3. Chapter Three
Chapter Three
CRUE
Nine Weeks Later
“ B eautiful, isn’t it?”
We’re standing on a cliff face, overlooking the vast expanse of the Colorado. Mountains, as far as the eye can see, with only a small dotting of light from the town below.
“Can’t see it,” he says.
“No, neither can I. Not really.” Pitch black nothingness extends beyond us, apart from Leadville. And Leadville upsets me more than I’m willing to admit, if asked. Where my Shadow can roam and play without fear of being seen in such beautiful nothing.
Nothing that is, except for this god-awful mining town and its people. And there are so few of them, too, somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half thousand souls. If I were a braver man, I might eradicate the town myself. Bring nature back to its glory and give my shadow its fill of freedom and death.
“Then why say it’s beautiful?” he asks.
His name is Devin Williams. He’s a thirty-something-year-old used car salesman with a thinning hairline and a patchy goatee to match. He’s not fat, but he’s definitely on the bigger side. “I’m larger than life,” he put it when we met, “and it gives the ladies a lot more to hold onto.”
Larger than life, indeed.
“Because that’s what people say, isn’t it? It’s beautiful. Stunning. Awe inspiring. Whatever the fuck.”
I can’t even see the stars tonight. Storm clouds rolled in sometime during the afternoon and made our hike up the mountain much harder. Devin’s preferences for burger meat and bread over healthier alternatives did the same. But we’re here now. Talking like normal people do, about how beautiful the nothingness is.
“It’s not as if there’s more to see during the daytime. Old rocks and trees. It’s all nature is. What’s the difference from looking out of your bedroom window and seeing the same in your garden?” I add, still contemplating my annoyance and my sudden hatred of Leadville.
“Beats me, man.”
I asked about his wife, and he answered that the ring symbolized a marriage that they had both moved on from long ago. I asked about his kids, and he told me that there were two of them, but neither wanted anything to do with dear old dad . That breaks his heart, and leaves him feeling vulnerable and weak.
I told him, children are the weakness. You can’t risk it all when you have a young one latched to your tit. I guess that analogy works better for the mother, but my point stands. He told me again; his children are his weakness. I found that phrasing strange, not his children, but children in general.
“Do you ever look at your life and wonder how you ended up where you are?” We’re not in my kill chamber and this conversation doesn’t carry the same weight out here. It’s still therapy, though; talking to the dead while they still draw breath. Healing wounds I didn’t know I had.
“Nah, man, I just go with the flow.” Devin’s voice doesn’t waver. That’s surprising, considering how high up in the mountain we are, but my guess is it’s because he can’t see the ground below.
I’ve spent my whole life fighting the current. Not by choice, but by design. I was born different, broken, and no one can tame me.
“Do you honestly mean that?” I consider giving him a reason to regret those words, but decide it’s better to wait.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” I like to think there’s terror on his face. That his lip is trembling, and his eyes are wide as he begs for forgiveness and mercy. But his tone ruins my pure image of how this is supposed to go.
“Yes, but coming here was a mistake.” I raise my brow at him, even if he can’t see it. To say he followed me willingly would be a half-truth. By definition, he followed me. He was behind, while I led our ascent into the great wilderness. But usually, that word doesn’t have strings attached.
In this case, I had fastened a belt around his neck, and every time he lagged behind, one hard, choking tug pulled him back on course.
“I didn’t have much choice.”
“But you did. You could’ve walked away.” In truth, I’d have found another way to dispose of Devin if he’d have made that choice. I’m strong, fit and ready to conquer any challenge, even if hauling his ass up the mountain would’ve been a much harder task than I bargained for.
“Are you gonna let me go?” He is still calm. Had things been a little different, I’d have thought dangerously so. But they aren’t, and like Leadville, his inability to show me fear is starting to wear my patience as thin as his hairline.
“I suggest you choose your words more carefully, Devin.” I ease my grip on the end of my belt that’s wrapped around his neck, just enough for his larger-than-life body to inch closer toward the edge.
“Oh, shit.” he shouts, and it echoes across the vast, black nothing. “What the hell are you doing?”
Was that so fucking hard?
“You know, I don’t give a shit about the young women you killed, Devin. Or whatever other filthy thing you might’ve done to them.” It’s the first time I’m bringing it up. Judging by the way he mumbles obscenities to himself and begins to beg, I would bet it’s the first time anyone has mentioned it.
Confirmation feels good. It means I’m still one hell of a hunter, even after years of being handed contracts with the names and addresses filed in.
Still, Devin Williams has to die, no matter what the truth is.
“Then why are you doing this?” he whimpers. It’s music to my ears.
“I need to feed the beast. It’s calling for blood and I don’t want to know what will happen if it doesn’t get it.”
“You’re fucking crazy. Let me go right now!”
“What did I say about phrasi—”
Bang!
Bang!
Two shots ring out, there’s a tug on the belt and a long pause before I hear the sound of the thud of Devin Williams’ body on the cold, rocky floor below.
“You’d better have saved one of those bullets for me.” The wind carries my harsh whisper further than I expect it to.
An eye for an eye. He took yours, now you take his life.
I’m angry. My shadow is furious. We prepared for this kill for two weeks. I chose a man no one would miss. He’s just some small town nobody, in the piece of shit town I chose to hide away in. Now, he’s dead. A big mess of nothing on the side of the mountain.
Exactly where he was going to end up, anyway. He and I reached the same end goal, so why does it matter? Because my hand didn’t deliver the final blow. There’s no satisfaction in watching someone else make a kill.
He was an easy target. A man without burden. But, most importantly, he was mine.
“Now, why would I need a bullet for you?” A familiar voice replies. I don’t dare look at him. It’s the closest he’s ever come to meeting my shadow, and even in the inky black I don’t trust he won’t see it has taken back its control of me.
“How did you find me, Mark?”
“Have you forgotten we run in the same circles, brother?” I hear him holster his weapon, before crunches on the rocks beneath his feet tell me he is approaching me.
Brother? The fucking nerve of this guy . Still, the point remains. One pound of flesh for another.
“I haven’t spoken to those circles in a very long time.” I keep my focus on the horizon ahead of me. Drinking in my shadow’s playground one last time. For better or worse, Mark’s unexpected arrival means it’s time to leave.
“Yeah, well, I meant more along the lines of the tracking anyway.” He stops at the edge of the cliff, by my side. My shadow screams to push him over the edge, but I somehow find the willpower to ignore it.
“You’re not an easy man to find.”
“You shouldn’t have found me at all.”
“Well, you’ll have to do better than the mountains if you want to get away from me, Crue.” I hear him rifling around in his pockets, before a blinding yellow flame burns my eyes.
“Why are you here?” That’s all that matters. The how’s and what’s of his sudden appearance can die with Devin.
“Two months is a long time in the game Lorenzo Napoli and Matteo Baronne play. Without your swift hand of justice maintaining the chaos, new moves are being made.” Mark drags out a puff on a cigarette and I watch the ember burn away the paper around it.
“Stop trying to sound smart and say it straight.” It’s unusual for me to speak this way to my oldest friend. He is the closest person I truly have to a brother, but I’m irritated. Not only did he find me, while I was trying to stay clear of the mess I left in New York, but he stole my fucking kill. It is an injustice that will take me a very long time to forgive.
“Woah, calm down, big fella.” If it weren’t for the cigarette in his hands, I wouldn’t have been able to see him pull them up in mock surrender. “Something’s happening at the Napoli house. Something big. Lorenzo still wants you on his side in this war and asked me to convince you.”
Fuck.
“I tried to kill his daughter.”
“And? I wouldn’t be here if she’d have told ‘em, would I?” He takes another puff, before he flicks the half-smoked cigarette off the side of the mountain.
I’m not much one for prayers, but tonight I’ll make just one: start a fire and burn that piece of shit town to the ground.
“Any idea what’s happening?” I start walking back the same way I lead Devin up this mountain. I am disheartened in part, but also devilishly excited at the thought of seeing her again.
Killing her, you mean .
My shadow is right, but I ignore it once more.
“Nope, but I can tell you it’s nothing good. Lorenzo seems scared. More than if it were just a turf war with Matteo.” Mark starts to follow me.
“He has you, so why does he want me too?”
“I’m just a glorified messenger, Crue. I’m asking the same questions as you are.” He hooks an arm around my shoulder as we begin our descent down the mountain. “So, what do you say? Do we ride this one out for old times’ sake?”
“I’ll think about it.”
And I’ve got a long drive back to New York to do it.