I don’t ask Marko what they do with the girl’s body. One second, she’s in the trunk and the next, she’s gone. I don’t ask and I really don’t want to know. They make the problem go away, and that’s all there is to it.

One half of the problem, anyway. Buddy’s the other half, and he’s half insane on drugs and strung out beyond belief. Marko and his guys help me get him home and we lock Buddy in his bedroom, barring the door and the windows, making sure he can’t escape. He rants and raves for an hour before finally calming down.

Alexa and I sit at the kitchen table, talking idly, trying to figure out what to do. Marko and his boys leave after Buddy’s secured, which is good. I don’t want them hanging around for this. Marko trusts his guys, but I’m not so sure. They all know Raymond has a bounty out for Buddy.

Alexa paces around the kitchen, clearly having a hard time waiting. It’s late, and I know she needs sleep, but I also know she’s not going to until I do.

But I have one more thing I need to do tonight.

“What do you think?” I ask her.

She pauses, looks at the clock, and sighs. “He’s been quiet for about an hour now.”

“As good a time as any, then,” I say.

She nods. “I don’t know about this, Elias.”

“I know.” I stand up and sigh. “What else can we do?”

“It’s just, will he really listen?”

“Maybe,” I say. “If I’m reasonable and he’s sober. But if he won’t, I’ll make him.”

She chews on her lip, but she nods, not arguing. I squeeze her hand on the way past before heading upstairs and toward Buddy’s bedroom.

Alexa follows at a distance. I come up to the barred room and slowly pull it all down. I turn the knobs and push the door open, expecting Buddy to come attack me, but nothing happens.

I glance back at Alexa then step into the dark room. Buddy’s lying on the bed, and for a second, I think he might be dead. I run over to him and roll him over onto his back, but he just grins up at me, blinking and smiling.

“There you are,” he says, his voice hoarse from yelling. “I was calling for you earlier.”

I step away. “I thought you were dead.”

“No, but I feel it.” He sits up a little bit. “What time is it?”

“Late.” I switch on a bedside lamp and Buddy blinks at the light. “How are you feeling? You sober?”

“Sober?” He laughs. “No, not really. I don’t think I’m ever sober, though.”

“We need to talk.” I stand next to the bed, arms crossed. Alexa lingers in the doorway, not wanting to get any closer.

Buddy sits up against the headboard and sighs. “I’m sure we do, but it can wait until the morning.”

“No, Buddy. It has to be now.”

He looks up at me and for a second, there’s a flash of anger. But it leaves as quickly as it appears. “What do you want from me, son?”

“Don’t call me son,” I say softly. “You know what I need.”

“I can’t give that to you. I don’t have the money to pay Raymond.”

“Yes, you do. We’re going to sell this house and everything in it, including all your cars.” He has two antique trucks downstairs in the garage, each of them worth a decent amount of money. “Absolutely everything. Then we’ll give it all to Raymond, even if it’s too much.”

Buddy laughs weakly at that. “I’m the mayor,” he says. “I can’t sell off everything I own. I’d be laughed out of Providence. And this place is my fucking life.”

“Yes, you can,” I say harshly. “Because if you don’t, you’ll be dead. I’ll be dead.” I pause and look at Alexa. “Your grandchild might be dead, too.”

Buddy follows my gaze and quickly looks away from her. “No. I can’t do it.”

“For once in your miserable life,” I say, and the words are like hot lava in my throat, “please, just do the right thing.”

He looks up at me and for a second, I think he might actually agree. There’s a spark of sympathy there, probably not for me, but maybe for Alexa. For the briefest of moments, I expect humanity out of my father, despite all the years and all the fucked up things he’s done telling me otherwise. Instead, he shakes his head. “I can’t,” he says. “I’m the mayor.”

“You care more about being mayor than you do about your family,” I say flatly, although I feel myself falling. I don’t know why I let myself hope, but that hope is gone. I recognize the tone in his voice. I know he won’t do the right thing.

He’s Buddy. He’ll do what Buddy wants, and nothing more.

“I love this city,” he says. “This city is my family. Every single person in here is a child to me, a grandchild, a brother. I won’t risk losing the city’s respect.”

I’d laugh at that, but none of this is funny. “You’re going to lose all that if you don’t do this, don’t you get it? Raymond’s going to know you’re back sooner or later, and when he finds out, he’ll kill you. Then you’ll be the mayor that got murdered by the mob. The corrupt, dead mayor.”

He watches me for a second, and I think this might be working. “You’d let them do that to me?” he asks softly. “You’d let them destroy your good name?”

I want to scream at him that he destroyed my good name a long time ago, but I keep it together. “You’re not leaving me any other choice. Sell the house, all your stuff, and pay Raymond. Or else I’ll hand you over to him myself.”

His eyes go wide. “You can’t. You wouldn’t. I’m your father.”

“I will. And I’d enjoy it.” I lean toward him. “You want to survive, keep loving the city, maybe even stay mayor? Do what I’m telling you to do.”

This is the moment I’ve pinned my hopes on. He watches me and I glance at Alexa. I can see the worry in her face, the way she chews her lip, the way she fidgets.

When I look back at Buddy, he’s laughing.

“Fuck that,” he says. “I’m the fucking mayor, and I don’t bow to fucking anyone.”

His grin is vicious, vindictive, disgusting. It feels so fucking satisfying when I punch him square in the teeth.

His head snaps back and hits the headboard. He groans and I hit him again in the face, again, again, smashing my fists against him. He tries to fight back, struggling to get his arms up, but I slap them away and hit him over and over. Blood covers my fists, oozing from his mouth and eyes.

I grab his throat with both my hands, and I know I’m going to kill him. I know I’m going to. I’ll bring Raymond his body, tell Raymond he can have the house, I don’t care, but I have to do it. I have to kill my father.

I squeeze and Buddy gags, his eyes wide, his mouth bloody, but he doesn’t seem surprised. If anything, he seems resigned.

The only thing that stops me is the screaming. It pierces through the red haze of my rage and I finally look over my shoulder. Alexa is pulling at me, screaming in my ear, and I only figure out what she’s saying slowly.

“Stop!” she screams. “You’re going to kill him, you have to stop!”

I look at her, completely dumb. Buddy is grabbing at my hands, choking and gagging and trying to pull me away, and all at once I let go.

He collapses onto his side, gasping and coughing. I stumble away from him, my hands red with his blood. Alexa follows me but I move away from her, my eyes wide, my heart pounding.

“Elias,” she says, coming toward me.

“Stop, get away from me,” I say. “I was going to kill him. I was going to do it, if you weren’t there to stop me, I would have… I was going to do it, Alexa.”

She keeps coming toward me. I don’t know why. I’m a monster, a killer, a fucking freak. I’m the son of that bastard and I hate myself for it. I have him inside of me, and although I’ve spent my life trying to be better than he could ever be, I still failed. I let him break me. I gave in.

“It’s okay,” she says. “Elias, it’s okay. You didn’t kill him, it’s okay.”

“I would have,” I say. “I wanted to. I still want to.”

“It’s okay. You didn’t.”

My hands are shaking and still covered in blood but she hugs me. Buddy is groaning on the bed but he’s not trying to run. I pull Alexa against me, hugging her close, my heart racing so fast I can barely breathe.

But slowly, I get myself together. I’m reminded why I’m doing this. I’m reminded who I’m doing this for.

I pull back and kiss her softly. “We’ll take care of this,” I say. “With or without his help.”

“I trust you,” she says back, and I kiss her one more time. The kiss lingers and she presses tighter against me. I can feel my blood boil and something start to rise inside of me.

I pull her away from Buddy’s room. As we leave, I hear him say something. “I’m the fucking mayor.” It comes out as a ragged growl.

Outside, we shut the doors and bar them again, trapping him in there.

I turn to her and push her up against a wall. I kiss her slow and deep and I know I need her, right now. I can’t wait. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s just the adrenaline coursing through me, but I need her so badly I can barely breathe.

And based on the way she’s kissing me back, I know she needs me, too.