Chapter Nineteen
Worthy
The house looked the same as it always had, but the feel of it was completely different. In my childhood, driving up to the stately English manor with its ivy on the old brick walls and fountain in the middle of the circular drive had evoked warm feelings of home and comfort.
Today when we drove into the drive, the ivy looked like it was choking the walls, like some kind of parasite sucking all the joy and happiness out of the once happy home. Where the sound of the fountain water trickling into the basin had once sounded so soothing to me as a child, now it was a mournful depressing cadence that never ceased. Everything seemed grayed around the edges and unreal. Looking at the building I had to admit, this was the correct address. This was the place I had grown up, but this was not my home anymore. It had become a grotesque caricature of what it had once been, and one person was to blame.
As if summoned from the bowels of hell itself, Terrance answered the door as soon as Crow had knocked once. His desperation seeped from every pore. His clothes were a mess, his hair looked as if he hadn’t found a comb in days, and there was sweat pouring out his brow and every other part of his body if the stale smell that hit me was any indication. I’d never seen him like this, but it was obvious Terrance was not only desperate, he was also terrified. Of who or what, I couldn’t begin to guess.
I was too busy taking in his appearance to be aware of his actions until it was too late. Terrence took one look at me standing on the front step and lunged at me, both hands out like claws aiming for my eyes and face. Crow stepped in at the last minute and blocked his attack, while Osprey went around his back to get him in a quick chokehold.
We had him. It seemed so easy. I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy,
“Well, well, what do we have here? Crow and Osprey, to what do I owe this rare pleasure?”
The man who had stepped up to the front door behind Osprey and Terrence was older, maybe late forties. His salt and pepper hair was cut to perfection as was his beard and mustache. An air of confidence oozed from his every pore as he calmly watched the scene we had made in the doorway. He was completely unruffled, but there was no mistaking that he was in charge at this moment.
“Diego, I had no idea you would be here. We don’t want to interfere with your business, but we have a score to settle with Terrence, here.”
Diego’s clear cold eyes settled on Crow, squinting his slight displeasure before his features smoothed back into his previous calm facade. That small quint of his eyes had been more frightening than a cigar on fire in Terrence’s hand had ever been. This man wasnotone to cross. And it was becoming scarily evident that we might be getting very close to that line with our plan.
“That’s all well and good, Crow, but I have a prior claim tohim.”
Diego spit out the last word with disgust. At least he hated Terrence maybe as much as we did. Maybe we could come to an agreement. Before I could think along that path, Crow opened his mouth again.
“I don’t give a fuck whatprior claimyou have on this piece of shit. He dies tonight, and I’m going to kill him. You can take up yourclaimon his corpse after we’re gone. You get me?”
If I thought Diego squinting his eyes had been scary, Diego, grabbing Crow by the throat and picking him up to his toes, was terrifying. Os had succeeded in choking Terrence in the meantime until he passed out. Seeing Crow struggling, Osprey threw Terrence to the ground and lunged at Diego, snatching at his hands around Crow’s throat. He wasn’t succeeding, and Crow’s face had turned from red to purple, his eyes bulging, breath slowing.
Normally I would have panicked, but instead, I felt my mind clear and a sense of absolute calm swept through me. Stepping into the frantic scene, I put one hand on Diego’s sleeve, close to Crow’s throat. I gently squeezed his arm until he eventually acknowledged my presence. His eyes left Crow’s face, where he’d been watching him suffocate, and found my face instead. I held his eyes, tears of frustration and anger filling mine and simply said told him what I felt.
“Let him go. Now. Whatever issue you have with Terrence, I can solve. Let Crow go and deal with me.”
Diego lifted his lip up in a sneer and tried to move his head back to watch Crow, who was slowly suffocating now. He wouldn’t last much longer. I had to take a different way. Losing Crow wasnotan option.
I reached down and found that thing, that feeling that had been growing in me all that time I’d been with Terrence. I reached out for all of that rage and where it had once been cold, now it was hot as fucking hell. That pitch black blanket of anger took over every part of me, and I swear if it was possible, my eyes would even turn black from the rage I felt. How dare this asshole think he can swoop in at the last minute and ruin all of our plans? I had a new life to live, and I wasn’t doing it by myself.
Taking my hand off of his arm, I got a hard grasp on Diego’s chin and wrenched his face back toward mine. In that moment of shock, I slammed my foot onto the instep of his shiny Italian loafers, then when he lifted his foot instinctively, I took my right hand and punched him as hard as I could in his balls over and over until he had let Crow go and was balled up on the ground, holding his jewels.
Letting Osprey take care of Crow, I leaned down into his face. “Listen up fucker, I don’t think you understood what I just told you, but you were distracted with attempting to kill my man, so I’ll let it pass for now. But this time, you need to shut the fuck up with your whining and listen up. I have every asset in the Winters portfolio safely tucked away where Terrence can never find it. I’m never giving it to him, but if he owes you a debt, I’ll be happy to make good in it so we can end this clusterfuck in some semblance of professionalism. I believe you’re a man that can sense a smart deal when he’s offered one. I think you should seriously consider my proposal. You have until we finish with Terrence to make up your mind. Either way, my soon to be ex-husband is about to die. I’m sure you donotwant to join him.”
I stepped over Diego in his custom made suit, still holding his aching balls, and headed toward the still passed out Terrence. In my wake, Osprey patted down Diego and took all of his weapons. They were having an intense conversation, Diego seemed to be pleading, and all Osprey was doing was shaking his head, I saw Diego reach out to touch Osprey’s face gently, almost lovingly, but snatched away yelling, “You tried to kill my friend because he told you no, Diego. What the fuck is wrong with you? I told you what you have to do to get me back. Have you done it yet?”
Holy shit! I had missed a very important piece of information in this situation. Osprey and Diego? What the fuck?
“Diah, please. You know I haven’t, I can’t. If I do that, it’ll all fall apart. It’s not just me involved. You, above all people know that. I can’t just liquidate and hope for the best. Someone else would take up where I left off the next day.”
Osprey looked so sad, shoulders hunched and head hanging down in defeat. He turned his back on Diego, walking over to Crow who was leaning up against the entryway wall, trying to learn how to breathe again. He never looked back at Diego but responded to him anyway.
“That’s the point, Diego. Maybe someone else would take up the business the next day, but it wouldn’t be you anymore. I loved you once, I’m not going to lie about that, but I can never be with someone who makes even one penny from the sale of human lives.”
Oh, my fucking God, Diego is a trafficker?!
Diego got up painfully, but when he got to his feet, he made a beeline to Osprey. He tried to touch Osprey’s shoulder, but he shrugged it off, still never looking in Diego’s direction.
“Diah, please, look at me. I still love you. So much.”
He almost turned, but Crow reached for his hand at that moment, giving him something to focus on other than his obviously breaking heart. The emotions from these two hurt from across the room. Diego’s body unconsciously leaned into Osprey’s back, while Osprey, knowing he was behind him, had to fight not to lean back into him. They swayed next to each other, attracting and then repelling auras until Osprey spoke one last time.
