Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 144832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144832 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 724(@200wpm)___ 579(@250wpm)___ 483(@300wpm)
“What the fuck, Brio!” a big man yelled as he stepped out of the 4Runner. “What are you doing?” He started toward the truck, and immediately, the others leaping out of the 4Runner surrounded him as he came purposefully across the parking lot.
Five more men wearing Demon colors joined them as they hurried toward the truck. The first man, obviously in charge, yanked open the door to Brio’s truck. The passenger spilled out, hanging obscenely upside down.
The men jumped back as if bitten, surrounding the truck, weapons drawn, as if somehow they were going to find the killer in the bed waiting for them. The leader pointed toward two men and sent them toward the gazebo. Two others were sent toward a dark row of shrubs. Two others went in the direction of the small grove of royal empress trees that decorated what had once been an outdoor eating area but now was overgrown with weeds. The leader kept the last two men with him to inspect the truck itself and the other three bodies in the back seat.
Vittorio signaled to Elie to take the two men headed toward the shrubs. Thick green leaves grew so close to one another it was nearly impossible to tell where one plant started and another ended. There had been an attempt to start a garden there at one time. Elie could see the faint stone path every now and then twisting through the thick shrubbery, partially broken in places by overgrown roots.
If the two men were trying to be quiet, they weren’t succeeding. He could hear their boots as they kicked up rocks and dirt and stumbled on the uneven, broken path. It was very dark, with the trees weeping overhead and the ominous clouds covering any light the moon might have provided. They were thorough in their search, splitting up, using their boots to kick under the shrubs when they couldn’t see beneath the thick branches. It was easy enough to find them, come up behind them and administer justice when they made so much noise.
Vittorio followed the two men into the grove of royal empresses. The men stayed close to each other, spoke little and when they had to sweep low, they went back-to-back. They were smart about their search. He was patient. There was always one moment, one second that gave an opportunity. He just had to be ready. He paced along with them, stalking them from only three feet away, sometimes less. One of them was uneasy, looking around, peering into the darkness, sometimes right at him, but he went still and never moved a muscle, and the man always looked away. The uneasy Demon stopped abruptly and retraced his footsteps, whispering to his partner to wait for one moment. He only went back five steps, but his partner had gone ahead an additional five. That was far too big of a gap for either of them to survive.
Vittorio had shadowed the nervous one, knowing the Demon was more likely to know something was wrong and not wait to discover if his partner was dead before making a run for safety. He delivered justice fast, and, as his partner turned back, alarmed that he didn’t answer, he killed him as well. Like Elie, he left the bodies where they fell.
Emmanuelle saw the two men headed her way. She didn’t have much cover from the overgrown weeds, but the shadow remained, thrown by the light in the parking lot. She stayed in the mouth of it and let the two men come to her. Cloud cover blocking out the moon cast darkness around the gazebo, so the strange shadow seemed bizarre, thrown like a grayish fog in a stripe over the ramshackle building.
One of the men peered inside before stepping in, beads of sweat gleaming on his face. His partner walked around the outside of the ruins. Emmanuelle waited until the man inside was close to her, his back to the shadow, his eyes on his partner. She delivered the signature kill, eased his body down and was back in the shadow all within two seconds, before his partner had time to turn his head.
“Ed?” His partner rushed inside, looking carefully around before dropping to one knee to feel for a pulse. “This is bullshit.” He turned his head to look around again.
Emmanuelle took him from behind, dropping his body on top of his friend’s. She stepped back into the shadow to ride it back to the parking lot, this time all the way to the pole where the lamp was, right in the middle of the lot. From the mouth of the shadow she could see Brio’s truck with three men just climbing out of it. They consulted briefly, one of them gesturing toward the 4Runner. The large man, clearly the leader, shook his head.