Chapter 12
Dima
Massimo is filth. Absolute fucking scum and he deserves everything that is coming to him.
Kristie and I spoke about whether he deserved a special audience with Gretchen, but given we’ve just done a round trip to The Keep it seemed a little over-kill.
Not to mention Kristie got onto a rant about fossil fuels, our use of them and our impact on the environment.
It was very convincing, but not enough for me to get rid of my car in favor of a little gas saving Beetle like hers.
“Oh you’ve been a very bad boy, cousin.” La Strega says as she kicks the back of his knee, making him stumble to a kneel in front of her. She’s La Strega when she’s in this power role, the shift between the two facets of her personality striking in their differences. One hard, one soft.
Her cousin Massimo moves to grab her and that’s when I step out of the shadows, gun trained on him. He stops in his tracks, makes an awful sound and then spits at her, his saliva running down the front of her shirt, in a lame attempt to get back at her.
“You’re so fucking gross. But you knew that, didn’t you?”
“Fuck you, Witch!” Massimo tries to spit at her again, but he’s stopped by her vicious backhand.
I swallow my laugh, not wanting to draw her attention from her work. Not that it matters, because as soon as Massimo starts to snivel she beams at me and throws me a wink.
“You want me to fuck you the same way you fucked those little kids, hmmm Massimo? You want to beg and scream and cry like they did?” She pulls her snub nose revolver out, looking at it with affection. “No, actually, I don’t want to hear any excuses out of you, because there aren’t any.”
Kristie taps him twice on the cheek before she grips his face in her hand, squeezing so hard her fingers tips dig into his fleshy cheeks.
“Open wide, Massimo.”
He fights to keep his mouth closed, but it’s no use. Especially when Kristie forces the barrel of her snub nose revolver between his lips.
“Dici addiu, pezzu ’i merda.” She gently squeezes the trigger, the pop of the gun slightly muffled by Massimo’s lips around the muzzle as the back of his head explodes. Kristie braces herself, knowing the whispers are going to hit her at any moment now.
Lights fire behind my eyes and I stumble, my back hitting the wall as my head is filled with whispers, snippets of conversations I was never a part of.
“- her skin clammy as I lick the side of her face, tears running down -”
“- No! Please!” she begs so sweetly as I press her face into the filthy mattress. -”
“- I’ll pay you $50,000 for a little boy if you let me watch -”
“- Maddigan wants to see everything, make sure you do it in front of the camera-”
Bile rises in my stomach and I lean to the side, emptying the contents of my stomach onto the floor as I slide down the wall, my legs giving way.
“Dima! Are you OK?” Kristie comes into view, her hazel eyes huge in her soft face.
Not full of concern, no, full of fucking terror.
“I’m-” I cough. “I’m fine, just, fuck. The whispers.” I grip my head in my hands, eyes tightly shut.
“What did you just say?” Kristie whispers, voice hollow.
“What?” I look up, eyes meeting hers.
“Did you just say whispers?”
I stare at her as the voices in my head dissipate. “I, I heard them. The whispers. The feeling in the pit of my stomach as I heard it all. The filth, the evil.” My voice hoarse, eyes searching hers.
“Shit.” She kneels in front of me, between my legs. “Dima, when you have a vision, how does it feel?”
My brows pull together in confusion. “I feel a throbbing behind my eyes and in the back of my head. My vision goes a little hazy and then I see what the fates show me. Almost like I’m watching a movie.” Her face pales even more. “Kristie,” I start cautiously. “What’s wrong?”
“I think I had a vision,” she whispers. “Earlier, when I was watching Gretchen. The same thing happened. My vision went funny and I got a headache, I thought it was a migraine coming on.”
I sit upright, shuffling forward a little so I can touch her, let the feel of her beneath my hands ground me.
“What did you see?”
“I saw a mansion. Big, white columns. You were standing against one, watching a woman who looked a fuck load like me. But you somehow knew it wasn’t me because your eyes found me across the lawn.
You smiled at me and I wanted to smile at you, but over your shoulder, behind you was someone who looked like Maddigan, but, shit, I don’t know how to explain it.
It was him, but not him. Like they were wearing a Maddigan mask or something.
What does that mean? Is what you see what is going to happen? ”
I lean my head back, trying to make sense of this all. I mean, not only did I hear the whispers, but Kristie had a vision. Somehow our gifts have morphed, been shared, fuck I don’t know.
“I had the same vision, but from my perspective. I never saw or felt anyone behind me.” I think back to what I saw, what I felt. “I felt a coldness behind me, maybe it was what you saw?”
She nods, chewing her lip. “OK. OK. So, let’s just accept that us sharing a gift is weird and question that later.” I nod, because there’s a fuck ton to unpack on top of what I just heard. “So, you know what I saw. What did you hear?”
“I heard a lot of shit I wish I didn’t. But more importantly I heard Maddigan’s name mentioned.”
She closes her eyes, dropping her head. “Yeah, I heard it too.”
“What do you want to do? I’ll follow your lead.” I say gently, squeezing her hand in mine,
She sucks in a deep breath, then blows it out, looking up at me. “I think it’s important that we continue with our plan. There’s three more on the list, and every one gets me closer to who is pulling the strings. But first, I need Gabe. He’s the only one who can help us.”
I nod in agreement. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
I have three more nights before Halloween. Time is running out quickly and we need this done so we can get on with the rest of our lives, no matter how long or short they may be. All I know is that without her, there is no me.
Kristie
So, it turns out that when you have a foster brother who loves to suck the joy out of people, who you thought you killed but may, in fact, not be dead, well it kinda ruins your libido.
Which is why, after washing the filth of Massimo and his secrets off our skin, Dima and I found ourselves wrapped around each other in bed, with absolutely no contact between our private parts.
Dima’s steady breathing has soothed me enough to relax into the moment, not worrying about him dying tonight at least. I’m silent as we lie here, but that is as much about letting him process what happened to him tonight, as it is about myself trying to process Maddigan not being dead.
Or maybe he is dead and someone out there has a similar curse and is using his name.
Who knows? I never knew Maddigan’s friends or what circle he moved in.
If it is him, how did he weasel his way into providing Mancini men with kids?
He never knew any of my extended family or even showed an interest in them whenever their names came up in conversation over the dinner table with Mama and Gabe.
“Sleep, Ved’ma moya, we have tomorrow to worry ourselves into a state.”
He’s right. I scooch backwards until I can feel Dima’s soft cock, twitching in anticipation.
“Ignore him. He’s always hard around you.” He presses a kiss to the back of my head and wraps himself even tighter around me.
My eyes grow heavy, my senses soothed by everything Dima.
* * *
“Dima, Dima!” I shake him, trying to wake him but he’s stiff as a board, his body twitching periodically.
His eyes are wide open, completely white as he lays motionless. The only thing keeping me somewhat calm and sane is the fact that his breathing is steady.
“Dima, baby, come back to me,” I whisper, wrapping his hand in mine, bringing it to my lips and gently kissing his knuckles.
I’m not sure this is usual. Or if this is what I looked like when it happened to me. Hope not because this is some scary shit. HIs body stiffens a little more before relaxing into the bed, eyes blinking rapidly, the blue brightening with every blink until he’s back with me.
“Kristie?” He asks, almost groggily.
“Yeah, babe, I’m here.” I kiss his knuckles again and his hand tightens around mine, a soft smile on his face.
I wait quietly, sitting next to him, still cradling his hand in mine. His Adam’s apple working every time he swallows, a crease between his brows as if trying to get his thoughts in order. Whatever he has seen must be a doozy because I’ve never seen him looking so reticent.
“Penny for your thoughts?” I ask, echoing his words from earlier.
“I saw everything you saw earlier, but this time, knowing what you saw from your perspective, I turned. I think you’re right, that whoever is behind me is wearing some type of mask. It makes sense, given it’s Halloween, but why a Maddigan one?”
That’s what I don’t understand either. From memory he never really had friends.
The only people who knew what he could do were Mama, Gabe and me.
Not to mention, he should be dead. I may have honed my skills since then, but I still remember clear as day the shot hitting him square in the chest, the blood blooming on his shirt.
The way he collapsed, lips blue. It doesn’t make any sense, but did Maddigan ever make any sense?
“I don’t know, but it has to be someone from my past. Not a lot of people knew Maddigan or what he could do.
More importantly, could it be him? I just don’t know.
” I flop back on the bed, Dima’s hand clasped in mine like an anchor keeping me from floating away.
I snort to myself. Since that weird vision and realizing what Dima means to me I’ve been all up in my feels in such a lame way.
I’m a bad bitch. A bad Mafia hitwoman bitch.
And now I’m waxing lyrical about how gooey and fluttery this man makes me feel.
“Well, how would Gabe feel about being called in the middle of the night?”
“He’d cuss us out and refuse to help.”
“Well, in that case, wanna fool around until it’s a decent time to call him?” the tips of his ears pinken and its so fucking adorable I think I just might have to sit on his face.
Yup, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.