Chapter 41
CHAPTER
FORTY-ONE
LUKE
Using his abrupt distraction, I charged her old man, ramming my shoulder as hard as I could into this monster I fucking despised. Attacking him with everything I had left in me for what he’d done to her for all these years.
Her screams echoed off the ceiling.
Del Toro’s back hit the wall, and it broke through the drywall into the next room as another shot rang from his gun. We tumbled to the floor, each of us trying to gain the upper hand on the other.
I punched his ribs.
Fist to his face.
Knee to his balls.
The uncontrollable rage coursed through me at a rapid pace. Everything was happening so damn fast, it was hard to keep up with what was actually occurring.
His words.
My feelings.
It all blended in a giant clusterfuck. I was going to murder this motherfucker with my bare hands.
My eyes watered.
My lips trembled.
My body fucking shook.
I was choking, hyperventilating, drowning deeper in my despair. There was no saving him from me.
The torment.
The remorse.
My demons.
The destruction and devastation he brought into my life and hers was something I could eat him alive for. I’d recall this split second for the rest of my life. I swear it felt like a slow-motion bullet as the sound of gunfire shook off the walls, and Del Toro’s body jolted back from the control of the bullet he just took for her in the side of his stomach.
For a few seconds, no one moved.
No one made a sound, including me.
Watching as this piece of shit started to bleed out.
I spun, almost knocked on my ass…
Because Sloan was holding the gun.
SLOAN
One second, I stood there ready to die, and the next, my brothers were aiming their guns at our father and Luke was tackling his ass to the ground.
I didn’t know if it was instant relief or instant survival.
Maybe it was fight or flight.
Before I knew what I was doing, I snatched Nav’s gun from the back of his jeans and didn’t wait for one second to pull the trigger.
“You fucking bitch!” he slurred, falling to his side.
My chest heaved.
My nostrils flared.
But my body stopped shaking.
I didn’t have time to register what had happened. He was finally unarmed, and it was all I ever wanted and dreamed about.
“What the fuck?” he huffed, and he puffed. “Grab her!”
X winked at me, Nav nodded, and Luke just stood there with my father’s gun in his hand.
“I want to start by saying…” X smiled wide at me. “I need an Academy Award for my goddamn performance.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” our father let out, sitting up against the wall with his hand over the hole in his stomach.
“When I showed up last night and these two…” X gestured toward Nav and Luke. “Caught me up on their plan. I’m not going to lie, I was a little skeptical you’d actually fall for it. I mean, you’re supposed to be smarter than that, but fuck, what do I know?”
His expression turned demonic.
Nav stepped toward X. “But you forget that his ego is bigger than his fucking brain.”
“You piece of shit! You motherfuckers!” He reached for his cell phone, and I didn’t waver.
I shot his hand.
“Ahhh!” he cried out in pain, making me smile.
Nobody paid him any mind.
“You guys didn’t think I needed in on that?” I immediately asked.
Nav walked toward me and then with the back of his fingers, he caressed my bruised cheek. “We couldn’t risk you fucking it up.”
I moved my face away from his touch. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Hey!” X hollered, bringing our attention back to him. “But look how we make it up to you?” He motioned to our father, only looking at me. “You’re so very welcome.”
I resisted the urge to chuckle since this wasn’t a laughing matter.
At least not for me.
My intense stare shifted to Luke who was now leaning against the far wall with his wounded leg. It was the first time I saw pure vengeance in his eyes. Though it wasn’t geared toward me, it was for me.
“Darlin’, he coaxed. “It’s time you make your voice heard.”
I couldn’t believe he remembered my exact words to him.
With that, X showed me a knife in his hand, and my gaze lit up like a Christmas tree. Grabbing it out of his grasp, I made my way toward the man who’d only ever hurt me.
“Sloan…” Dad warned with fear in his eyes.
“Do you remember the night you watched him steal my virginity?”
“Sloan…”
“I remember thinking that there would come a day when you would watch me kill you with the same pleasure on my face that you had when I was screaming for you to help me.” My eyes welled with tears. “Do you remember, Papi?” I goaded my agony. “Me screaming for you while you watched and didn’t do a damn thing?”
Two tears fell out of my eyes. “Come on, Daddy… tell me you remember how much I bled?”
“Sloan, you know I love you…”
“You don’t know the meaning of the word.” I crouched down to his face to straddle his body and sit on his injured stomach. “You always loved it when I sat on your lap?” I reminded, throwing all my weight on him. “Do you love it right now?”
He gasped, wailing from the pain I inflicted.
“Do you remember my mother at all? Do you ever think about her? Ever feel guilt? Do you ever feel anything?”
“Baby—”
I stabbed him in his dick, and he instantly howled in agony. He almost rolled over, but I held him in place.
“Did you feel that?” I cocked my head to the side as if I’d lost my mind, and in a way, I did. “Because I sure as shit did.”
With a deranged glare, I moved my face from side to side, breathing in his misery. I wanted it to become a part of me.
“Papi, tell me how much you love me…”
“I lov?—”
I stabbed him in the chest, and he coughed up blood. Simply feeding my soul he stole from me when I was eleven years old.
Thinking back on a time that made me as happy as I was right then, I sang my mom’s favorite nursery rhyme she used to sing to us as children, “The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout…”
She said to always be like the spider, that no matter what, we always try to leave the water spout. The thought alone brought more tears out of my eyes.
It was the craziest sensation to be happy and sad all at the same time.
“Down came the rain…” I sliced across his chest. “And washed the spider out…”
“Sloan…” he choked out, falling forward, but I pushed his back against the wall to hold him up.
“Out came the sun and dried up all the rain…” I slid a small hole in his neck. “And the itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the wall again.” Slowly, I slid the knife across his throat, taking my time to watch the blood seep out. “I hope you rot in hell.”
He was dying a slow death, trying to take his last breath.
“Now this,” I acknowledged. “This is for my mother.” Holding the knife, I backhandedly dug the blade into his heart and twisted it, sucking the life right out of him.
He wheezed.
He coughed.
He choked.
As he began gurgling, his eyes started shutting, and I held them open for him. I needed the last thing he saw before he died was my face.
Until finally, he stopped breathing.
Stopped moving.
Stopped living.
And I sat there for I don’t know how long, just wanting to engrain every last inch of him in my mind. Silently praying, I’d be free of him. The memories would always be a part of me, but maybe, just maybe…
I could lay them to rest.
I considered the future I didn’t have until this very moment, trying to bury the past with his body.
I waited.
Every touch.
Every look.
Every bruise.
Every “I love you” from his tainted lips died here with him, and I took refuge in that.
Without thinking twice about it, I ripped the knife out of his heart and stood. Stopping dead in my tracks when all three of them stared at me with extremely disturbed expressions.
“Okay, Rosemary’s Baby,” X exclaimed. “What the fuck, you serial killer… That was some straight-up Carrie shit with the singing. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I chuckled; I couldn’t help it. Lifting the knife out in front of me, I added, “This is my souvenir.” I looked at the blade, arching an eyebrow. “I may even let his blood dry on it.”
Nav slapped Luke’s chest. “This your influence on her? Jesus, don’t piss her off unless you want to sleep with one eye open.”
Luke grinned, winking at me. “Good girl.”
My stomach did that tumbling thing, and I smiled. Placing the knife at my side, I walked to Luke to have him lean on me so we could get the hell out of this place.
On our way out, I turned at the last second.
Looking around his office and then at the floor where my mother was murdered, I swear I faintly saw her appear out of thin air with a proud expression on her loving face, but I blinked, and she was gone. Making me imagine I hallucinated it.
And again, maybe I had…
But it didn’t matter because the four of us left that house that day with three things in common.
Revenge in our blood.
Freedom in our hearts.And peace in our souls.