The Filthy One

“That’s not all he’s responsible for.” The anger inside me is taking precedence over my other emotions. The night in the alley, clear as day in my mind’s eye.

I’m not a violent person, I’d rather poke myself in the eye than hurt an insect on purpose, but this… this might just change me. Marco’s right. As much as the asshat who stole a patch of my skin seems to be where all this started, the calls have been going on for much longer. Frank may be the one who un-dicked the asshat—if what he said in the alley was true—but he’s also the one who scarred my face, has me walking faster at night, and now I find out he killed Mr. Bobby.

The afternoon in Polly’s office replays in my mind, the way his face screwed up when I turned him down, the way his fists clenched at my refusal.

“What else is he responsible for? Use it, Tesoro.”

“I… He…”

Argh, I want to scream at myself. The words catch in my throat, unmoving.

“Breathe with me. In… Out…”

Marco is surprisingly calm considering there’s a bloody man tied to a chair in the middle of his basement. But then, after the whole ritual thing at the wedding, I’m pretty sure I have put myself into a fucked-up situation with fucked-up people.

This is why I research.

I follow Marco’s lead, breathing in and out as he does, and it calms me a little. Then the sound of Frank’s heavy breaths invades my ears and makes my skin crawl with a hatred I’ve never felt before. It’s completely foreign to me, but as Marco grips my chin and forces me to look up at him, I calm.

“What did he do?”

With another deep breath, I try to find the words. Obviously, being attacked in an alley isn’t quite on the same level as an attempted murder on me, only for my friend to be killed instead, but it was fucking traumatic, and I never want to feel that kind of weakness again.

“He… he did this”—I move a hand to my eyebrow—“on the night he ambushed me on my way home.”

Marco’s eyes turn to fire and his grip on my chin tightens, but not to the point of pain.

“Then I have been too kind to our friend here.”

His hand moves up and I screech when I hear a gunshot, followed by Frank’s muffled scream. Spinning around, I see a new bloodied hole in his shin. I look down and see a gun in Marco’s hand, the sight driving me away from him, speechless.

“I will leave the rest to you, Tesoro. He is your gift. How he dies tonight is your choice.”

Fucking die?

“Marco, this… it’s too much. This isn’t me. I can’t. You have to let me leave.”

“I will give you the world, but this is something you need to heal. So you will stay right here beside me, as my queen, and you will show yourself how strong I know you are.”

“I don’t know what you want from me.” My body is on fire, my lungs struggling for breath again.

“Yes, you do.”

Marco bends to pick up the dagger I dropped, and places it back in my hand. He curls my fingers around the handle and keeps his hand over mine as he turns me once again to face Frank.

This isn’t right. It’s all kinds of wrong and I need to find a way out.

“Enzo, remove the gag.”

I didn’t even realize he was in the room with us, but he appears from the shadows in the corner of the room and does as instructed, removing the black material from Frank’s mouth. Frank splutters and spits, before that maniacal smile crosses his face once again, showing his blood-covered teeth.

“Now leave us.” As silently as he appeared, Enzo leaves the room.

“You’ll never be anything more than a fucking whore. You were supposed to love me, you ungrateful slut. That old man may have saved your shitty little life, but you’ll have to live with knowing it’s all your fault. If it wasn’t for you, he would still be alive.” Frank laughs, ending with a fluidy cough and a grin I want to wipe off his ugly face.

I can’t believe I trusted this man, Polly trusted this man with all her girls. She’s going to be devastated. How many others has he behaved like this with?

“Use his words, Tesoro.”