#lua russo

As he’s looking down on his target’s mangled, bloody body,he hears the car door open and turns to see his fiancee. She approaches, hereyes lightless and calm. Ladd turns his grin towards her.

“Did you see that, Lua? This sap never saw it coming!” Hekicks the corpse, which is still warm. “Imagine thinking you could escape theRusso Family by moving out to the suburbs. Uncle must really love me, giving me a joblike this. He was just the kind of guy I like to kill. I just rang thedoorbell, and then when he answered, bam!”

He’d punched the embezzler square in the jaw and thendragged him out to the front yard to beat him to death in full view of Lua.Judging by the light smile on her face, she’d appreciated the show. She givesthe corpse a wide berth when approaching him, but doesn’t shy away when hetakes her jaw in a bloodied hand to kiss her.

“Are you going home now?” she asks in her soft voice whenshe breaks the kiss. The blood from his hand stands out against her white skin.

“Actually, I was thinking, why don’t we slip inside and seeif he’s got a nice bottle of wine we can help ourselves to? We don’t go onenough dates!”

Lua smiles at that, too, and gives a tiny nod. Ladd kicksthe door in with a “Pardon the intrusion!” rather than risk leavingfingerprints on it, and looks around to get a feel for the place. Kitchen’s onthe right. But as he heads in that direction, he sees that Lua is stopped,staring straight at the first door on the left instead. It’s open, and there’sa bed visible just beyond it.

A grin creeps up his face as he guesses what she’s thinking.

“I don’t think he keeps his wine there, doll,” he says.

“Probably not.” The color in her cheeks deepens, and herhand finds his, fingertips gently tracing his palm. Her eyes are stilllifeless, but there’s an urgency in their depths now. She’s always been sure ofwhat she wants, for as long as Ladd has known her.

So much for not leaving fingerprints. Oh well. It’s not likehe cares anyway. Without another word, he sweeps her up into a princess carryand brings her into the dead man’s bedroom for a little affection.

*

After, she washes mussed makeup off her face while helocates the wine and a pair of wineglasses. They take them out to the porch andsit on the steps. The setting sun dyes the yard a glowing orange.

Ladd lights up a cigar and begins smoking between sips ofthe wine. But in a minute, Lua starts coughing, her face pinched as she wavesher hand in front of her nose.

Ladd taps ash off the end of the cigar. “Too much?” he asksher.

She shakes her head, eyes lowered. “It’s okay. I don’t mindif it’s you,” she says.

“Of course you don’t.” He grins. “You love it when I hurtyou, doncha, Lua? But I’d rather hurt you on purpose than incidentally. I know bettermethods to take your breath away.”

He thinks of stubbing the cigar out against her arm so thatshe’ll always have something to point to as a reminder of his promise. But it’snot the right time. He rubs it out against the porch steps instead and tossesit into the yard. It lands by the corpse. Ladd grins.

“How do you want it to be, Lua?”

She turns her lightless eyes towards him, eager.

“You want it to be like that poor bastard? A quick sock tothe jaw’d probably snap your neck, dollface. One hit and it’d be over.” Tempting, he thinks, imagining hisknuckles against her smooth, gorgeous skin. But then he reconsiders. “But that’sno good, is it?”

“No?” she asks. She doesn’t seem to share his opinion; inthe setting sun, her face flushes eagerly.

“Nah. It’s gotta be slower than that. I want you to feel it, Lua—feel my love for you as I stripthe life out of your body. It’s gotta be special.Real special.” He chuckles suddenly. Between the rush of killing the embezzler,the afterglow of being with Lua, and the wine starting to kick in, he’s feelinggood.

And Lua’s hanging on his every word. He chugs what’s left ofhis wine and leers at her. “Here’s what I’ll do,” he tells her under the glowof the late-afternoon sun. “I’m gonna figure out something totally new. Someway that no one’s ever killed anyone before. And then I’m gonna save that justfor you, and you’ll never see it coming, but when it happens, you’ll know it’sall for you. And you know why?”

“Why?” she asks.