Before I can do anything, Reese runs up to him, hitting him in the face with the barrel of a gun. “How could you?” she yells. Her voice is so full of anguish and pain that it almost brings me to my knees. “They were fuckin’ kids. How fuckin’ soulless are you?”
“Reese, honey,” Vincent croaks out, tilting his head to stop the blood gushing from his ear. “You need to shoot them. They’re crazy. They are gonna kill me, then your momma, and then you. Just shoot them, baby. Kill them, and we can get the hell out of here.”
Reese’s leg springs out, and she kicks him square in the face. Vincent’s body goes flying.
Damn. I didn’t know she could kick like that. She’s been holding out on me in bed.
Reese crouches down in front of him, and unease creeps up my spine. I know she’s safe. There are five of us here. Vincent’s tied up, but I know what the fucker is capable of, and I don’t like my girl that close to him. “You’re a piece of shit. I’d never help you. I’m here to watch you die, Dad. Here so that I can make sure the person I love most in the world finally gets the justice he so desperately deserves.”
Vincent’s eyes round. “Reese, tesoro. I’m your papa. Don’t do this. You’ll never forgive yourself.”
A diabolical laugh escapes her perfectly fuckable mouth. It’s cold and uncaring, something I’ve never heard from Reese that gets my cock hard as steel. “I’m never gonna regret staring into your eyes while you die, Vincent. It’s God’s work, if you ask me.” With that, she gets up, spits in his face, and walks to stand beside me.
Ciaran flashes his fangs as he walks toward Vincent. He pours the lighter fluid on the older man’s head, drenching him in it. He says nothing. He just looks at Finn then at me and nods. I flick the Zippo open and start heading towards him, when Reese grabs my arm. Well, fuck, she’s probably going to ask me to spare the fucker’s life, and the sick part is that I’d do it. If she wants me to not kill the asshole, I won’t. That’s how much control she’s got over me.
“I want to do it, if that’s okay with you.”
Her words are bitter, and they are shocking. Never in a million years did I expect her to want to be the one who takes the fucker out. “You sure about this?”
“Yes,” she whispers, holding her hand out to me.
“You want to use this?” I ask, holding the Zippo up.
“Yes. He hurt you with fire, and now I want to hurt him the same way. He should go out that way, burning on earth before he meets the devil in the pits of hell.”
I’ve been waiting my whole life to kill this man, but having it done by his own flesh and blood is some sort of sick poetic justice. I pass Reese the Zippo. “Light him up, baby.”
With no hesitation or doubt, she walks right up to Vincent, flicks the Zippo, and lights the only ear he has remaining on fire.
Vincent’s tortured screams come crumbling around us, and as much as I should enjoy the painful death of the fuckin’ monster, my eyes can only focus on Reese. My beautiful girl. The flames illuminate her face, making her appear like a phoenix as she walks away from a writhing Vincent. He’s bound and completely helpless. All he can do is cry in torment.
I open my arms to her, and she walks straight into them as we watch Vincent thrash and scream until the only thing that remains is a charred corpse, the smell of burning flesh, and the sound of silence.
“You okay?” I whisper in her ear.
“Yes. Are you?”
“As long as I’ve got you, I’m more than okay, principessa. I’m fuckin’ king.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I’ll marry you.”
Epilogue
TWO YEARS LATER
REESE
My cheeks hurt from smiling, from looking at the giant-ass rock on my ring finger. “I can’t believe we’re married.”
Enzo drapes his arm around me, placing a kiss on my head. “Better believe it, baby. I signed, sealed, and delivered.”
“So when are you two popping out a kid like this fool over here?” Ciaran asks while pointing to Vance.
“Never,” Enzo and I say together.
When we got married, I made it clear to him I didn’t want kids. For some, that’s a deal breaker, but I decided early in life that motherhood wasn’t for me. If I have kids, I want to do an older adoption. Kids like Enzo, Ciaran, and Finn once were. Children who were put into situations they had no control over needed love and guidance as much as a little baby. When I’d told Enzo, he’d lifted me off the ground, kissing me like I’d told him the secret to eternal youth.