“You’re lying,” I hissed, shooting him though his other ankle.
“Maybe,” he said, falling onto his back. “Or maybe all those years married to Orlando ‘Iron Hands’ Giovanni changed her, made her into something dark and ruthless. After all, the apple can’t fall so far from the tree. But you’ll see soon. You can’t touch her. She’s untouchable, they are all untouchable.”
Mel and I both unloaded our weapons into him, not stopping until every last bullet was in his body.
Grabbing Saige by the hair, Mel forced her to stand right beside Vance’s fallen body. Pulling the ripped shirt from her mouth, Mel glared into her eyes.
“Was he telling the truth?”
Saige just smiled. “Fuck you, fuck your mother, and fuck every last one of your men.”
Taking a deep breath, Mel took a step back.
“Strip her.”
Saige’s eyes widened as the men closed in on her. “You’re going to let them rape me?” She tried not to look scared. The men all cringed at the thought.
“No one wants you, whore,” Fedel said from behind her, causing the men to laugh as they approached. Without a second thought, they ripped all her clothes off, leaving her standing there bloody and dirty.
“You get to leave this world the same way you came in,” Mel said holding her hand out as Adriana handed her a pair of scissors.
“First, bald.” Kicking her bad knee, Mel grabbed a fistful of hair and cut. She pulled and cut until all Saige had were clumps of red hair. When she was done, she grabbed the handcuffs Saige was in and cuffed her to the back of the Jeep.
“Second, screaming.”
The rage, the fire, the pain in Mel’s eyes made it clear to everyone that they should not stop her until Saige suffered, and this was the only way. Mel was going to drag her body for God knows how many miles until Saige either died from the shock or the loss of blood. The animals would do the rest.
“Please . . . please . . . don’t do this. I—” Mel just stuffed a sock in her mouth.
“A life for a life,” Mel whispered to her. “You crossed the wrong family.”
Monte held open the car for her, and she smiled at me through the mirror.
“This is going to hurt you way more than it’s going to hurt us,” I said to her before stepping in through the passenger side door.
Starting up the engine, Mel hit the gas hard, and screams filled the morning sky, but I just turned up the music. We were finally on top of the world.
“When did you take out my fucking CD?” Mel snapped at me as she drove faster.
“Your taste in music is shit, love.”
“Just because I don’t like that fucking classic and old school hip hop crap, doesn’t make it shit.”
“All those artists are auto-tuned anyway. I like real music,” I said, turning it up just a little bit louder to drown out the screams.
“What the fuck is this?” She glared at the radio.
“MC Ren,” I said, and she just stared at me. Smirking, I began to rap along with it, causing her eyes to widen before she broke out in a fit of laughter.
“You are a pale-ass white kid from Chicago Elite. You are not allowed to try to rap this.”
“Hater.” I winked and as she smiled. For the first time in forever, we both felt like we could just relax.
Looking out at the lions as they rose for another day, I wondered if we were any different. After all—I killed, ate, slept, and fucked just as they did. I was the king of the jungle, and the woman beside me was my queen.
EPILOGUE
“Like Alexander the Great and Caesar,
I’m out to conquer the world.”
~ Jarod Kintz
MELODY
“Five.” I kissed his nose
“Four.” He kissed my forehead
“Three.” I kissed his cheek.
“Two.” He kissed my chin.
“One,” we said at the same time before kissing each other deeply.
“Happy New Year,” I whispered into the darkness of our room.
“Happy New Year, love,” he whispered back.
Hearing the fireworks go off pulled me away from him, much to his protests, but I did want to see all the effort Evelyn had put in. Grabbing my robe, I stood at the window taking in the sight of all those celebrating like drunken fools.
“You know they say the first year of marriage is the hardest,” Liam said, kissing my shoulder.
Groaning, I leaned into him. “We’re still in the first year.”
“Really? I swear it’s been longer than that.” He laughed, trying to untie my robe, but I slapped his hands away.
“Control yourself. We have a meeting, remember?” Despite the fact that I wanted him as well, this was important.
“You’re starting the year off wrong.”
“You’ll forgive me, now put on pants.” He was such a pain sometimes.
“You put on pants.” He glared at my bare legs.
Rolling my eyes at him, I threw him his pajama bottoms. “I can wear whatever I want! So let’s go, the family is waiting.”
He frowned but wore his stupid pants, following me out of the room and into the study. There sat the whole family, along with Senator Colemen, Olivia’s Father, who looked very confused about why he was here.
His whole demeanor changed when Liam took a seat in his chair while I sat on the desk.
“Thank you all for coming,” Liam said to them coldly. “As you all know, it’s been a stressful year. However, that’s what happens when you take over a state.”
“And now that we have the state eating out of our hand, we want the country.” I smiled at them all.
“How do you plan on doing that?” Sedric asked, leaning into his chair.
Liam and I grinned before Liam spoke. “You run for the highest office in the land.”
Declan coughed up his drink. “You want to run for President?”
“Hell fucking no,” Liam replied. “Senator Colemen does, and we’re going to support him one hundred percent.”
Senator Colemen’s eyes widened as he gaped at us. “You want me to run for President? Have you lost your mind? Is this a joke?”
I glared at the idiot. “No, this is an order, or did you forget who has been funding all your other campaign events?”
“You’re going to run for office, and you’re going to win,” Liam said as fact. “And then you’re going to work for us.”
Senator Colemen shook his head. “That isn’t possible. Not only am I part of an unpopular party right now, but I’m divorced and have only been in the Senate for a few years.”
“Why are you under the impression that we’re asking?” I stood, turning to face him. “You’re running for President, you will be the President of the United States of America, and you will also work toward our best interests.”
“As for your wife,” Liam said, paging Adriana who opened the door to reveal the ex-Mrs. Coleman.
“Mom?” Olivia gasped quickly, rising to give her a large hug.
“There, look, a wife. And by coming back together, you will prove you can work with both parties, blah blah blah . . . you have a ready-made family with a lot of connections and deep pockets. When we say you’re going to be President, we mean you are the next Commander and Chief. ”