get

a hold of, we’d all be dead by now.”

“Better late than never,” Cyrus chimes in.

Luna nods. “If it’s any consolation, I know what it’s like to lose someone you love, and I know what it’s like to want to get them back at all costs...”

Love. I immediately take a confrontational step forward at the strength of the word. “Love has nothing to do with it,” I growl, unsure of whether or not it’s the truth. “Someone has taken what’s mine, every last bit of it, and I don’t even know who!” My voice shakes the windows and rattles the walls, but the mini-earthquake is nothing compared to the eruption happening inside of me at the mention of that word. Love. Did I love Catalina? Do I love her? How would I even know what that kind of love is?

Right now, there’s only one thing I know for sure. I need her back. I’ll get her back...

Love has nothing to do with it...