Then footsteps sound from behind us.
I spin just in time to see Nico emerge from a back room, wiping his hands on a rag already stained with what looks to be...blood. He looks calm and casual, like he just finished changing a tire. It makes me feel a little sick.
“Thank you for retrieving him,” Rafe says evenly.
Nico nods once and leans back against the wall, arms crossing over his chest.
My heart is pounding so hard it hurts. I open my mouth again, words burning at the back of my throat, but Adela steps forward just enough to catch my eye.
Rafe’s gaze sweeps over me before he turns back to the man. He steps closer, his shoes echoing softly on concrete. “Good evening, Enzo,” he murmurs.
The man doesn’t respond. Instead, he spits. Bloody saliva misses Rafe by inches as he effortlessly steps aside.
I flinch.
Rafe looks down at it, then back at the man, a darkness beginning to slither behind his glacial eyes. “I hear you’ve been leaking shipping details tounfavorables,”he says calmly.
Enzo lifts his head and stares defiantly at Rafe.
The warmth drains from Rafe’s expression. Whatever mask he was wearing slides clean off. “You were warned, Enzo,” he says softly, leaning down to eye level. “That was your last fucking chance.”
My chest tightens. I take a step back without meaning to, bumping into Micah. “Rafe—” I start.
Too late.
Something in him shifts. The bored expression has completely evaporated. His jaw tightens. His icy eyes go flat and dark. Like a switch has suddenly been flipped, and whatever was pretending to be human steps aside for the demon to stalk forward.
Enzo laughs. It’s wet and broken. “You think you scare me?”
Rafe smiles, but it’sevil. A man so beautiful isn’t supposed to look like that.
“Observe,” Adela murmurs quietly beside me.
Rafe slowly steps closer to Enzo, like he’s a predator about to strike. He reaches out to tilt Enzo’s chin upward with twofingers. It’s eerily gentle and almost intimate. “You already made your choice,” Rafe says softly. “I’m just the consequence.”
Enzo spits again, a weak, defiant gesture. “Fuck you.”
Heather inhales sharply beside me, bracing for Rafe to snap.
He exhales through his nose, amused. Then he moves. One hand fists in Enzo’s hair, yanking his head back hard enough that the chains rattle violently against the wall.
Enzo lets out a startled gasp.
The sound that follows ishorrific. A horrible, strangled noise that claws its way up my spine.
Without hesitation, Rafe drags a blade across Enzo’s throat with a smile on his face. Like he’s done this a hundred times before—andenjoyedevery single one. Blood pours down Enzo’s chest and pools on the concrete. I can’t scream. The sound lodges in my chest and stays there, burning like hell.
Enzo jerks violently against the chains, heels scraping, body convulsing as Rafe holds him upright by his hair,watching him. Waiting. His expression doesn’t change. It remains cold and sickeningly focused, waiting to watch the light leave the man’s eyes.
Heather makes a broken sound beside me, fingers crushing my hand.
Enzo’s movements slow, and his head lolls forward within seconds. The weight of his body goes slack in Rafe’s grip, knees buckling uselessly beneath him.
Rafe lets go, and Enzo collapses to the floor in a dead heap, chains clanging loudly in the sudden silence.
It’s…over. He’sdead.
My ankles suddenly feel weak. I’m shaking so hard I can barely stand.