Steel knew exactlywhere the bullets had gone through Melanie’s chest, obliterating her heart with their speed and energy before they exited out her back. He reversed their trajectory, placing Shaw’s back over the bullets so they went through his spine and heart before sprouting out his chest.
At first, Shaw struggled. He pulled on the ropes that held him spread-eagle over the fast-growing plants. The knots held true,as did the heavy metal stakes that secured him to the earth. Once upon a time, Steel thought Shaw might have been able to escape such bondage, but not now. Not in his weakened state. Unlike Steel, Shaw clearly had not kept up the physique he’d once had in the military.
Heavy rain overnight soaked Shaw and the ground around him, his body weight dropping him slightly into the moist soil. The long stakes never budged. By the next morning, Steel was curious if the bamboo was growing as he’d intended. Shaw’s pain and shouts of torment could also be from having his four limbs stretched beyond their intended extent, but a quick feel under the man’s body and Steel felt the tall stalks embedded into Shaw’s back. He didn’t think it was very far, but he could not feel the bullets.
It was odd, watching his enemy die slowly. Second by second, every tick of the clock a countdown, yet neither knowing when the inevitable end would be. Steel did not feel empathy or regret. He didn’t even feel sorrow. His own pain did not lessen or increase, its never-ending presence a vortex of grief and sorrow in his chest.
As the first day drew to an end, delirium started to take hold of Shaw as pain, dehydration, and exposure to the harsh elements took their effect. He started babbling, and even laughed maniacally at one point. A heavy cough wracked his body, followed by another and then another. On the fourth, blood spewed up from his mouth as he gasped and struggled to breathe.
From his chair by the table, Steel watched. Like a predator guarding his kill, he did not take his eyes off Shaw. Not to sleep, not to eat, not to relieve himself. He wanted to witness every second of the man’s demise. The knowledge that Scar was still in the cabin faded to the background, and eventually he forgotabout his brother’s presence. There was nothing in this world but him and Shaw’s slow death.
As night fell and the moon rose, Steel finally moved, but only to flip the switch to turn on the lights surrounding the crater. He would not allow darkness to steal a single moment of Shaw’s torment from him.
It was nearing the second dawn when he knew Shaw’s time was coming to an end. The man’s body started to shake, little tremors as he gasped for air like a fish out of water. Blood coated his mouth, nose, neck, and chest from his violent coughing fits through the night.
Steel stood and approached, unable to stay away. Steel wanted his face to be the last face Shaw saw in this world, wanted the man’s dying thoughts to be solely of him.
Tears streamed from the corners of Shaw’s blue-green eyes as he stared up into Steel’s gun-metal gray. A smile crept over his mouth, revealing blood-stained teeth.
“You think,” he gasped out, “you won?”
Steel squatted down in the mud next to Shaw’s torso. He could only imagine the damage the slow-moving bullets were causing inside the man’s body. “If you think any of this was about winning, then you have no comprehension of a father’s love.”
Shaw coughed again, his raspy voice little more than a whisper. “You’re right,” he choked. “I don’t. But I’m still dying knowing you killed the wrong man.”
Steel’s spine stiffened. “What is that supposed to mean?”
It took a moment of Shaw working his jaw as blood drooled out the corners of his mouth before he was able to speak again. “I didn’t kill your precious Melanie. Tracy Marigold, Athens, West Virginia.” His smile grew even more sinister. “My pain is ending, Jackie, but yours is just beginning.”
And with that prediction, Shaw’s chest constricted, his eyes froze on Steel’s, and his last breath escaped him.
CHAPTER 12
Steel didn’t know how long he stood over Shaw’s corpse before he realized that Scar was standing next to him. There was no relief, no feeling of accomplishment as he stared down at the man who’d killed—or who hethoughthad killed—his daughter?
No, it wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. Shaw had stalked Melanie. They had proof of that. It would have been around the time that Jack from the Mountain Mutineers had had his people on her, which was reason enough as to why Shaw hadn’t attacked her then. But thelookin Shaw’s eyes as he died…? It was malicious, full of joy at the knowledge that his death wasn’t the end of Steel’s torment. It had been thirty years since Steel had been face to face with Shaw. He had no idea if his former classmate and friend wasthatgood of an actor. It was possible, sure. Especially after spending time in the Agency.
Who was Tracy Marigold? Was she even a real person?
It didn’t matter. None of it mattered. Griffin Shaw was dead. Melanie’s murderer was dead. Steel could rest now. He could… Steel had no idea what he could do, but his mission was over. Returning to Mount Grove, to the house where Melanie had gone through her teen years, seemed so empty. But he needed to.
And Jenna… He’d fucked up royally with her. His quest for vengeance had taken him from her in her biggest time of need. There’d been gaps of time in his military career when he hadn’t been able to communicate with her. Especially before email and video calls were commonly used, or even invented, but this was different. This had been a choice.Hischoice, and one that he couldn’t even blame on Shaw.
Shaw hadn’t kidnapped Steel, hadn’t forced him away from Jenna. Steel had left on his own. Jenna was owed better, shedeservedbetter.
Yet Steel’s feet weren’t moving. The sun had risen and Shaw wasfinallydead. Steel could go home… Except he wasn’t.
It wasn’t until a cool drizzle started to fall through the hole in the ceiling that Steel finally moved. Standing here over Shaw’s corpse did him nothing. His first call should be to Keys, to figure out who Tracy Marigold was or if Shaw had just pulled a random name out of his ass to further Steel’s suffering.
He knew Steel well enough to know that Steel wouldn’t let something like that go. He needed to be sure. He needed to know that he got the right guy, that the right person suffered for Melanie’s cruel death.
But as he turned his phone on for the first time in weeks, his fingers dialed a different number like they had a mind of their own.
In the rain, he put the device to his ear and listened to the monotone rings as he waited for her to pick up. For a moment, he was sixteen again, impatiently waiting for her to get to her phone just so he could hear her voice. It had always been his homing beacon. Maybe that was why he hadn’t reached out until now. If he heard it, he would have gone running home before he could fulfill his promise to kill Shaw for murdering Melanie.
“Hello?”
A wave washed over him. It wasn’t soothing, per se, not like her voice usually was. He wasn’t burning and in need of a salve. He wasn’t cold and in need of warmth. But her voice, even that single wordfithim, like he’d left a piece of him with her.
