LUCA

I meet Nero on a side street near Diablo's mansion, pulling up alongside his car.

This is one of the first proper times I'm seeing him since the night of Marco's death and his injury. He's healed well, but the wound is obvious the second I lay eyes on him. There is now a massive scar sliced across his face, but his injured eye has also turned white.

From what I've been told, he's unable to see out of the eye, but he's also been doing fairly well considering. It could've been so much worse and I happen to think he's a bit lucky in that department.

Well, losing part of your senses isn't lucky, but if he'd have lost both eyes—or if his attacker would've stabbed that knife right into the eye—it could've been so much worse. He could've easily died that night the second he was incapacitated.

We share a small greeting and begin the walk up the driveway. In Diablo's absence, his security has essentially become null at his house.

I can admit, that makes this feel as though it's a trap and it has me on high alert.

As Nero slings a baseball bat over his shoulder, he inquires, "So, what exactly is the job here?"

I lift my crowbar, dropping it down into my free hand. "Don Cain wants us to destroy everything. Hopefully we'll find something that'll tell us where Don Diablo is."

Nero sighs, "Really?"

"What?"

He shrugs, as if he doesn't want to say the words out loud. After a moments pause, he tells me, "Just seems like Don Cain is sending us out on strange jobs."

"What d'you mean, strange?"

"It—More dangerous. More out there. Less successful. It feels like he's desperate and grasping at straws. I mean, lemme' put it this way—do you honestly think we'll find anything here today?"

I shrug, and lie, "Maybe."

"Don Cain is getting too reckless with things. I didn't lose a fuckin' eye for someone who keeps sending me out on these moronic and pointless jobs."

Music to my fucking ears.

I haven't spent a ton of time with Nero, but I've always gotten a good vibe from him. He doesn't always speak a lot, but whenever he does, it seems like he's loyal to my side of this fight. Even if he doesn't realize it.

He's losing—if he hasn't already lost—his faith in Cain as a leader.

And with the way that Nero sometimes approaches me, I almost feel as though he looks to me for guidance during times of uncertainty.

Perhaps it's a good thing for me to aid him. I am a part of the reason why he lost the vision in one eye. Every time I glance at him and the scar that disfigures his face, I'm reminded of that very fact.

I don't comment on his admission. I don't want to further implicate myself. In fact, I should probably be scolding him for even saying something like that—to keep up my public persona—but I don't. I simply don't have the energy to.

As we break into the house, we're careful. We both wear gloves and keep an eye out for anyone who might be lingering and hiding. However, I honestly think Diablo has cleared this place out. I reckon he was expecting Cain to do something like this and emptied out his guards to save their lives.

At least, that's what I would do.

When we finally get inside, I lead Nero straight for Diablo's office, remembering where it is from the time I brought Raven here. It feels as though that was lifetimes ago.

Stepping inside, I flick on the light and am greeted with an empty room. The furniture is just as he left it, with the slightest speck of dust layering the top.

Lifting my head, I notice a camera on the far side of the room, the red light on the front visible. I stare at the lens for a moment, imagining that Diablo is likely observing on the opposing side. He probably has a live feed of the footage and watches the comings and goings of his place whenever any sort of sensor is triggered.

I don't blame the guy. After everything Cain has done—is currently doing—he has to keep a close eye on things.

I recall when I spoke to him. I had warned him that it was more than likely that Cain would attempt to damage his businesses. I knew from the moment that Cain swore revenge and Diablo went on the run that Cain would begin harming Diablo's business in an effort to draw him out.

He's going to do anything and everything he can to make Diablo desperate enough to make an appearance. The thing I don't think he realizes is that Diablo will never be that desperate. He believes Cain took away the only thing left he truly cared about. With Marco gone, Diablo couldn't care less about the material things.

Cain doesn't understand that feeling—that emotion or connection—because there isn't one thing he feels that sort of love towards. He doesn't understand love. Why do you think he laughed the way he did when Adiv confessed his?

Personally, I think Adiv only confessed his love for Dove because he knew he was fucked either way. If he didn't say anything, he would've been hiding something. If he said something, like he did, I reckon he imagined that perhaps Cain might've seen it as a sense of honesty and loyalty.

If I was in his shoes, I imagine Adiv hoped that by laying it all out on the table, that maybe it'd convince Cain to leave Adiv alive. Potentially leaving Adiv with a life-changing injury—like making him deaf, blind, removing his hands or a limb—but he would've survived. At least, that's what I picture his reasoning behind everything was.

I reckon Adiv didn't see some of the things that I see in Cain. He didn't recognize that Cain doesn't feel love or attachment to anyone. Adiv always liked to see the good in everyone, so he must've had his blinders on when it came to that.

The thing he never realized is that Cain was never mad about Adiv falling in love with Dove. He couldn't have cared less about it. What he did care about was the way it made him look as a leader to have one of his men secretly sleeping with his daughter.

Which is all that more ironic when he's now losing control of his men. His behaviour is causing people to doubt his effectiveness as a leader. It had nothing to do with Adiv's or Dove's actions.

It's not as if Cain has lost his influence over a single day, however. It's taken time. Like finding a loose thread on a knitted jumper, he's snagged it here and there, pulling and pulling until it's unraveled to the point where there's nothing left to speak of.

A king like him is supposed to have the authority to bring everyone to their knees before him in fear and respect. If he doesn't have this respect—this power—then he's simply an angry man with a shit ton of money.

I stare at the lens for maybe half a minute, wishing I could get some sort of message out to Diablo.

This will be the perfect test of whether or not he was being honest with me. I mean, it's not a guarantee, but it'll help me lean towards having more faith in him.

If he sends people after us because he sees that we're inside his house trashing it, then there's no way I'll trust his word. However, I happen to believe he's a man of his word and he told me he understood that Cain would likely force me to damage his things and he claimed he didn't care.

This will be a test for him too. He'll have to use this as further evidence to trust me as well. It'll help teach him that not everything I told him was a lie.

If I could, I'd give Diablo some sort of warning, but I can't. Not without Nero realizing. Plus, I have no idea whether it truly is Diablo watching on the other end. It could be anybody. Or nobody. And it would expose me for playing both sides.

When the red light dies, I can only assume it's him trying to give me a sign. That he gets it and doesn't give a shit about what we have to do.

I happen to think everything in this house is strictly material to him. He's rich enough that he'll replace it all.

Maybe it'll give him closure. Perhaps replacing some of these items will help him get over the loss of his family. Give him something to do to alleviate the grief.

For his sake and for the things I've done to him, I hope so.

Before we begin, I tear open the doors nearby until I find the CCTV system and I begin grabbing and tearing at the wires until I've destroyed it. I've unhooked more than one security system in my days as a cop so it takes me a few minutes. However, I take a few extra awkward steps to hide the skills I've learned in my past.

Not only do I not want Diablo observing everything I do inside his house, it would be suspicious if I didn't disable the system. It would appear far too brazen, in my opinion.

"How do we—" Nero glances around Diablo's office as if he's unsure where to start or what to do.

"Here, let me show you," I offer, taking the baseball bat from his hand. I head to a nearby table with a lamp. Steadying myself on my feet, I angle the bat up and over my shoulder and swing forward, sending the lamp flying across the office. It hits the far wall, the base of it shattering into dozens of pieces.

Then, I saunter to the shelving on the wall, bringing the metal bat down onto the wooden surface. It cracks multiple shelves directly in half, and the items that once stood atop fall to the ground at my feet. Turning to Nero, I inform him, "Just like that. Smash anything and everything in sight. If you find any paperwork or anything interesting, let me know, yeah? We'll report it back to Don Cain."

He nods and begins rifling through a nearby cabinet.

"Keep going. I'll check Marco's wing for any clues about who killed him."

Picking my crowbar up, I leave Nero to continue in the office, wandering down the hall. I can't help myself, I have to see what Marco's wing of the house looks like. From the way Raven described it, I want to take it all in for myself.

Plus, it'd be an extra fuck you to destroy his things especially now that the cameras are off and Diablo can't see me taking special interest in Marco's area.

It's not entirely a lie that I'll be looking for clues. Obviously I understand no evidence will exist because I know exactly who murdered him. However, Cain has been doing whatever he can to find who the blame truly belongs to, so I feel as though it should be expected for me to search. If I didn't before destroying shit inside the house, it'd seem odd.

Perhaps I'll find something that I can pretend is important even though that's the furthest thing from the truth. We'll see what I find and if there's anything I can actually pass off.

I know instantly the moment I step into Marco's part of the house. Raven had described it as something like the style of an elderly person, so when I see frilly curtains that almost look like doilies hanging from the ceiling, I double over in laughter. It only gets worse the deeper I descend into his wing to find floral patterns, golds, faux-wooden surfaces, and fabrics that look stiff, rough, and uncomfortable.

Jesus, Raven was actually kind in the way she described this space. Did he take this area over from his grandmother and simply hadn't gotten around to redecorating?

I begin with grabbing the cushions on the sofa, tossing them across the room. I pull a knife out and cut across the width of the back of the sofa and then hook my hands on either side of the fabric to tear it open, feigning as if I'm searching inside the piece of furniture for something.

Money is corruptive, sure, but it doesn't automatically give you good taste.

I become a reckless tornado inside Micro's wing. I knock over tables, smash old ass vases, take the crowbar to his China cabinet's glass panes. I throw plates to the floor carelessly, tear open cushions and pillows, yank the television from its bolts in the wall. Anything I see, I destroy as best I'm able to.

I can admit, it feels like a weird therapy. Like a stress relief. All of the pent up anger and frustration I've felt in the last months is expelled into the space. 

Anger at myself. Anger at Marco. At Cain. At the losses I've faced and the traumas that have been forced on me. Anger at the sins I've committed that can't be easily cleansed from my skin.

I tear drawers out of cabinets, discarding their contents wherever—I honestly don't care. When I find his desk, I search every corner and crevice of it, not finding anything of use.

His bedroom is the first area that gives away his personality. The bed remains unmade, his discarded soiled clothing still sits just in front of his laundry basket. I even find a pair of knickers and a delicate star-shaped necklace tucked non-discreetly between the sheets, which I imagine is from one of the women he was sleeping with while engaged to Raven.

Because I know they aren't Raven's.

Speaking of, Raven has definitely thought of a plan. When she told me she had one and essentially forced my hand—promising that she'd only confess the details if I gave my word that I'd help—I wasn't sure of what to expect. In all embarrassing honesty, I figured she hadn't thought it through much.

How bloody naïve I was.

I can admit, what she has planned is risky. However, I happen to believe that no matter what we intended to do, it'd be dangerous. With a man of Cain's stature, it's a guarantee that it'll be risky.

The best thing she has going for her is that she's in Cain's intimate circle. It doesn't mean he trusts her—he doesn't—but it means that she has access to things that I could only imagine having access to.

She also knows him a lot better than I do simply because she's lived with him for the majority of her life. She can better predict his behaviours because she understands how he works better than I do.

I could argue that I know his Don side more thoroughly than she does, but I'm not sure that's the truth. I've seen him do some nasty stuff, but so has she. She's admitted to going through his things, listening in on conversations that she wasn't supposed to be privy to, and wandering into places where she was banned.

She didn't explicitly tell me exactly what she's seen, but it sounds as though she might've stumbled upon something similar to Dario's death at least once. If she meandered into the basement like she said she has, I don't imagine what she saw was good considering what Cain uses that space for.

Are we seriously going to kill Cain Brooks? I've been in this darkness for such a long time that I reckon my eyes have gradually adjusted, aiding me in seeing just how immoral I've gotten.

I feel like fucking Icarus. I've flown to the heavens with my ambitions to destroy evil, but now my wings have been burnt. I've fallen so hard and so dramatically that I have absolutely no sense of whether I stand for right or wrong anymore.

I've worked in the depths of darkness in an attempt to save the light. However, the time that is supposed to heal me from the darkness only feels as though it's doing nothing more than gently bringing me to my own end.

Raven is my beacon of light. She always has been. And now she's showing me the way to ultimate freedom. For the first time in months, I'm hopeful of our future.

I was worried for the longest time that I'd stain her purity if I allowed my sinful hands to touch her. I was terrified of the blood that stains my skin transferring over to hers. I've been trying to shield her from the darkness without realizing that darkness is all she's ever known.

I once said that you should never trust a survivor until you know what they've done to stay alive. Perhaps that's true with Raven. She's a survivor. She's seen evil shit in her lifetime and she's lived to tell the tale. Maybe I need to hear the story of her life to understand how she came to be a survivor.

I guess loving her is making me forget or ignore the difference between right and wrong. However, she is as much a part of me as my own heart is. She resonates in every beat of the organ and if I have to move heaven and earth, I'll do so to make sure she's safe.

I've still managed to keep from her that I was once a cop. That man feels like someone entirely different.

The main reason I haven't spoken anything to her is because I fear that if she knows, it'll put her in a greater sense of danger. With Adiv gone, I'm worried of the possibility of his family sniffing around, of co-workers suddenly deciding they care, or of people like Cain thinking it's good to do due diligence on someone who has since passed and can no longer cover for things.

In all honesty, our police system is so corrupt that I don't think they'll care. They haven't cared about the fact that I don't discuss details of the Brooks family with them anymore. They don't check in with me, stopped phoning, texting—they aren't getting the dirt they want so they simply don't give a fuck.

It's a system built on only doing what it can to further the people at the top. The rest of us they couldn't care less about. I've stopped serving a purpose to them.

As for Adiv's family, I can only assume they'll do what they can to find him. If they haven't already tried to. I can't speak to what his relationship was like with his family before his untimely death. Perhaps they weren't getting along. He did have a past with certain members of his family that could result in their delay.

But Cain? Would he check into Adiv's background more thoroughly now that he's gone? I wouldn't put it past him simply for the fact that he feels personally wronged by Adiv because of Adiv's relationship with Dove. He could be very actively scouring Adiv's backstory to prove to Dove that he was some sort of liar in an attempt to flip her to his side.

He would have to find proof though. I honestly think Dove wouldn't believe anything that comes out of her father's mouth.

That being said, I know for a fact that if Cain and his people dug hard enough, they'd find evidence. They'd find out that Adiv and I both were once cops who were sent to infiltrate the Brooks household. Anything is possible, especially for a man with a seemingly endless amount of money.

Which makes me wonder, is it possible Diablo has looked into me? He seems more like the type that would do his due diligence on people he wants to work with.

Is it possible that he already knows? Of course it's possible. But has he searched my background?

I shake it off. I can't worry about the unknown. In fact, it's likely that sooner or later, someone will figure out my secret. However, covering it isn't at the top of my priority list right now. Not when Dove, her baby, and Raven's lives are potentially at risk.

Marco's wing is a bust, which is shitty. But at least I got a good laugh.

I head back towards the office without any news, smashing random things along the way to hide my intentions. 

I find Nero tearing the photographs of Diablo and his family from the wall, smashing the frames to the ground. As I approach, he hears me and lifts his head. "I found some paperwork," he informs me, handing off a few pages he gathers from the top of the desk.

Taking them from him, I glance down at what is plastered on them—a few titles for various businesses. Studying the locations, I realize that this is likely where Diablo runs his own things through. Perhaps his heroin money is filtered through these places.

However, I happen to think this isn't exactly a surprise. Each family has their turf and it's a known unspoken rule that you don't stray outside those boundaries, so of course Diablo is going to have businesses within his bubble. It's common sense.

Is it possible he placed these here on purpose for us to find? Maybe he was hoping we'd come upon them and give them to Cain. It's entirely believable that Diablo is setting a trap for Cain to be caught in.

What if Cain—on his grief trip—takes it upon himself to personally search these buildings in his attempt to find Diablo? Maybe that's Diablo's logic and he's praying he can catch Cain in a vulnerable moment so he can finish him off.

I mean, it'd make my life a lot easier. I wouldn't have to go along with Raven's plan—not that I don't think it's a decent plan, but I worry about the danger aspect of it.

I happen to think that Diablo is a hell of a lot more intelligent than Cain. I truly believe that he's more thorough with thinking things through and making plans, which is exactly what Cain is deficient at.

Whether these papers are legitimate or not, they're the only thing we've found. I don't particularly want to go back to Cain with nothing in hand. I'd prefer to hand him papers—false or not—than step into his office without a single thing to show for this endeavour.

"Good," I mutter, despite not being sure of that fact. "Let's get going then. I think this place is a bust, in all honesty."

Nero picks his baseball bat back up and nods his head. "Just like I figured it would be." He seems displeased as he speaks the words and I watch him frustratedly walk out of the room.

Perfect. This waste of time has made another man fall against Cain Brooks.