“Lia’s like you,” I whispered.
“I didn’t want to be there,” the kid said in my voice. “Forced into a war I didn’t want any part of and didn’t understand. I followed because I was told to follow. I didn’t understand what was happening.”
One of his hands moved down and rested against the shape of the explosives wrapped around his waist.
“I killed you.” My hands were still shaking, and I tried to hang onto Odin’s body to make them stop, but it didn’t help. The rest of me was shaking hard enough to shake his body as well.
“She’s the same.”
“I didn’t make her come here,” I said as I rapidly shook my head. “She…she wanted to…to be here…”
“She wanted you. She didn’t understand the consequences. How could she?”
“But I told her everything!”
He didn’t have anything to say about that, only looked at me pointedly.
“Did I kill her, too?”
He didn’t answer.
I stood up and pointed the Beretta in his face.
“Did she fucking die here because of me?” I screamed at him.
He didn’t have any more words, so I shot him.
The noise echoed through the apartment, and the bullet blasted a hole in the wall of the bedroom. I shot three more times, and the kid slowly faded away into nothingness.
Dropping to my knees, I took Odin’s head in my hands one more time.
“I’m sorry, buddy…so fu
cking sorry…”
I squeezed my eyes shut, told myself to get a fucking grip, and pushed away from him. I stumbled out of the bedroom, holstered my Beretta, grabbed my SIG and the assault rifle, and ran back outside to Rinaldo’s car. I broke every traffic rule in existence to get to Rinaldo’s office in just a few minutes.
“She’s gone,” I said as soon as I walked in. “I went to the apartment, and she’s not there.”
Rinaldo’s eyes tightened, and he glanced around at the other men in the room before looking back to me.
“I was afraid of that,” Rinaldo said with a nod. “He’s not answering my calls, either. I sent him a message that the hit was called off, but he didn’t reply. Where the hell is your shirt?”
I glanced down at my bare chest for a second before I looked back to Rinaldo. I should have been cold, but I didn’t feel anything.
“Soaked in my dog’s blood,” I replied. “He killed Odin.”
Rinaldo’s eyes closed briefly, and he shook his head. His throat bobbed before he spoke again.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“Davies knew where we were living.”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you before all hell broke loose,” Rinaldo said. “Davies went to get her—said he knew right where she was but didn’t tell me how. He’s a new guy, and I honestly thought he was bluffing, but if she’s gone, he almost certainly has her.”
“Is she already dead?” I didn’t want the answer to the question, but I had to ask.
“I don’t know,” he responded. “I would think if she was, he’d tell me so I could pay him for the job. I don’t know if that counts as hope or anything, but it’s a start.”