Chapter 24 Good Fucking Riddance #3
That girl wasn’t alive anymore, though. The Lorelai that Elio was able to do such horrific things to threw herself off a balcony into a cold sea.
And the merrow that had been reborn from that trauma had spent the last ten years gaining enough power to be in this reversed role now.
And I just… wasn’t interested anymore. It was nice to see him writhe in agony like a worm on a hook, but the satisfaction I’d hoped for wasn’t in the room with me.
I had built my whole identity around this moment, this chance to exact my revenge, and I couldn't muster more than mild disgust at the sniveling men that starred in so many of my nightmares.
Men like Elio and Gabriele couldn't scare me now.
I wanted to go back to Grant. This was a waste of time I could have spent being with him.
Maybe I just needed a swap out of tools.
Instead of pulling the blade straight back out of his neck, I jerked the handle hard to the right and ripped a massive hole just below the edge of his jaw, barely missing his jugular vein.
Elio whined behind gritted teeth at the fresh pain.
“You’re not built for this kind of life, Lorelai,” he snarled, his voice hoarse from all the screaming.
“You’ve always been too soft, too cautious.
You don’t have the balls to survive long in our world!
You will always be a little fucking girl!
” Truly, it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself to believe the delusions he spewed.
I scoffed, amused at his empty insults. “You’re as stupid as ever, Elio.
” My fingers wrapped around the cool metal of my weapon of choice, the familiar weight of it soothing the slow boil of rage simmering low in my chest. I swung the tire iron around my wrist in a slow arc as I turned back to where Gabriele slumped, ripping the covering off of his head.
Elio’s single eye flickered back and forth from my face to the iron, like he was confused why I had it.
“As you said, I've built an empire even my piece-of-shit father would be proud of. No thanks to you, of course. And I’m not letting you have another opportunity to abuse another girl like you did me.”
Without giving any indication, I gripped the iron with both hands and brought it down across Gabriele’s right knee.
It caved with a satisfying crack. He bent over as far as the ties holding him back would allow—which wasn’t very far, maybe a couple inches off the chair back—and a shrill scream burst forth from his lips as he came awake.
Then the sniveling and screaming began, interspersed with rapid-fire Italian until the iron came down on his other knee.
His splotchy face was streaked with tears, and spit dribbled from his mouth from the pain.
Those legs were never going to walk again.
“Should I make you count?” I asked sweetly.
“Maybe we can start with ten hits and go from there? I think my highest was seventy when you whipped me, was it not? Hmm,” my voice hummed contentedly, almost drowned out by Gabriele’s whimpering.
“I wonder how many you can take? I’m sure you, of all people, know a good Dom has to sub at least once.
” Not that he was even remotely close to being a Dominant when it came to sex.
He was a sad little man who got his rocks off on making his partners suffer.
Elio’s shoulders heaved with his struggling breaths.
His blond hair hung in greasy strands, far from the elegant coif he usually swept them into.
But he lifted his head just enough to shoot me a hate-filled glare through that nasty curtain around his face.
I was expecting him to be a little more torn up at watching his eldest son get beaten on.
Once a piece of shit, always a piece of shit.
“Man, you’ve seen better days, huh?”
Taylor strolled in from the direction of the parking lot, hands shoved into the pockets of his gray slacks, and he gave a low whistle at the sight.
The door he came through slammed shut with a solid thud, and one of the Riot members guarding it stepped back into place.
His shoulder brushed against mine as he stepped up to my side with another Riot member trailing behind, eyeing the iron now resting across my nape with my wrists looped around both ends. His lips quirked a knowing smirk.
“I just got off the phone with Jerel. He’s working on a docket to send to the Assembly about what all went down thanks to this asshole.
” Taylor’s nose wrinkled as he looked down at Elio’s bloodied face.
“He thinks you will be in the clear as far as punishment goes.
We can prove this attack was entirely unprovoked.
The main Caruso family may be an issue on their own, but that's a bridge we can cross later.”
Elio let loose a low whine. Without looking down, I let the iron swing with one hand to bash against Elio’s right shoulder hard enough to dislocate it.
Another wave of howling screams erupted from his mouth, his voice cracking pitifully.
Elio thrashed as much as he could, but those ties held strong even against his shifter strength.
He wasn’t going anywhere. Gabriele just sat there whimpering like a helpless little pussy.
I’d seen sex workers deal with worse shit than this and come back swinging.
“Want a turn?”
Taylor scoffed. “Nah, I don’t think I’d stop if I started wailing on these assholes.
” He spat a glob that landed right on Gabriele’s broken leg, just above the knee I was working on.
“You weren’t answering your texts, so I thought I’d come in and let you know Grant was looking for you. He’s a little more coherent now.”
I’d wanted to fuck up Elio and his devil spawn some more before Grant woke up again.
He didn’t want to take anything that knocked him out for a long time, according to my previous check-in with Doc about an hour before coming into the warehouse.
Grant wanted to wait until I was back to fall asleep.
I was torn between fulfilling a decade-long goal, and leaving to comfort the man who loved me despite the hatred that fueled me for so long.
A noisy breath left through my nose. Glaring at the men I’d once feared as monsters, tied to chairs and totally helpless, my answer was abundantly clear.
I shoved the tire iron at Taylor’s chest and turned sharply for the door.
One of my black-gloved hands landed heavily on his shoulder, and I looked up at his shocked face with my own expression of peace.
“Fuck them up. You deserve your chance, for taking care of me after… everything went down. And pick some juicy bits to send to Andrea and Ryan with my regards.”
Taylor rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue, pretending to sound put out even as he caught the tire iron before it hit the floor.
“You don’t owe me, or anyone else, a damn thing.
We’re family, and we stick together. But,” he eyed Elio with a hungry look.
“If you insist, it wouldn't be much of a chore to finish them off.” Taylor propped the iron against his leg to roll his sleeves up to the elbows. Elio watched with increasing panic as he stretched his neck left to right and shrugged as if loosening up, while Gabriele’s eyes began to go glassy with unshed tears.
"I'll take care of the clean up. You go check on your mate. "
My last glance of my personal nightmare was over my shoulder, watching them shrink into themselves when Taylor stepped closer.
I lifted my hand to wave at the members loitering around the warehouse.
Two fell into step and followed me out to the parking lot toward our bikes, leaving behind the muffled screams and heavy thwacks as it fell shut again.
One of them handed over the jacket I’d shucked at the beginning of Elio’s session.
My future was with Grant. And I’d be damned if Elio or Gabriele Messina took up one more second of the life I fought so hard to carve out for myself. Good fucking riddance.