Chapter 24 #3
The silence that followed was worse. Thick. Breathing. A silence that crawled over the concrete like some kind of living thing.
Enzo saw it then—the shift. Fear didn’t cleanse these men; it corroded them.
He hated himself for noticing the details: how Grant’s hands shook, how Caesar’s face went slack, how the stench of urine joined the reek of gasoline and metal.
When Grant’s bladder let go, it wasn’t just shame, it was recognition. They finally understood this was real.
Seven watched, unnervingly calm. If not for the way his fingers wound through Enzo’s, white-knuckled, Enzo would’ve thought he was unaffected. His stillness was its own kind of violence, the quiet kind that meant he was done feeling anything for these losers.
The closer the men got to the top of the ramp, the closer Enzo’s brothers drifted to his side, both wide-eyed and reverent, watching with grim fascination.
Felix leaned against the far wall, Zane tucked into his chest. August stood a few feet off, the detached expression of a man cataloging a crime scene, while Lucas thumbed a message into his phone like they weren’t all standing in hell.
Jericho knelt near the machine, eyes fixed on the gears, more worried about the engineering than the execution.
Asa hit the button. The ramp groaned to life with a shriek that set Enzo’s teeth on edge. Metal grated against metal, echoing through the rafters, sharp as a scream from some final girl. The teeth caught the light, glinting like diamonds…or bones.
Avi was just about to pitch Grant forward when Asa barked, “Wait.”
Avi’s glare was so childish Enzo almost laughed, right until Asa produced a sleek metal lighter. The flame flared bright against his fingers. For one heartbeat, they all held their breath. Then he tossed it into the pit.
The explosion of fire hit them like a lungful of heat. Flames roared up, curling the air into shimmering waves. The smell of burning gasoline flooded the room, sweet, acrid, alive. Enzo’s lungs burned.
Zane whipped around and smacked Asa’s arm. “You moron! What if that pit had chemicals in it? You could’ve blown up the entire fucking building!”
Asa shrugged, the picture of unrepentant glee. “But it didn’t.” He flashed a grin. “Yay?”
“You’re an asshole,” Zane muttered, turning away. “I’m sleeping with Avi and Felix tonight.”
Asa caught him around the waist, hauling him off his feet. “Like hell, you are.”
“You don’t own me, Asa Mulvaney,” Zane said, though his smirk betrayed him.
Asa captured his mouth in a filthy kiss that had all of them looking anywhere but at the two of them. When he finally released him, he purred, “That’s where you’re wrong, Lois.”
Atticus groaned. “Can you two do your creepy flirting later? We’re on the clock.”
“I hate to admit it,” Felix said, rubbing a hand over his face, “but Freckles is right. Let’s finish this creepy game of Shoots and Ladders and go home. These guys aren’t worth all this effort.”
Avi’s smile was the stuff of nightmares. “You’re right, kitten.”
He shoved Grant onto the ramp, the teeth catching on his flesh instantly. Grant screamed, and it was the worst sound Enzo had ever heard. Not because of the pitch, but because of what it did.
It changed the air. For one still, suspended moment, everyone stopped.
The flames hissed, the machine whined, and every eye turned toward the ramp whether they wanted to or not.
They stared, not like killers but like witnesses, watching something they could never unsee.
Enzo’s stomach flipped, not from guilt but from the sick gravity of understanding: this wasn’t justice. It was inevitable.
Enzo tried to convince himself it was only a movie, that it wasn’t real.
But you couldn’t smell the sharp stench of iron and urine when you were watching a horror movie, couldn’t hear the way someone’s flesh peeled away from muscle down to fracturing bone.
Each man passed out from the pain about halfway down, only to erupt from the flames screaming when they hit the pool, their bodies jerking and writhing as their flesh charred like marshmallows over a fire.
The air shimmered with heat and was thick with smoke—the kind that crawled into your hair and stayed there.
The smell of burning flesh was nauseating, not because it smelled bad, but because it was almost indistinguishable from any other cooking animal.
Though burning hair would never smell like anything but hell.
Enzo’s hands tightened into fists around Seven’s until his knuckles turned white, and he felt like he didn’t breathe again until all three men were dead.
“Who’s cleaning this mess up?” Jericho finally asked, staring at the still-burning pool of liquid.
“Not us,” Zane and Felix said in unison. “We’re going to Dad’s. Avi and Asa can take clean-up since it was Avi’s bucket list item. We’ll just sleep there with the boys.”
When Avi made a disappointed sound, Felix shrugged. “It’s the least you could do for hijacking Seven’s kill.”
Avi looked a little sheepish when he turned to Seven. “Sorry, man.”
“It’s okay,” Seven said around a yawn. “Your dad’s gonna take out the donors and help the women and kids they kidnapped.
I kind of owed you one.” He curled up against Enzo’s chest, a jaw-cracking yawn splitting his face.
“But don’t forget to mark it off your bucket list. I know there’s a hard copy somewhere. ”
“Why don’t we drop the boys at your mother’s house?” Atticus said to Enzo. “It’s on our way home anyway, and I know you want to have Seven seen at the hospital.”
“What’ll you tell them about…that?” Ansel asked, pointing at Seven’s battered face.
“That someone who looked a lot like Grant came after him and then disappeared into the night. They’ll buy it. Brioni already threw him under the bus with her testimony,” Enzo said.
Seven looked around then. “Uh, where is Brioni?”
Enzo followed his gaze. He’d been so worried about Seven, he’d forgotten all about her.
“Adam and Noah came and got her while you were out. They got her and her mother out of town in case some of the donors got wind of what was going down and tried to take her out,” Zane explained.
Seven nodded. “Oh.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Enzo suggested. “We need to go home and clean up first. We smell like blood and gasoline.”
“It won’t be suspicious if you go home first?” Elio asked.
“We’ll be even more suspicious if we go in like this,” Enzo countered.
Seven looked up at him with tired eyes. “Let’s go home.”
Once they were outside, Enzo gulped in clean air, welcoming the smell of salt and the stench of rotting seaweed.
The tide whispered against the pilings, the rhythmic sound lulling him, quieting some of the night’s panic.
He opened the passenger door for Seven, but couldn’t bring himself to let him go.
Seven wrapped his arms around him, pressing his cheek to his chest, just letting Enzo hold him, the two of them swaying as those not in charge of clean up drove away one by one. When they were alone, Enzo tipped Seven’s head up, brushing his thumb along his jaw, trying not to focus on the bandages.
“You scared the hell out of me,” he said quietly.
Seven’s lips curved faintly. “I knew what I was doing.”
Enzo growled. “You could have died.”
Seven looked exhausted, but still, he tried to appease Enzo. “I had to protect your brothers. You’re mom really likes me. I didn’t want to ruin that by returning her two youngest in body bags.”
“It’s not funny,” Enzo said, chest so tight it hurt to breathe. “If you had died…” He couldn’t even get the words out, tightening his grip on Seven until he yelped.
“Ribs…possibly broken,” he wheezed around a pained gasp.
“Oh, fuck. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Enzo said, touching him gingerly “Shit. I don’t know if I can handle you getting hurt like this again.”
Seven smiled. “Is this the part where you give me an ultimatum? Where you tell me I have to choose between being a vigilante and being with you?”
Enzo scoffed. “Don’t be stupid. An ultimatum only works if you’re willing to live with either choice. I hope by now it’s clear that I cannot live without you.”
Tears formed in Seven’s pale eyes, but he tried to blink them away. “Don’t make me cry, you dick. Do you know how bad tears sting an open wound?”
Enzo captured his mouth in a raw, excruciatingly slow kiss, attempting to catalog every gasp, every sigh, the sound of their lips meeting and parting. “Please, just…promise me you won’t make me spend every night wondering if you’ll make it home?” he begged between kisses.
“I promise. I can’t say I’ll never have to patrol. I owe Jericho that much, even if he’d say it wasn’t true. But I won’t volunteer to take other people’s shifts anymore. Not now that I have someone waiting at home for me.”
“I know I said it earlier, but I just need to say it again. I love you so fucking much. I can’t believe that I almost lost you…again.”
Seven cupped his face, forcing him to meet his gaze. “You never lost me. Even when I wanted to strangle you, I was still so crazy in love with you. That’s why it hurt so bad.”
“I swear on my life,” Enzo said, “if I ever break your heart again, you can hand me over to Avi as fodder for one of his bucket list items.”
Seven blinked up at him, horrified. “You have no idea what you’re saying right now…”
“I do. I really do,” Enzo swore, peppering Seven’s jaw and throat with kisses. “I can’t wait until I put a ring on your finger, until you’re mine in every way.”
“I’m already yours…in every way. But you’re not getting out of proposing to me. And it better be a spectacle. I’m talking a trip-to-New-York-billboard-in-Times-Square big, buddy.”
“Hell, I’ll buy you Time Square if I have to,” Enzo promised, scraping his teeth against Seven’s throat until he hissed.
“Just how much money do you have?” Seven asked absently, tilting his head to give Enzo better access.
“Enough to keep you in chore charts and rubber duckies for life,” he murmured.
“That’s so hot,” Seven whispered, his hand sliding down to grope Enzo’s half-hard cock. “Do you think we have time to fuck in the shower before our trip to the emergency room?”
“What am I gonna do with you?” Enzo murmured, sucking his plush bottom lip.
Seven gasped. “Don’t worry, Daddy. I have a list.”
“Fuck, you’re perfect.”
“Took you long enough to notice.”
Enzo nodded. “I’ll spend forever making it up to you.”
Seven smiled against his lips. “Oh, I’ll make sure of it.”