“You don’t have to apologize. It wasn’t your fault at all. You couldn’t have possibly known any of this. Fuck, I didn’t even suspect it.” I hang my head, letting my hair veil my face. “I just wish I had.”
“We all wish it, Stacia,” Christos says quietly, hugging me closer. “No one informed the new recruits that Sebastian was related to you or Kenneth. Had I known, I would’ve told you. I didn’t know him for long, but he couldn’t complete the task, thankfully.”
I still can’t believe it, and I feel so cheated because of Kenneth. He was a hypocrite and a fucking bastard. Sebastian was to be initiated before Kenneth found out that I wasn’t really his. That had played a big part in things. I’m sure it’s what destroyed things now.
“I’m done, wild child. Let’s get this out there quickly. I just got a summons. We’re all to meet at the Looking Glass.” Talon flicks his gaze to Leandro. “I’m to bring you.”
My heartbeat skips, and I wish I could get the world to stop spinning for a moment. To stop time from ticking long enough for me to figure everything out, instead of constantly having to aim and shoot blindly, hoping that I hit my target and not face the ricochet of an out of control bullet.
“Let me do the honors,” I say shifting, opening my hand for Talon to give me the phone.
“All you have to do is hit send. It will go to the massive list Esteban put together. And then you can share it with the rest of the world.” Talon scoots closer, sitting beside me, his closeness giving me the strength to find the courage to put this into the world. Because once it’s out there, my life will change forever. I don’t know what kind of consequences we’ll face or what will happen with Kenneth, but there’s no turning back.
I’m tired of being the villain of his fucking story.
He will get what I owe to him.
He will never recover from this.
I tap the phone, praying to the universe that it gets where it needs to go. It’s quite anti-climactic, watching things send out without the world exploding around me or fireworks shooting into the air to celebrate our success. Instead, the room falls silent. It feels surreal. It’s one of those things that I’ll have to have patience for, despite my need for instant gratification.
“I guess that’s all we can do for now,” I say, pushing on Talon’s and Christos’s knees to help me get to my feet.
“Let’s just hope this is it.” Christos stands and hugs me from behind, brushing my hair away from my shoulder.
Glass shatters from somewhere in the house, shock panicking me. One of the front windows explodes next, and I scream at the sight of a Molotov cocktail burning across the floor. I screech, the sound startling and ear piercing, and Talon pulls a gun from his jacket and rushes next to another window, slowly moving the curtain to peek out. Leandro runs to put out the fire with an extinguisher, and Esteban clicks on his phone.
“No!” my mom screams, her voice ringing from upstairs.
“Mom!” I jerk away from Christos at the sound of her panic. “Mom!”
More glass shatters, and someone jumps from the second story outside the front door. No one can stop me before I bolt to it and swing it open, my body freezing at the sight of my mom face down on the concrete patio. Blood pulls from her head, and she doesn’t move.
Talon vanishes, running upstairs, and Christos snatches me by the waist and yanks me back.
That’s when I see him.
Kenneth aims a gun from an idling car on the street with a man in a mask. It’s someone from the King’s Court, but I can’t tell who it is from here.
Esteban shoots through the doorway, his aim good enough to send the driver screeching away with bullet holes on the side of the vehicle.
“Mom?” I ask, tears burning my eyes. I elbow Christos in the stomach, getting him to release me. I don’t care if it’s dangerous outside. I have to get to my mom. She needs me.
“Call an ambulance,” Christos says, coming up to my side. “Stacia, be careful. They could come back around.”
“Let them!” I scream, dropping to my knees. I touch my fingers to my mom’s bent neck, knowing that it’s already too late, but I refuse to believe it. I refuse to accept that Kenneth managed to find us. I shouldn’t have expected anything less. He has eyes everywhere.
Sirens echo in the distance, and Talon hops down the stairs two at a time, returning to the living room. He bolts to me and lifts me off my feet, dragging me away from my mom. I kick and thrash, begging with everything in me for him to just let me go.
“Come on, Stacia. We have to get out of here. The cops are on their way, and there’s nothing we can do for your mom. I’m so sorry. I should’ve double-checked the room. It looks like she had her phone on her, and she called him. He had someone come in and push her when we were dealing with the attack.” Talon adjusts me in his arms, holding me against him, waiting for me to calm down and hug him with my whole body.
“What do you mean she called him?” I ask, my voice cracking.
“She texted him too. She wanted him to show mercy on you. She begged him to leave you alone and punish her instead. She was trying to protect you, Stacia.” Talon chokes up with the words, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him with such emotion. “I’m so sorry.”
My mind and body shut down, and I rest my chin on Talon’s shoulder, unable to say anything else. I don’t fight him either, letting him carry me toward the garage. Christos and Esteban follow us, but Leandro remains on the porch, kneeling next to my mom’s body.
“I’ll make sure she’s taken care of, beautiful,” Leandro says, his voice hard to hear over the sirens. “I’ll give the police everything they need. They won’t be able to deny it. We’re outside of LA County. It’ll take time if they try to cover things up.”