Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 62528 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62528 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
“Stop that.” Damien pulled his hand away. “What do you mean ‘like you and me’?”
“Dude,” said Belch, “I’ve been here a very, very long time, and there are three types of men. The ones who are born rock solid, the ones who improve with age, and the ones who just are who they are.”
“Which one am I?”
“You are who you are.” Belch scratched his balls inside his underwear.
Damien looked away. (A) He did not want to see Belch’s hairy balls for the hundredth time. (B) Hearing a god, no matter how deranged or itchy, say something so damning about him hit hard. Mostly because Damien did not disagree.
Until recently, Damien had blamed his shortcomings on the rage demon living inside. He always said that he would be a different man if freed from this dark being.
But that was a lie.
The last time the demon had been let out “to play” was at a party in Miami, where Damien met with a client’s sister. She was getting married and wanted Damien to make the dresses for her and the bridesmaids. Damien found himself cornered by the bride-to-be, who demanded sex. When he refused, she threatened to tell her brothers that he’d forced himself on her.
Initially, Damien told himself that the demon broke through on its own and slaughtered her along with the entire wedding party, but the truth was that he’d let the demon out. The entire family belonged to the Russian mafia, and a part of him wished them dead. Not because they were bad, which they were, but because he saw himself reflected in this family of cutthroats. He saw their lack of compassion, their greed, their taste for finer things. He saw everything depraved in himself at that party, and he did not like it.
So he let the demon out.
And now they were all dead.
Well, except for the person sending letters and photos, threatening to expose me. Likely a security guard or neighbor his demon had missed killing. A fight for another day.
The point was that Belch’s comment summed up Damien perfectly. He was not rock solid nor trying to be a better man. Damien simply was who he was: a bad man. And sitting in a shop, making suits, would not change that.
“Maybe that explains why I keep attracting such dark, unsavory creatures into my life,” he said to Belch.
“Yeah, well, without shit, there’s no fresh air.” Belch burped in his face.
“You are vile.” Damien waved his hand in front of his face to dispel the horrid smell.
“But see?” Belch laughed. “The only reason you like fresh air so much is because it’s not a mouth fart. There is no light without dark. No joy without sorrow. No blowjobs without dirty whores. Or a new car for your wife.”
Damien frowned. “I’m not sure about that last one, but I see your point.” Belch was attempting to point out that not everyone got to be on the “right side” of the coin. Some were destined to be on the dark side of things. “But what if I don’t want to be the sorrow any longer?”
Belch shrugged. “Then don’t.”
“You just said that some of us are who we are—bad leopards who can’t change their ugly spots.”
“No,” Belch corrected, “I said that you are who you are, and men like us cannot be defined by one thing. For example, maybe you love your wife and couldn’t imagine a life without her, but a part of you really loves to get naked and fuel the masses’ need to blow off steam, so you sneak out at night and DJ at your sister’s nightclub in downtown LA, and then you drink too much and vomit on people’s heads, but they just cheer you on because deep down inside, who doesn’t want to be puked on by a god?”
Damien winced with disgust. “Thank you for that vivid explanation.”
“Greystone, I am a deity, and I can tell you’re a man meant to walk the path of doing bad things for the right reasons.” He paused. “And of doing good things for the wrong reasons. The first is who you are, and the world needs men willing to do the dirty work that keeps others safe. The second is your personal hurdle in life—the challenge you must overcome to reach your full potential.
“You do not trust yourself, and your fear of making mistakes—of harming others—is so great that you sit in your little shop, hiding, when you should be unleashing the warrior inside. Hell, I know you have it in you. We watched you for years before you took up tailoring again. You could track down a demon, kill a Chupacabra, and defang an entire coven of vampires all before breakfast.”
Those events had happened during Damine’s bounty-hunter days, but Belch was one hundred percent right. Years ago, Damien had been a force to reckon with; however, there was always collateral damage, and one day, the innocent blood on his hands had become too much. Eventually, Damien decided to retire and go back to the respectable trade that defined the Greystone men.