ena

he turned her head to look at me, her m

had just moved his entire base of operations to the indust

physical impact,

d indifference and gave a slow, measured nod,

of the café, a s

ked glass windows as they climbe

to the gray afternoon and was

me in the p

f my coat, but the chill did little to touch the

eeling paint sticking to the frame, the familiar

sofa, his boots propped up on the coffee t

a low-level parasite who sustaine

light entered Leo's ey

r girlfriend had accepted his proposal of marriage

llars-a buy-in to secure his

rged from the cramped kitchen, her eye

sum would be found, n

xpression hardening into a ma

n with the syndicate matchmaker wen

g sting exploded across my cheek, my head sna

, ordering me to accept the for

ining that the old man was offering a substantial price for

ckening cold w

oice a tremor as I asked if I was nothing more than a

her tone as cold and flat as a coroner's

o a decade past, to a dark night

s collateral, a bargaining chip to settle

then, sobbing on

Dante ha

inferno. His knuckles were split and raw from a fight I hadn't witnessed, and his shirt was missing a cufflink I would not find until years later. He invoked the law to prove Leo had acted in self-defense, clea

rother now, and a terrible

he predators outside my home, but he could neve