Chapter 32 - Ethan
Here we are again, back at Starlight, and I already know, tonight is gonna be a night to remember, because tonight, the life Sarah knows will change permanently.
One of Marcus’ gang infiltrated Sarah’s life and because she is so easy to manipulate when money is involved, the guy only had to pretend to be rich in order to get her on a date.
Dima agreed for us to use the bar and shut it down for a few hours so we can carry out our good deed to society.
It will be a better place around here without her.
This place is safe, no witnesses or drunk heroes or confusion.
Everyone knows their place. The Blackrose Saints have recently started working with the Kozlovs, so this has worked out well. It’s fate.
We wait inside for Marcus’ colleagues to bring Sarah into the main bar where we mill around. She stumbles inside with the two guys from Marcus’ gang and you can see the moment it all clicks into place, when her eyes land on me.
Her eyes dart around, her mouth dry with the way she keeps licking her lips. Trying to gain some understanding of what’s going on.
I look over to the side and see Jules, Dima’s right hand man, lean against the far wall, arms crossed. Dima stands near the bar, expression bored, like this is just another invoice being processed.
Sarah’s face collapses into regret the closer she gets to me. There is no hope or anger, just an understanding that she fucked up. The guys take her to the stage where they force her to sit on the edge. She tries to resist at first until Marcus gently insists.
I walk slowly toward her, and she never takes her eyes off me.
“I didn’t do anything,” she whispers when I stop in front of her.
“You chose war. I warned you what would happen if you talked to him again. But you couldn’t stop yourself,” I say, and she shakes her head violently.
“You can’t do this. It’s illegal. I’ll scream.”
Dima chuckles quietly, we’ve all heard this shit before.
“Not here, anything goes,” Dima mutters.
“You were warned,” I remind her.
“I wanted money, I needed it to be able to leave,” she says, anxiety replacing all emotions.
“One million dollars not enough for a new life?” I ask, not buying anything she ever says. She doesn’t respond because there is nothing to say that would make me believe her.
I watch as Marcus steps forward, keeping his voice calm. Always the professional.
“You don’t exist after tonight, Sarah,” he says in a level voice and she laughs weakly.
“That’s not how the world works.”
“It is, if you don’t mind losing your name.” Her face drains as he continues unrolling the future like paperwork.
“You will be escorted from her to a new residence. Your phone will be destroyed. Your bank accounts closed. Your social security number reassigned. Your employment records altered.”
She stares.
“You’ll work for me and in return you will have food and a bed,” he adds.
She turns to me and the real Sarah appears again. Hatred and spite are the only things this woman possesses.
“You did all this for him?” she spits.
“Yes, and I would go much further.”
“You think he’ll love you for this?”
“No,” I say as I lean closer, crouching down to her level on the floor.
“I think he’ll sleep better knowing you’re gone. What makes you think he wasn’t involved in the plan?”
That breaks her as she lunges forward to me but loses her balance just as Jules moves to intervene. He holds her up and sits her back in place, but holding onto her shoulders this time to prevent her from moving.
“This is kidnapping!”
“Technically,” Marcus nods as she begins to sob.
“I didn’t mean it. I was angry. I was scared.”
“No, you were careless, and I know if you were left to your own devices, you won’t be able to let it go. Your ego won’t allow it.”
She looks at the ceiling at the lights and the void. She has nowhere to turn.
“What happens to me?”
“You’ll wake up somewhere new. New name.
New people. No internet access without supervision.
No contact with anyone from your previous life.
You will be part of our biker crew where we will control your life from now on.
There will be nowhere to escape. Police are in our pockets.
Judges paid handsomely. Look at it as a funded prison,” Marcus says, and she just looks at him blankly.
But I know she will be planning her next move.
“And if I try to come back?” she asks, and Marcus smiles faintly, like he almost hopes she tries.
“You won’t.”
She looks at me one last time.
“You’re a psycho that needs locking up!”
I consider that and it isn’t the insult she thinks.
“I’m your ending, Sarah. And Leo’s future.”
I turn around to face Marcus, who passes me the scalpel that I instructed him to have.
Sarah will always need a reminder, a warning of why to never cross me.
I want her to see me everytime she looks in the mirror, reliving the consequences of her actions and learning to never fucking underestimate a threat. Especially from me.
Jules and Marcus both hold her firmly on the edge of the stage as I approach and the scream pierces through the air. Hysteria. Regret. My god how I have missed this, the sound of terror.
“No! No! Please don’t,” she screams and begs, trying to break free.
“I could take your life, but that won’t please me.
But taking the one thing you care about, your vanity, the thing you rely on to get what you want, that brings me peace,” I say before I cut into her skin, starting from the corner of her mouth, and sliding the scalpel upwards until it reaches the outer corner of her eye.
The skin parts slowly, revealing the flesh underneath before blood starts to pour.
She shakes in pain and horror as I fuck up that pretty face.
It doesn’t take long to complete. When I step back and look at the gaping flesh, her face covered in blood, tears and snot, I feel alive.
Like that weight pulling me and Leo down has been cut away. She will never forget this.
Dima passes Marcus some gauze for him to stem the bleeding against her face as she continues to cry and scream. It was her own fault.
Dima clears his throat and signals for Marcus’ men to step forward. Our time is up.
Clearly in shock, she doesn’t fight the guys as they lift her out to the back of the bar to another vehicle, she just makes herself smaller like it will make a difference, but these guys don’t care.
Before she leaves, she lifts her bloody and tear stained face to look at me, with the understanding she has been outplayed and it’s over.
She’ll think her parents back in Ohio will look for her, but the truth is Sarah has vanished.
She will be that one unsolved case that will appear in a documentary years from now as an unresolved mystery.
As the door closes behind her, the bar breathes again. Everyone is relieved that it went better than expected. Dima lights a cigar, Jules heads out back, and I stay right where I am, looking at nothing.
Sarah is no longer. Leo is safe. I have completed my task.
I take out my phone to see there is a message from Leo, sent twenty minutes earlier:
Leo: When are you coming home?
Me: On my way.
Three dots appear.
Leo: Okay.
Everything has slotted into place like the perfect puzzle. All I see ahead is beauty and Leo.