Promises and Pomegranates by Sav R. Miller

pissed himself.
When I put the bullet between his teeth, blood spraying across his wife’s
white blouse, brain matter splattering against my face, all I could see was the
horrified look in his eyes. The pure terror, frozen forever in time, as he
looked up at me, pleading for mercy.
In the years since, it’s that look I’ve never forgotten, although not
because I was disturbed.
Because I felt nothing.
When I drag my scalpel down the chest of one of Elena’s attackers in the
present day, it’s that feeling I try to focus on. Pushing what’s left of my moral
compass to the recesses of my brain, I tap into that chasm that exists within
me, using it to stave off the things a normal person would feel.
Guilt. Worry. Nausea as the man’s flesh opens for me. His eyes are wide
and teary as he stares, screaming around his gag, probably pleading for
mercy.
For a moment, I’m tempted to listen to him. To play the part my
grandfather wanted me to, the part my sister would be more open to learning
about.
But then I see the ring on his right hand, matching the one Rafael wears,
and I’m reminded why that isn’t something I can do just yet.
Tony had been chilling at the docks a couple of afternoons after I chased
Jonas from the bar’s office, and Jonas just happened to recognize him from a
picture he’d seen a few weeks ago circulating online, where Rafe and Carmen
were trying to look like grieving parents.
He lured him into a fake coke deal, then bagged him, gagged him, and
dropped him on my doorstep.
And even though I’d resigned myself to an early retirement in both
medicine and official business, I couldn’t look the other way when he showed
up.
I needed Rafael to get the message about his daughter: that she belongs to
me.
My incision isn’t deep enough to fully penetrate Tony’s skin on the first
pass, but it’s enough to make him a bloody mess as my blade reaches his
belly button.
I reach forward, yanking the gag from his mouth with a bloody, gloved
hand. Sweat rolls down his forehead, coating his dark buzz cut, and he sucks
in a large gulp of air, on the verge of hyperventilating.