The first time I saw Silas, he was just a street kid, covered in blood.
The only clean thing about him was the clumsy sincerity in his eyes as he tattooed my name over his heart.
Years later, when he seized power, he waved a hand and gave me half the city’s East Side as a betrothal gift. Everyone in the city knew Raven Stone was his obsession, his very life.
Until today, when Silas’s little starlet sashayed into our home.
She stood there, stomach bulging, eyes curved in a smug smile, and advised me.
“Are you going to leave with some dignity now, or wait until my son is old enough to throw you out himself?”
I simply lifted a hand, and ordered her dragged off. “Let’s see just how ‘pregnant’ she truly is,” I drawled.
Silas saw the spreading crimson beneath her, and his anger flared.
He pressed a knife to my throat, his voice low and menacing.
“Raven, you need to know your place!”
I chuckled softly, pressing the barrel of my gun against his heart.
“You’ve truly changed, haven’t you? Good thing I haven’t.”
“My only true heart? My ambition.”
Bang.
The shot rang out.
The one who fell was Jax, Silas’s loyal, limping subordinate.
“So you care that much? Right. That little starlet? Jax groomed her, carefully, perfectly, just to send her your way. To make you this furious with me, she must have some real talent.”
My gaze dropped to the glint of silver at my throat.
I scoffed.
“Still hesitating? Silas, you weren’t this indecisive before.”
“What’s wrong? Your hand’s shaking just holding a knife?”
My mocking gaze cut him deep. In the silent standoff between our eyes, he finally broke.
He tossed the knife aside and slumped back onto the sofa.
“Jax has been with me for ten years. What you did… it’s ruthless.”
I offered a sweet smile and had Jax dragged away.
“He’s not you.”
“I only go soft when it comes to you.”
Silas looked at me, his eyes clouded with complex emotions.
“I want to keep Skylar.”
“This life, Raven, it’s been nothing but blood and brutality. I’m tired. Skylar… she’s like a quiet window, a breath of fresh air. She makes me feel like a regular guy, someone who could just… live a normal life. Go grocery shopping, cook dinner.”
I didn’t rush to speak, setting my gun down beside me.
I lit a cigarette, taking a slow drag before I spoke.
“Normal?”
“Silas, have you told her about the blood on your hands, the dirty money in your ledgers, the enemies knocking on our door in the dead of night? You drag her little world of quiet domesticity into our world? That’s not normal, Silas. That’s a death wish.”
Silas frowned, clearly annoyed by my retort.
“Raven, I’m not asking for your permission.”
“I’m informing you.”
He stood up, heading to the inner room to cradle a pale, still-unconscious Skylar Bell, whose bleeding had stopped. Her face, nestled in his arms, looked eerily like a younger me in the flickering light – maybe seventy percent there.
“Raven, just settle into your role as the lady of the house.”
“This is your last chance. If you dare touch Skylar again, I won’t hold back.”
Silas strode away with his men.
The wide-open door funneled a draft through the house, extinguishing the cigarette between my fingers.
Dominic Cross approached from behind me, bowing slightly to relight it. He asked,
“Your aim shifted. Did you go soft, Raven?”
Through the swirling smoke.
I repeated the word, my tone laced with mockery.
“Soft? I never intended to kill him.”
“Silas’s life? One bullet would be enough. What I want is the password to his Swiss bank accounts, the ledgers of his illicit dealings, and every single one of his legitimate businesses.”
“Death, honestly, would be too easy for him.”
Dominic’s heart, which had sunk at my supposed “softness,” now thrummed with the chill of my ruthless declaration. He asked a somewhat naive question.
“Don’t you… don’t you love him?”
Countless memories flashed through my eyes, leaving behind only a faint shadow of fatigue or nostalgia.
“Love? Of course, I love him.”
“Otherwise, these past ten years, following him through firefights and bloodshed, what else would it have been? A game?”
“But, Dominic, love is a painkiller. Power? Power is oxygen. You can skip the pills and still live. But cut off the oxygen? You’re dead in minutes.”
The moment I finished speaking.
The mechanical clock in the living room chimed a few crisp notes.
Dominic glanced at his phone, a new message displayed, and reported to me.
“Latest news, Augustus Stone, the boss of the North Side, is dead. They’re calling it… a heart attack.”
“Mm.”
My single-syllable response was cold, almost indifferent.
Dominic couldn’t help but step half a pace closer, his voice tinged with confusion.
“Aren’t you surprised, Raven? He was your father.”
The corner of my mouth curved slightly, something like a smile.
“Why would I be surprised?”
“I did it.”
Dominic’s breathing hitched, his pupils constricted, the color draining from his face. I watched his pale face, my tone as calm as if discussing the weather.
“I’ve cleared enough obstacles from my path.”
“Even a biological father… isn’t an exception.”
The orange glow at my fingertip burned to its end, and I casually crushed it in the ashtray. I looked at Dominic.
“Now, any more questions?”
Dominic lowered his head, not daring to ask anything further.
I stood up, picked up the gun from the table, and casually gestured toward a room.
“Didn’t Silas say he wanted to keep Skylar? Then let her stay.”
“The show, it’s not too short for one more act.”
The crisp sound of footsteps echoed from the foyer.
Skylar Bell’s sickly sweet voice carried through, as she bossed Silas’s men around, directing their every move with her luggage.
“Careful!”
“Silas bought this for me at auction, don’t you dare scratch it!”
She stood in the luxurious villa, scanning her surroundings, her eyes filled with undisguised greed and provocation. Her gaze finally landed on my back, as I sat on the sofa, flipping through documents.
She sashayed over to me. “Raven,” she cooed, “Silas said it’s such a lovely place here, and he wants me to move in, get along with you. You don’t mind, do you?”
I didn’t even look up.
I turned another page of the financial report, my voice flat and emotionless.
“I do mind.”
Skylar didn’t expect me to be so direct, unwilling to even bother with pleasantries.
She froze for a moment, then her smile widened, now a smug, utterly foolish sneer.
“It doesn’t matter if you mind.”
“This is what Silas wants. He said that once I get familiar with company management, I’ll be the lady of the house.”
She walked to the liquor cabinet, talking to herself.
She picked up one of my collector’s crystal glasses. “This glass is lovely. Perfect for my smoothies.”
Seeing that I still wouldn’t acknowledge her.
Skylar simply sat down beside me, snatching the documents from my hand.
“What are you looking at?”
“You’re not allowed to look at these! From now on, only I get to see these files!”
The crisp edge of the freshly printed page. Yanked from my grasp, it sliced a stinging line across my palm, a bead of blood blooming.
Only then did I finally turn my gaze to Skylar Bell, my eyes cold and devoid of emotion, as if looking at an insignificant piece of trash. Honestly, it had been years since I’d seen someone so desperate to die.
“Who let you in?”
“Silas, of course! You’re just a…”
I cut Skylar off, my voice still soft, but carrying an unshakeable pressure.
“There’s only one master in this house.”
Skylar was momentarily cowed by my aura. But then she stood up again, puffing out her chest.
She looked down at me, triumphantly.
“You’d dare touch me?”
“Silas said yesterday was his absolute last warning. Lay a hand on me again, and he’ll kick you out so fast your head will spin!”
I let out a soft laugh.
The smile didn’t touch my eyes, and to Skylar Bell, it was a chill that went straight to her bones.
I stood up, pulled the gun from my waistband, and reloaded it in front of her.
“Touch you?”
“That would just dirty my hands.”
I suddenly raised my hand.
Skylar shrieked, cowering, her hands over her head, eyes squeezed shut.
The expected death didn’t come. My gun wasn’t aimed at her.
It was aimed at the liquor cabinet behind her.
The next second –
CRACK!
A crisp shattering sound exploded, and flying fragments even grazed Skylar Bell’s leg, leaving a deep, bloody mark.
She froze in place, her face bloodless, forgetting even how to cry.
“Filthy.”
“Have it cleaned up.”
Dominic immediately responded.
I looked at the trembling Skylar Bell, then bent down. I warned her, word by word.
“The last person who dared to throw a tantrum like that in front of me was Jax. I sent him to meet his maker yesterday. If you don’t believe me, I can arrange for you to join him and ask.”
Finished, I straightened up and pulled out my phone, calling Silas.
I put it on speaker.
“You have twenty minutes to get your people and her trash out of my house.”
“Otherwise, you can start planning a funeral.”
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