Page 187 of Fallen Rook

What said mobsters didn’t know was that this jacket also symbolized danger to sex workers and marginalized people forced to work under the Mafia. It was a telltale sign for them to step back, run, and avoid.

This was my contribution to society. I had singlehandedly managed to make mobsters unwittingly buy their own prison uniform, something to warn people about who they were.

And it cost me nothing but time and vengeance.

After another round of superlatives, Audrey finally bade her farewell to me and Tom. He laced his fingers through mine when we got out of the boutique, bringing my knuckles to his lips as we strolled together on the busy street.

I was stuck in my thoughts, so he bumped his shoulder against mine. “So this is what you do, huh?”

“What?” I asked absentmindedly. Months ago, Slava had asked me what I did with the skin of the people I flayed. Little did he know at the time that he was going to become one of them.

“You make mobsters jackets out of other mobsters, and warn people off them.”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Discord chats. Dark web. It can’t be tracked back to me if it blows up, though, because I created a label, a company in Italy, and a small factory. Everyone just thinks it’s my side hustle to make some extra bucks.”

“What do you do with those extra bucks?”

“Charity.” I swallowed. “Every penny goes back to the people I try to protect.”

“Enzo…” Tom’s voice was soft. I stared ahead. I knew it was fucked-up, what I did, even if it didn’t hurt innocent people. My violent tendencies were probably never going away. The least I could do was to channel them into some kind of social justice.

I cleared my throat. “So, you don’t think I’m a freak?”

“No,” he said gently. “Not at all.”

We were silent for a moment. The street was busy, smoke erupting from manholes, with people huddled in their puffy jackets, rushing in all directions.

“Butterfly?”

“Tomcat?”

“Mind if we make a pit stop somewhere?”

“That depends. Is that place a police station?”

He chuckled. He’d been doing that a lot lately. “No.”

“Sure, then.”

I had all the time in the world when it came to this man. An eternity to remind him how much I loved him for all the sacrificing he’d done for me.

Tom stopped in front of the subway, letting out an anxious puff of air. Damn. Things were serious if he was willing to use public transportation.

“Lead the way.”

“Well, this…certainly brings back memories,” I said twenty minutes later. I stared, wide-eyed, at our surroundings.

We were outside the gay club where it had all started.

The neon sign flickered on and off. It wasn’t quite dark yet, but otherwise, everything looked the same.

“Just like the first time, huh?” I turned to smile at him.

“No, not like the first time,” he whispered. “That time, I wasn’t in love with you.”