ella

on my tongue, a vow made to a corpse

agged gasp. I blinked, my vision blurring. The hellish red neon light filtering through the window was exactly the same,

s brea

n the shadows, clawing my way through the underworld to destroy Damien Valenti, only to

lly settle, the flimsy mo

teeth, stepped in, followed by a hulking th

und my neck-the only thing of value I had left. I flinched, and Angelo let

grunted, stepping forward a

obbing helplessly as that blow accel

ers, surged through my veins. As the manager yanked the gold chain, I didn't pull back. I drove my elbow directly into his throat with

ngelo into my arms and bolted

olving locked into place. I knew Damien's empire would expand, and I knew exactly where its structural flaws were. I knew that my exile wasn't just Da

y secrets. But vengeance could wait.

en the heavy metal door of an o

e back of my throat. Dr. Rossi, a disgraced surgeon who patched up mobsters for exorbitant fees, looked up fr

sweeping over my soaked, ruined clothes and

reached for

rip on Angelo and met Rossi's eyes with the dead, cold st

espiratory Distress Syndrome. His lungs are filling with fluid. You need to perform an immediate thoracentesi

The Associate paused, his

tage, yet speaking with the absolute, chilling authority of a trauma surgeon. Curiosity

nd gestured to the metal table. "Put the b