Xana is already on my dad before I get there as we frantically rush to stop his bleeding. Tawny only shot off one bullet, somehow shooting through my brother’s heart and into my dad’s chest.
40
Malia
Iburstintothebasement, sprinting to where my mother is being held. I’m drenched in the blood of both my father and my brother. Tawny wanted to drag me to hell with her, but she took Donovan instead. The bullet that hit my dad wasn’t fatal after it passed through my brother. He saved both our lives, but I’m not sure it was worth the cost.
Two men guard the door. I kick it open and crash into the room with Liam hot on my heels. Tawny is lying on the ground in the corner of the room bleeding and smiling. I grip the fire torch in my hand and stalk toward her, cracking it along her face as she did me with a pistol years ago.
She cries out from the pain, the force making her smack her head against the concrete wall.
“Let’s have some fun, shall we?” I taunt, reaching down and wrapping my hand around her throat, sinking my nails into her skin and yanking her to her feet.
“It should have been you,” Tawny grinds out, forcing her words as I steal her air.
My hands are shaking, threatening to slip as the blood fights my grip.
She has been the cause of everything bad that’s ever happened to me. Mental and physical abuse as a child, until I became stronger than her. My own mother orchestrated a plan to hand deliver me to a sex trafficker and set off a series of horrific events because ofjealousy. A grudge she held against me before I was even born.
“You are just like me,” she taunts with a smile. “And you will never be good enough either.”
My head snaps forward as I slam my forehead against her nose. Tawny cries out against the pain and I growl.
I have never and will never be the evil that she is.
There’s bad and there’s evil. You don’t get a middle gray area with something like that.
“They say the two worst ways to die are burning alive and drowning,” I seethe, shoving her back against the wall. “I’m going to burn every inch of your body and just when you’re about to take your final breath, I’ll watch as you sink to the bottom of the Potomac; watch as the cold water hardens your charred body and steals the air from your lungs.”
I shove Tawny back again by her throat and her head smacks into the wall with acrackbefore I release her. She drops to the ground, gasping for air, clearly dizzy from the blows to her head. I step into her, widening my stance so she’s fully under me. Her gaze slowly rises to mine, and I lift my chin.
“I’ll enjoy knowing that I will be the last thing you see when you’re dragged to hell,” I say through clenched teeth, squatting to get closer. “By your-fucking-self.”
I press the lever on the fire torch, Tawny’s mind struggles to catch up as she jerks at the sound it makes. I smile, slowly expanding the flame as the heat licks her flesh. Fear flashes in her eyes for the first time and I revel in the feeling it gives me.
Thinking it’s the perfect place to begin, I guide the flame closer, searing through her left eye as it melts away, along with the skin that protects it. I drink in the sounds of her screams and cries, getting drunk on the retribution my dad, Donovan, and I deserve.
I lean against the door of the medical room in the infirmary. I smell of burning flesh and am soaked in blood, but I needed to see that my dad was okay before we move Tawny to the Potomac.
Delaney gave him some pain medication and he’s sleeping deeply. Chantelle sits beside him on the hospital bed, holding his hand, much like Liam did for me when I was beginning to go through withdrawals.
I throw a bag of clothes in the chair at the end of the bed, the sound making her jump.
“There’s a change of clothes for you,” I say, and she faces me with wide eyes.
I’m sure I look insane to someone not used to seeing someone who looks like I do now act so casually. I probably shouldn’t have snuck up on her, either. I don’t get the impression Chantelle was raised around gunfights and death.
“He doesn’t know what happened, Malia,” she croaks.
I frown, biting back the emotions that threaten to pull me under. I stamp them back down until I’m finished with Tawny and ready to face them.
“How do I even tell him that his son is… gone?” Tears stream down her cheeks and I clear the thickness building in my throat, stepping into the room.
“I can be the one to tell him, if that’s what you want,” I offer, though offering comfort doesn’t sit right with me. “But I think he’d take the news better from you… if there’s a better way to take that, I guess. If you need my support, I’ll stand by your side.”
I pause, trying to find the right words, but this kind of thing has never been my strong suit. So, per usual, I settle on bluntness.
“There’s a monster inside the man you know and love. He buries it deep,” I add with a shrug. “It’s not awakened often, but this is likely to bring out a side of him you haven’t seen, Chantelle. Don’t break him even more once he shows it to you. You’re good for him and he deserves your love, but if you hurt him because you can’t handle all sides of my father. I will come for you.”