Chapter 12 #3
My eyes find Sully’s, and he looks frightened. His chest heaving, gaze filled with tears, lips parted, trying to mouth something I can’t understand. I’ll gut her, pull all her organs out one by one, and let her beg for air.
“Why?” My tone is as cold as ice.
I hear footsteps behind me. But I don’t turn around wanting to keep my attention on Sully.
“Oh, you brought the others. Well done.” Nine seems even more excited. “Just in time. Now kneel.”
Raphael snorts, while Uriel scoffs. They are all here except Linda. They are forming a half circle in front of her. Hunter, Ramiel, and Uriel are pointing their guns at her men.
“I’m not joking.” She yanks Sully’s hair, making him cry out. The blade presses a little further into his throat, making Oliver take half a step forward as I grit my teeth.
“Stay, or he gets it.” She is talking to us like one would a dog.
“Looks like we are at an impasse,” Michael states.
Sully is staring at his brother now. They are having one of their silent conversations, but for once, I’m not irritated by it.
“Lori, you are always fucking talking!” Oliver suddenly glares at him.
Lori frowns, then chuckles, turning toward Nine. “How can we be at an impasse with a bird turd.”
“Excuse me?” Nine glares murderously at him.
“I expected a goddess of death, a princess of revenge, instead I’m faced with the stinkiest shit a dog could ever make.”
“You insect, you will die under my boots.” Nine growls.
Bezaliel’s growl threatens her back.
Lori keeps yapping. “Ugh. Those boots?” He points at the ones she is wearing. “They’re hideous. Where did you get them from? The Salvation Army?”
“Do you think I’m bluffing?” she snarls. I see what Lori is doing. What he does best, pushing people’s buttons.
“I think you are pathetic, ugly, stinky, delusional…” Lori keeps going, just as I see Sully slightly nodding at Oliver.
He looks straight at me, before suddenly grabbing Nine’s wrist with one hand—to hold the knife still on his neck—while the other falls on her leg, stabbing it with a small red blade.
As soon as I see the knife moving away from Sully’s neck, I pull and release the arrow.
It spears her shoulder, making her stumble a step backward and grit her teeth.
I shoot another one, which joins the first. Sully is still in the way, and I don’t want to hit him.
She is used to pain, so a grunt is the only sound leaving her lips.
I hear gunshots going off. Her four men drop to the floor, while we are all still standing.
Sully flings his body at me, and I catch him, squeezing him until I feel his warmth seeping inside me.
The pounding I’m feeling isn’t coming from his heaving chest, but mine.
I take off my mask. His honey-peach scent invades my lungs, and I breathe it in eagerly.
That’s why I see her knife coming at us too late, and I spin our bodies to protect Sully and take the hit. I hear another gunshot, and then I see Gabriel tossing two knives in quick succession.
Ramiel’s pistol is still fuming; his bullet knocked Nine’s blade off its intended trajectory and is now sliding on the floor.
“Hell of a shot,” I tell him.
“I was aiming for her head,” Ramiel jokes—I think.
I tighten my hold on Sully’s shivering body and push his head against my neck, so fucking relieved he is in my arms again. Safe and mine.
I hear Raguel letting out an enraged, guttural sound and then her shriek of agony. Sully climbs my body, and without letting him go, I turn around.
Nine looks like a bug pinned on a board.
A broken piece of wood is sticking out of her leg, immobilizing it against the wall—that must be Raguel’s work. Gabriel’s knives have impaled her palm and forearm over her head, Raphael’s axe the other hand near her side.
What a fucking sight. She more than fucking deserves this. But it’s not quite enough.
Michael suddenly takes Raphael’s gun and shoots her in the unharmed leg, making her scream with fury.
“For trying to kill my husband and me!” he whispers angrily, passing the weapon to Oliver.
He shoots her shoulder. “For my brother and my husband, you fucking bitch.”
Lori grabs his fiancé’s knife and tosses it at her belly. She gasps and spits blood. “For all the innocent victims of your drug.”
Hunter shakes his head, not accepting the gun next. “I took too many lives today as it is.”
“And that’s why you are my Papa Bear.” Ramiel squeezes his hand.
“You are a nobody. Nobody!” Nine’s body is shaking, still immobilized against the wall, bleeding continuously from the multiple wounds. Her eyes are wide, flickering around us. There’s no fear, just incredulity.
“I’m smarter than you, I’m stronger, you can’t beat me! You can’t!” She sounds desperate.
“Maybe not alone. But together we did,” Gabriel deadpans.
“No. I know you. I know all of you. All your disgusting weaknesses and perverted secrets. You aren’t good enough!” she yells, hitting the back of her head against the wall.
“Your ego is what brought you down,” Raphael says coldly.
Ramiel nods in agreement. “We baited you, and you fell for it. I let you hack into Serena, and when you did I hacked into you. You followed a fake signal of our trackers, while we were actually already here.” He sounds very proud of himself, and he should be.
“We got you, bitch,” Oliver grunts.
I keep Sully against me, not letting him see anything. He doesn’t need to add to his nightmares.
She suddenly laughs like a deranged maniac, her face has turned pale. “I made you better. You improved because of me, thanks to me.” Her eyes are looking at us with a crazy light in them. “We were made the same! The same!”
“Wrong,” Linda declares moving inside the room.
“Killing and torturing.” Nine spits blood. It coats her teeth when she smiles. “Without a smidge of remorse, enjoying every single second of it.”
“Maybe. But what they do protects and helps others—even though sometimes they do color outside the lines. While you are just…evil. Fucking. Trash,” Linda hisses.
“Ahhhh! No,” Nine sobs. “We are the same. I can guide you. Can’t you see? I can!” She is thrashing now, pulling at the knives, her lips over her teeth as she screams. She is a fucking lunatic.
“Fuck this!” Uriel suddenly closes the distance, raises his knife in the air and stabs her in the chest before slicing it open. “Your world ends not with a bang, but with a small, tiny whimper,” he whispers darkly before making space for Raguel.
The big giant sinks his hand into her chest and rips her heart out—just like he said he would.
Nine’s eyes darken. I can see the life quickly leaving her body as Raguel lets the organ drop to the floor and Linda stomps on it.
It makes a squashing, wet sound as she presses her heel into it again and again.
Silence falls around us. We are all wounded, bruised, bloody, and tired. I see Oliver looking at Sully with watery eyes, before he moves toward Raguel and is lifted up into his arms. Raphael and Michael are lost in each other, whispering softly.
“So, it’s done. Revenge at last,” Lori comments, jumping on Gabriel.
Linda lets out a short chuckle before she suddenly bursts into tears. Her body shakes uncontrollably and sobbing sounds fill her mouth. Ramiel and Hunter hug her, while Uriel grabs his phone and calls Sariel.
My hand grabs Sully’s cheek, and I feel his soft, warm skin under my palm. Until he takes it from his face and twines mine with his. I gaze at our tangled fingers and silently promise myself that I’ll never let him get away. The thought of losing him is unacceptable.
He finally raises his beautiful face toward mine as I turn him away from Nine’s corpse.
His glasses are a little fogged, one lens cracked.
He has a bruise on his face again, the hoodie is dirty and torn, and his neck is bloody.
Fucking hell. I turn a glower toward Linda, but she is still part of the human sandwich.
I don’t have any bandages on me, so I take off my red bandana and press it delicately against the wound.
“Ezra.” My name sounds broken on his busted lip.
I push my forehead to his. “I’m right here, Little Chick, and I won’t let you out of my sight ever again.”
He sniffs, his elbow bumps against my side, and I wince.
“What is it?” He pulls back.
I shake my head, but he lifts my bloody hoodie anyway to reveal the wounds covering my side.
“Shit! Shit!” he swears, turning all frantic in the space of a second.
“I’m fine,” I tell him. I’ve had much worse. It just fucking hurts.
“You need to plug the leak,” Uriel tells Sully after studying my wounds.
“Bullet graze?” Michael asks, coming closer.
“And knife cut,” I add, making Sully gasp as he takes off his hoodie and presses it over my bleeding side. I wince again. Fuck!
“It’s okay, people get shot all the time,” Raphael declares.
“No, they stub their small toe or get paper cuts,” Sully retorts, sending a glare at me. What did I do?
“I got shot at yesterday and today.” Raguel shrugs.
“Me too.” Gabriel nods.
“If he needs blood, I’ll give him mine; we have the same type.” Uriel’s teasing words seem to make Sully even madder.
“It will leave a scar. It’s my fault.”
I tilt his chin up with my scraped knuckle. “As long as it protects you, I’m fine with every new scar.”
“Well, I’m not!” he growls, and it’s so cute I want to eat him up.
“Hey!” I turn my head toward Oliver’s hesitant voice. He’s holding the ferret in his hands.
“Noodle! I’m so sorry.” Sully takes the animal in his arms and starts gently patting him, completely forgetting about me and my blazing side. The ferret looks like it’s breathing, licking Sully’s fingers.
“I’m sorry, too,” Oliver tells him. “I almost lost you today, and all I could think about were the last words we exchanged.”
“Me too.” Sully hugs his brother, and I sigh, counting to thirty before I drag him back into my arms.
“What should we do with the slaughter house now?” Hunter asks, as we start to make our way outside the room.
“Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Oliver looks at his husband.
“But it burned in one,” Raguel states with a smile.
Lori sniffs. “Seriously? What’s with the sentence finishing? Ugh.”
“Wait. Nine said she had dogs. Did you see or hear any?” Sully asks. Always thinking about animals…better than people, I guess.
“Yeah,” Uri replies. “They are held in cages on the first floor. But those dogs were used in illegal fights; they are probably too far gone.”
“Maybe. But it’s okay to try,” Sully replies.
“I’ll call the triplets,” Ramiel says.
“Of course,” Michael says, visibly limping. Raphael notices, and with a snarl, he orders him to climb on his back, piggyback style.
“I’ll take care of this mess,” Linda states, leaving the room to go talk to her squads. My glare follows her even after she disappears.
“One less evil on this earth,” Gabriel declares, rolling a piece of his shirt around Lori’s bleeding arm.
“And millions more to go. That makes me terribly hungry. French toast for dinner?” he asks him.
“Patching up, shower, Marnie’s in a couple of hours?” Ramiel suggests.
Fuck that! I’m taking Sully home. I slide my arms under him and lift him bridal style in my arms, heading straight for the hotel front doors.