Three hours earlier
Commissioner Reynolds lived at the top of a high-rise apartment block in Trenton. It was ideal, actually, like the gods were shining down on me and approving my revenge, not that anything could have stopped me.
He lay on the concrete rooftop, sweating through his wrinkled dress shirt.
“I didn’t have anything to do with any of it, why would I go against you, De Sanctis?”
“Haven’t you seen some of those online challenges people make videos about? Some people are just too dumb to understand when something will result in certain death. You thought your little bit of power and pathetic reputation as a public figure would protect you. It’s a mistake you can only make once, I’m afraid.”
He groaned, staring at the sky. “I should have known those Castillo fuckers were all talk. ‘We can take out Renato, just give us a chance.’ Right.” He turned a miserable expression on me. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t cut me off. You limit my funds and collect all kinds of crap on me, but you forget how much I have to pay to people to keep the things you do quiet.”
“Not my problem. Did you see the news about your buddy, Judge Ellens?”
Reynolds swallowed hard. He’d seen. He had to have known he was next.
“I can still help you. You’ll need a new judge to look the other way. You’ll need someone to keep the detectives out of your business.”
“Maybe so, but it won’t be you.” I nodded to Elio.
He had tied Reynolds’ feet together with rope and anchored that around a cinder block. I took the bottle of lighter fluid I usually used to burn my gloves and dumped it liberally all over Reynolds and the rope.
“What are you doing? Renato, we can talk about this! I worked for your father.”
“I don’t care. I don’t care about anything except that you involved her.” The bruising on Charlotte’s jaw filled my head, and fury burned through me.
I jerked my head to Elio, who dragged the length of rope, pulling Reynolds near the edge of the roof.
“She’s fine, though! She’s alive.”
“This was going to be your outcome from the second you decided that she and her sister could be used in your small-minded games. Even if all she’d lost was a single eyelash, you’d still die just like this.” I flicked my hand at my sottocapo.
Elio pushed Reynolds over the edge. He screamed and then jerked. The cinder block dragged closer to the edge but held.
Reynolds cried with fear now, pleading for his life, no doubt shitting himself with panic. I should have recorded it. He was wriggling like a worm on a hook, thirteen flights up.
Instead, I took my lighter from my pocket and held the flame to the rope. It went up quickly, roaring into a blaze as it traveled along the rope, right toward the man dangling headfirst over the precipice. His screams were music to my ears. I savored them for a long moment before turning to my second.
“Let’s go. I want to be home when Charlotte gets back from class.”
I nodded to the security camera in the corner. Giada was already on it, splicing out the footage, the master of her digital domain.
