Chapter 39
Adora
“This is burnt,” Bowie growls, shoving my face toward the hot pan.
His breath hits the back of my neck, almost making me heave. I don’t know why my brain registers that small gust of air as more dangerous than the heat glowing against my cheek.
He points at a small, dark brown circle on the pancake still in the pan, emphasizing the accusation. He likes them perfectly light brown. I fucked up. I can’t defend myself though, it’ll only make him angrier.
He yanks my hair and throws me to the side. I hit the counter. Pain shoots through my hip, but I stay where I land, perfectly still. I have to. If I move before he says so, it’ll only get worse.
“You’re useless, you filthy bitch. I gave you a name and a good reputation. The least you can do is give me edible food.”
He steps closer. My skin prickles.
“Your mother promised me a perfect wife. But I see you can’t deliver on that promise.”
Maybe he should’ve married my mother. It would’ve saved all of us a lot of trouble. I keep that thought to myself. Eyes down. Hands folded in front of me. Just the way he likes it.
“Now I need to waste my time disciplining you again,” he mutters, full of distaste. Then his voice drops — cold, sharp, aimed right at me. “Spread the fucking rice and kneel. Two hours. And don’t even try to get up sooner. I’ll time you.”
I push myself away from the counter and do as he says. He learned this punishment from my mother. He thinks it hurts me, but I’ve been doing the rice-and-kneel routine for so many years, I don’t feel it anymore. Two hours is nothing.
Stupid fucker. Tomorrow, I’ll make sure your pancakes are perfect. Just like the wife you want.
...
I sigh and wave that memory away. They always come when I visit this place.
“This will be my last confession,” I say, crouching at the edge of the pit and setting the plastic bag by my foot. My voice is calm and clear, just like my mind.
“I don’t think this one will upset you as much as finding out about the roaches I blended into your food whenever I could. I don’t think you’ll care. But in the end, this isn’t about you. This is about me, and you’re only here to listen.”
Bowie turns his hateful, pale blue eyes to me, glaring through the mud caked on his face.
The club wanted him dead the day they caught him — the day of the shooting, not even ten miles outside Silverpine. Bones came to me before they acted, offering me the right to choose how he died.
But I didn’t want him dead. Not yet. Because even though my mind was screaming that all hope was lost, my heart was still clinging to that last thread of light.
I wanted to believe Dominic would live. And when he walked out of that hospital, I wanted him to be the one to slay this beast for both of us.
I just had to wait for him to get some of his strength back.
I glance at my phone, checking Dominic’s tracker. Not much time left.
I clear my throat and get back to it. After this, he won’t be mine to deal with anymore.
“The first time I cheated on you was in year six of our so-called marriage,” I say evenly. “A new teacher joined the school that year. You remember Paul, don’t you? You met him a few times.”
“He was discreet, and he could make me come. So I agreed to a standing appointment. Every Thursday. Three p.m. We had our little abandoned closet at the school. You thought it was my planning period, but it was my fucking time. He fucked me every week for three years.”
I release a long breath, letting those words fall and sink into the pit. I’ve been doing this almost every day since he’s been down there. One ‘confession’ a day. I don’t know why, it just felt right.
“Hhorr.” The gurgled sound barely makes it past his crusted lips.
“Whore?” I tilt my head, repeating it. A faint smirk pulls at my lips. “Oh, Bowie… That word means nothing coming from you.”
I rise to my feet, picking up the plastic bag, and take a step back.
“Someone else called me that once. If it didn’t break me coming from him, you don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell.”
“That someone will forever regret saying that word to you.” Dominic’s deep voice cuts through the space behind me.
I knew he was close, but… damn. I didn’t hear a single step.
I half-turn, raising an eyebrow. “It’s a good thing that someone is now saying — and writing — a whole lot of nice things to make up for it. And he’ll be doing it for a very long time.”
“For the rest of his life,” he murmurs, his dark gaze locking onto mine.
I’m about to answer ‘We’ll see’, but he reaches me first and steals the words from my mouth with a kiss, his arm wrapping around my waist.
“Come find me and bring weapons?” he whispers against my ear when he pulls back. “What kind of text is that? You almost gave me a heart attack, adorable.”
I step back with a soundless chuckle and turn my head toward the pit.
“What is going on here?” Dominic asks, following my gaze. “Bones said he was dead.”
He tries to keep his voice casual, but there’s a breath of eagerness breaking through. That tells me this was the right call.
“No one said that. You assumed it when he told you the club caught him.” My fingers tighten around the bag in my hand, the artificial crunch of plastic jarring in the stillness of the forest. “You had enough on your plate. You didn’t need this too.”
Plus… I needed my time with Bowie. My confessions were strangely healing.
Dominic doesn’t argue with my explanation, just nods in agreement. He understands.
“This is new,” he murmurs, eyes sweeping over the pit, then the massive iron grate propped against a nearby tree. Joker welded that thing in record time. He came earlier with Fang to remove it and set the stage.
“Who the hell came up with this?”
I press my lips together, but the smile still slips through.
“I did,” I say simply. “You see, before romance, my favorite books used to be thrillers. And sitting at the top of my list was The Silence of the Lambs. There’s a pit scene in it that never left me. I used to imagine my mother thrown in one.”
I glance at him from the corner of my eye.
“The metal box you trapped her in worked just as well. But when Bones gave me a choice about the fate of this rancid waste of flesh, I couldn’t resist.”
My voice drops, turning cold.
“Your club brothers have been having a lot of fun with him.”
Especially Fang. He leaned all the way into my little fantasy — borrowed Theresa’s whip, kept coming back, throwing cow shit into the pit and shouting, It rubs the cow shit on its skin or else it gets the whip again.
Of course, I never had the heart to tell him that specific line is from the movie. It’s a little different in the book.
But I watched a few times. It was amazing.
Which reminds me…
“Did you know Fang has a cow?” I ask, turning to Dominic, eyes widening.
He smiles, looking at me with — dare I say it? — awe. “Yeah. Daisy. She’s a sweetheart.”
I nod and look back into the pit.
“There’s just one thing…” I continue. “You won’t be able to interrogate him.
The first few days, he kept spitting all these foul things, and he wouldn’t shut up about how you were going to die.
He barely gave any real answers to any questions.
So Bones kind of lost his shit and…” I lift one shoulder. “Well, he cut part of his tongue off.”
My lips twist, remembering how I almost threw up when I saw him after. He opened his mouth wide, flicking that stub at me in accusation. That’s when I told him about his toilet-water coffee. It shut his mouth fast.
“He can still talk, but it’s very hard to understand him.”
A wet, furious gurgle rises from the pit. I ignore it and turn back to Dominic. His jaw is clenched, a muscle twitching in his cheek.
“I did get something out of him,” I say, lowering my voice. “The guards. What they did to you in prison? He arranged that at my mother’s request. I guess he wanted to prove himself to her. The message at the end, though, that was all him.”
The words shiver in the air between us.
I take a pause as long as a breath, and lift the plastic bag holding my mother’s ashes.
“Since they got along so well, I thought I’d reunite them. She deserves to spend eternity soaking in rot, piss, and shit.”
I swallow, but the tears come anyway. I fumble with the knot, my hands unsteady.
“She was thinking about marrying Liz off too. Just like she did with me.” My chest trembles. I’ve never said this out loud, too afraid she’d somehow come out of nowhere and make it real. “She wanted to control Liz’s life so she could keep controlling mine.”
My vision blurs, wet gasps coming up my throat.
“Oh God, I don’t know how we got out. I don’t know.”
Why won’t this stupid knot give?
Warm hands close around my wrists, stopping my movements. I look up at Dominic. His face is calm, almost solemn, but there’s a fury in his eyes I’ve rarely seen. He’s keeping it contained, though.
He takes the bag from me, loosens the knot without a word, and places it back in my hands. Then he brushes a strand of hair from my face and presses a soft kiss to the corner of my lips. My tears have already stopped.
“She’s dead. She’s not coming back, adorable,” he murmurs. “Liz is safe. You’re safe. Do what you need to do.”
In silence, I turn and empty the ashes into the pit. Not a single gust of wind stirs to take even one grain of ash away. The world doesn’t want any part of her.
I drop the bag after and watch it float down into the hole, Bowie’s enraged howl rising to meet it.
Dominic’s arm wraps around my shoulders. I lean into him, exhaling as the tension finally begins to leave my body.
“Bones and the others are standing by,” I murmur after a few minutes. “They’re ready to pull him out for you, if you’re ready.” I tilt my head slightly, looking up at him. “You can do it another day if you want.”
His grip tightens.
“He dies today.”
The certainty in his voice settles something deep inside me. It’s another drop of peace in a cup that’s been filling with it for weeks.