Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ihaven’t seen her in hours. I’m eager to get back to her. I left Evie at my house because I had to deal with a last-minute complication with a drop. I would have preferred to stay in bed with her. It’s where I always want to be lately.
I told her I wouldn’t be gone long. I’ve been gone for hours. Evie hates being at the estate, especially without me. She says the place feels haunted and doomed. I know she has trouble getting past the memories of my mother. Of when I had to kill my mother in front of her.
It wasn’t my finest moment, and somehow I need to get her to be able to be in my house without remembering that incident. Or I need to find a new house.
I run up the stairs and push through the bedroom door. She’s not in the bed where I left her.
“Evie?” I call out, walking into the bathroom before I stop at the scene in front of me. “No!” I scream at the top of my lungs. “No. Fucking no!”
I drop to the floor. Evie’s body is covered in blood. A knife is on the tiles beside her. I reach up for towels and wrap one around her wrist.
“What the fuck have you done?” I yell as I shake her unresponsive body.
A shadow forms in the doorway. I pull out my gun, aim, and shoot. I don’t care who it is. No one is taking her from me. I hold her body against my chest. When someone else comes into view, I shoot again.
“Fuck, Emmanuel. Stop!” Paz yells at me. Something slaps my hand and the gun falls. My eyes snap open and I’m staring at my second-in-command.
“Where is she? Evie?” I call out, shoving the blankets aside and jumping to my feet.
“E, you were having a nightmare. Whatever happened, it’s not real,” Paz says calmly.
“Where is she?” I repeat.
“Call her.” He hands me my phone.
I sit on the bed and dial her number, hitting the camera function because I need to see her. “You know I’m starting to think my insomnia is contagious. Why aren’t you sleeping?” she asks me.
“Show me your wrists,” I tell her.
“What? Why?”
The click of the door lets me know Paz has walked out of the room. “Evie, please. Just show me your wrists,” I plead with her.
Evie sets the phone down on the bed and then holds her hands over the camera area. “Do you have some kind of wrist fetish, E? Because I gotta admit that’s a little odd, even for you.”
“I have a you fetish, Evie. Anything you is my fetish,” I tell her. “Show me your face again.”
“Bossy,” she says as I watch her scribble something down on a piece of paper.
“What are you doing?” I ask her.
“I’m making a pros and cons list on you,” she says.
“Really? What’s on this list?” I can’t shake the image of her on the bathroom floor… “Wait, Evie, have you ever tried to kill yourself or had thoughts of doing so?”
“No. Why?”
“Just needed to make sure. Okay, now tell me what are the pros on your list?”
“Are you okay, E? You seem a little stressed.”
“You’re not in my bed. So, no, I’m not fucking okay,” I grunt.
“Grouchy,” she says as she scribbles on the paper again.
“Did you just write down that I’m grouchy?” I quirk an amused brow at the phone.
“Yep, it’s on the cons list too,” Evie tells me.
“Yeah, what else is on this list of cons?”
“You really want to know?” she asks.
“The list of items you’re creating to talk yourself out of falling for me? Yes, because I will find a way to cross every single one of them off,” I tell her.
“Okay, well, first you’re a…” She pauses.
“A what?” I urge her to continue.
“I don’t think I should say that part on the phone, E. What if someone is listening?”
I laugh. “Mi alma, no one is listening. Say whatever it is you want to say.”
“How do you know the feds haven’t bugged Louie’s apartment or something? You don’t know,” she insists. “You’d think someone in your position would be more careful with their phone calls.”
“Louie has scramblers everywhere. There is no bug that would survive them,” I explain.
“Oh… okay then. Con, you’re a cartel boss. Pro, you have a job,” she says.
I can’t help but laugh. “Keep going.”
“Con, you’re bossy. Con, you’re grouchy. Con, you think you own me.”
“I don’t think I own you, Evie. I know I do. Continue,” I tell her.
“Pro, you look really good in a suit. Pro, your dick is really impressive. Pro, you make me come—always. Pro, you make me feel less broken.” Her voice quietens as she says the last one. “Pro, you are loyal to your friends. Pro, you’re protective of those you love. Pro, you worship me.”
“I’m feeling like this list is heavy on the pro side, Evie.”
“Con, you make me forget my own morals. Con, I can’t seem to stay away from you.”
“That one seems like it should be on the pro list.” I laugh.
“What would be on your list? About me,” she questions.
“I don’t have a single con to list about you, Evie. You are fucking perfect in every way,” I tell her.
“That’s bullshit. There has to be something about me that aggravates you,” she says.
“The fact that you’re not already my wife,” I mutter, shocking both of us. Where the fuck did that come from? Do I want to keep Evie? Fuck yes. Does that mean I want to get married? It would seem that way.
“Um… I didn’t thank you. I should have. Thank you,” she whispers.
“What are you thanking me for?”
“For the first time, I walked around here without looking at the faces of strangers and wondering if they were the one. You know… the doctor,” she says.
“Evie, you don’t need to thank me for that. I will erase all of your monsters from this earth. That’s a promise,” I tell her. “When can I see you?”
“You just saw me today… or yesterday.”
“It was too long ago,” I grunt.
“Charlotte is going to help me search for a new shop location tomorrow. I also need to try to contact the insurance company and see what, if anything, I can get out of them,” she says.
“Evie, you don’t need an insurance payout. Use your bank account. I will see you later today,” I remind her before cutting the call.
I’ve been keeping busy, trying to give Evie space and time. It’s a good thing I’ve got a list of targets to hunt down and kill—otherwise I would have caved and gone to her already.
I’ve gone through two names on the list of ten. The fucker in front of me is number three. I wasn’t expecting his family to be home when we breached the property. I’m not deterred by that fact either. None of them will be able to talk once I leave here.
Is it fair for his family to pay a price for his crimes?
No, but the world doesn’t revolve around fairness.
When it comes to the fucking assholes on this list, I have no empathy for them or their families.
What they did to Evie, and God knows how many other girls just like her, makes me fucking sick to my stomach.
“Bruce, Bruce, Bruce.” I shake my head at the fucker on the ground in front of me. His hands up in surrender, as if it’s going to make a difference. “You want to be the one to tell your wife and daughters why they’re about to die? Or should I do the honors?”
“I don’t know who you are or what you want. Take it. Just let them go,” he says, looking at his two teenage daughters and then their mother.
“You don’t know me. But you know her.” I hold out my phone with a photo of Evie on the screen. The weak fuck wets his pants, literally.
“No.” He shakes his head.
“Oh, but you do. Do you want to tell them what you did?” I ask him.
Bruce shakes his head again.
“Fine, I’ll do it,” I say, turning my attention to the group of women. I show them the picture of Evie. “Bruce here drugged and sexually assaulted this girl after she won pageant shows. That’s why I’m here.”
“No, he wouldn’t do that. You have the wrong person,” his wife says, her voice calm.
“You have too much faith in your sick fuck of a husband,” I tell her while aiming the barrel of my gun at her head.
I pull the trigger. She falls backwards and blood splatters all over her daughters. Their screams are high-pitched and honestly? Fucking annoying.
“See what you did, Bruce? That could have been avoided had you not been a sick fuck who takes advantage of young girls.” I sigh.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry!” he cries out. “Just let them go.”
Holding up two fingers, I indicate for my men to collect the girls. “Take them upstairs, do whatever you want with them, but make sure they’re not breathing afterwards,” I instruct.
With a nod, my guys drag the girls kicking and screaming up the stairs. Bruce seems to find his balls, because he stands in an attempt to grab for his daughters. To save them. It’s no use. There’s no saving anyone.
“You fucked with the wrong woman,” I say as I send a bullet into his kneecap.
“I said I was sorry!” he screams at me.
“You see, I don’t need your apologies. I’m just here to send you to hell. There’s a special place there for fuckers like you.” I pull the trigger. Another bullet lodges in his shoulder. I’m drawing this out, because, well, it’s fun.
“Please, let them go. They don’t have anything to do with this!” he cries out again.
“The thing is… I didn’t get to where I am today by leaving witnesses. Their deaths are on your head,” I tell him. “Not mine.”
After hearing two consecutive shots from above, Bruce shrieks in agony.
“Huh, who would have thought my men would have better morals than you do? They let your daughters off easy,” I hum before putting a final bullet between his eyes.
As I walk out of the house, I instruct one of my soldiers to burn it.
I slide into my car and skim my phone. Paz went back home today. One of us needs to be there. He hasn’t checked in yet, which is odd for him. He always checks in when he lands.
I send him a message.
Me:
You land okay?
Pocketing my phone, I tell my driver to take me to the Royal. I don’t care what Evie is doing right now. I need to see her.