Ruthless Creatures by J.T. Geissinger

I cover my mouth with both my hands.
“A manila envelope of photographs of all the things that
had been done to them before they were finally shot was
dropped off, too. It took me a few years, but I found all the
men in the photographs.”
He doesn’t have to say what he did when he found them.
I already know.
Feeling sick, I touch a shaking hand to Kage’s shoulder.
He exhales, then turns around and pulls me tightly against his
body, crushing me in a bear hug like he never wants to let me
go.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers, his head bent to my ear. “I
shouldn’t have told you that. You don’t need to know all the
ugliness of my life.”
“I’m glad you did. I don’t want you to carry that all alone.”
My words send a delicate shudder through his chest.
Swallowing hard, he presses his face to my neck and squeezes
me tighter.
They call him Reaper because of all the terrible things he’s
done, but he’s still a man just like any other.
He grieves. He bleeds. He’s made of flesh and bone.
And he’s been alone since he was a boy, with nothing to
sustain him but terrible memories. Memories that turned him
from a boy to a myth as he rose in the ranks of an organization
renowned for its ruthlessness until he was at the very top.
All his success was driven by what happened to his family.
Violence is his calling card, bloodshed his stock-in-trade,
but the real beating heart of this man is revenge.
He told me he was a debt collector, but it isn’t until now
that I understand what he meant.
The debts he collects are paid in blood.
When I shiver, he pulls away and looks at me—really
looks at me, deep into my eyes. There’s something raw in his