ᴀᴘʜʀᴏᴅɪᴛᴇ // $ᴜɪᴄɪᴅᴇʙᴏʏ$

Chapter Four

SCOTT (PRESENT DAY)

The sounds of a wailing man could terrify people in nightmares. Real mournful cries could haunt someone in their dreams, turning something so innocent and carefree into something horrible and ghastly. True wailing, true pain, could be something that lived with you forever.

The Greek mobster sobbed and shrieked as he held his broken nose, his bright red blood running down his mouth and chin. He'd curled up into a ball on the roof level of the building after my cousin beat his face in, digging his other hand into the cold, sharp concrete. Through his cries he gagged from the blood in his mouth.

The cringing sobs of a broken man were at times a sound some people couldn't handle.

To my cousin and I, it was a sound just as regular as the howling wind whipping at our skin.

The black clouds hovering above in the night sky separated from the bright moon completely. Light beamed down, illuminating us four men on the roof. I stared hard at the other man in front of me, Sienna's ex-husband, Sam.

"If you make this out alive, tell Vadik to stop sending people for Sienna. It's a fucking waste of his time, and mine." I said, and looked Sam over from head to toe.

"Leave the comments until after I beat you."

I raised my brows at him and clenched my fists. "Where do you think I learned my fighting skills? I was physically superior to your boss. How do you think you'll beat me?"

My cousin Aristos waved his bloody fist in Sam's face. "And... hello? It's two against one now."

Sam smirked at us. "Maybe with my cunning wit and graceful reflexes?" He made a show of cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders before he dipped his lean body into a battle pose. "Or maybe I'll just pound your cousin right back into the looney bin. How's that?" Sam raised a brow at me.

Feeling energized and ready to do some damage, I took a step forward.

I lunged forward, ready to grab, ready to break, but Sam ducked. Very quickly, he zipped his legs to the front and kicked at my shins. When I remained perfectly still and uninjured, Sam looked up at me and instantly executed a backhand-spring out of the way of large, destructive hands.

He wasn't quick enough. I suddenly had the back of his hair in a vice grip, and slammed him face first into the concrete. Sam's hands came up in the nick of time, taking most of the damage and saving his face from crushing onto the cement. He was then lifted up by his hair, and grunted when my cousin's hard punches slammed into his side. A few satisfying cracks were heard, then I tossed him away from me.

"You might wanna rethink your line of work." I said, and stomped closer. "You're clearly not meant for the mob. No wonder Sienna left you for me." I picked up the fallen man again by his scalp, and made him look at the other mobster, still crying from his injuries further away. "His suffering will be nothing compared to yours."

Sam tried to hold in a pained groan from the sting along his side. "Where's Sienna?"

I knew her dad had been looking for her after we went rogue from the mob, and he sent her ex-husband and the pathetic man with a now broken face. "Why can't you just let her be?" I asked with irritation.

"I'll find her. And then I'll take her away."

"She won't leave me."

Sam smirked. "Let's bet on it."

I dropped Sam when his hand came up suddenly, hitting me in the shoulder with something other than a simple fist. Blood ran from a clean slice near my collarbone from what I assumed had been a concealed blade. I narrowed my eyes. "You'll regret that."

My cousin grasped Sam's neck. Sam's broken ribs were making it a little harder for him to move now. Aristos held him up, and jabbed into his left hip. Sam's knee came up and socked him right in his face, one, two, three times until my cousin dropped him. He then threw another knife at the cut now trickling blood from my body.

Then he jumped me, pushing me back and furiously punching me as I fell from the impact. Sam's rights and lefts flew as fast as he could land them, his fists clenched tightly and full of rage. He slammed his fist into the knife that still punctured my shoulder, sending more blood to trickle down my body. He looked down, expected to see agony. And instead was met with my angry glare.

"She's mine." I simply said, and head-butted him, sending him flying back, and lifted myself from the ground as I watched him hold his head, a little delirious. With an annoyed growl, I kicked him underneath the chin. I then leaned forward and grabbed his neck, squeezed until I heard the pathetic attempt to breathe. "Sienna chose to leave. She doesn't need you to save her. I already have."

Sam grasped at my grip on his neck.

"You son of a bitch." He choked, and tried to wrestle himself free. "I'll kill you."

I smirked. "You can try."

I then pounded my fist into Sam's eye. Grabbing his belt with my other hand, I pulled Sam and then slammed him back first onto the concrete. I heard the satisfying sound of a groan before I kicked him in the side.

My cousin and I stalked closer to Sam, ready to end him. We stopped when the sudden cries of sirens exploded into the air, and looked up at the armada of police vehicles heading for the building. I heard the pained laugh of the man below me.

Sam spat a string of blood. "Nowhere for you to hide now."

I stared at him. And with one last punch to the face, my cousin and I left Sam to his pain and walked over to the other side of the roof. Our men waved at us from below in a dark green F150 truck. After running down the stairs inside the building, as the sirens neared, we hopped into the truck. The man driving pressed the pedal to the floor, and off we went.

"Did you have fun?" Our friend Summit asked.

I ignored the annoying gashes in my shoulder as I loaded a pistol.

"Of course." I replied, and fired out of the window at a cop car.

"So what's your babysitter's name, Aristos? Scott told me she starts tomorrow." Jerry, sat in the passenger seat next to Summit, teased my cousin and reached back, punching him in the shoulder.

Aristos grunted in response before aiming his rifle out of the other window.