Promises and Pomegranates by Sav R. Miller

they don’t care if their crimes can be traced, because they bankroll the local
police, anyway.
All they care about is maintaining their power.
Their edge.
And an overdose isn’t satisfying.
Not in the same way as cutting into someone’s chest cavity, breaking and
peeling back their ribcage, and severing their beating heart while the life
bleeds from their eyes.
There’s something magical in the act of holding another’s life in your
hands. A kind of symmetry found in nature, where you’re given the
opportunity to bring beasts to grisly fates or heal them instead.
They’re completely at your mercy.
Power the likes of Rafael Ricci can’t even begin to imagine—which is
why he has me.
Finally, scrubbing a hand over his clean-shaven jaw, Rafe removes the
glasses from his nose, and sits back in his leather chair, looking up at me. His
dark eyes are blank as they study me, not giving even a hint as to what’s
happening behind them.
Crossing one leg over my knee, I grip the joint with a gloved hand,
waiting. After almost twenty years working together, I’m sure he realizes I’m
not a fever you can sweat out.
If he wants to sit in silence until one of us cracks, I’ll play.
It’s only his daughter’s life on the line.
Snapping his fingers, Rafe gestures for the two beefy guards in the room
to leave, the fat gold ring on his thumb glinting in the overhead lighting. He
reaches into his desk drawer, pulling out a decanter with the Ricci crest and
two crystal tumblers.
Without speaking, he pours the alcohol into the glasses, shoving one in
my direction before bringing it to his mouth and taking a generous swig.
Some dribbles down onto the collar of his white dress shirt, but he doesn’t
seem to notice.
I palm mine, holding it above my knee, but don’t drink.
Sighing, he cocks an eyebrow. “It’s rude to refuse hospitality from your
boss.”
“Not when my boss knows I didn’t come here for happy hour.”
Downing the rest, he slams the tumbler back on the wooden desk, wiping
his mouth with the back of one cuffed sleeve.