afi

sound low i

sleep. Your wife didn't eat for a week." He stared at the b

e was already reaching int

o be a human being. Rossi, a man who'd spent three decades in the bloodiest corners of the

e effort was too much-it drained something from me, some essential residue

tated notes. His hands didn't shake. His voice didn't waver. He approached the body the way he approached

was stitching up

her face. Look at her hands. Loo

rated by acid. The hands were ruined.

re was

ed blood. The charm Dante had torn from my taser. The charm my father had

otes, peeled off his gloves, and w

six inches fro

charm-just a millimeter, just enough to knock it off the tray and onto the floor where he'd have to see

ng ha

head. Look at the tr

ed up a

his

could have told him he was staring at

to the left-he would have known. He would have dropped to

didn'

uldn't m

. Not the silence. The helplessness. The unbearable, suffocating helplessness

-