“One more thing,” Omen says, wiping his hands on a rag and picking up a pen, waving at Wire to follow him.
Omen grips Hitchens’ hair in his fist, bringing his face up to look at him as he whispers something to him. I’m too far away to hear, but whatever it is has Hitchens shaking and sobbing more than he was before. Wire thrusts some paper in his direction and Omen forces the pen into Hitchens fist. I’m not sure what it is, and I don’t care either. Once Hitchens has done his part Omennods and then grins in our direction, winking. The light back in his eyes, the same Omen I grew up with.
“Hey, Chewy! Want to join the party?”
He walks along one side of the room, unlatching cage after cage, swinging open the doors until two huge gators come lumbering out.
“For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, this is Gretchen and Smiley,” Saint says with a flourish.
“Holy shit, they’re bigger than last time.” A massive man with the name “Judge” on his cut says.
I jump when Chewy lets out a squeal and then gape when I see it’s out of pure excitement.
“Hold on! Let me get Chomper!” she says, rushing toward a smaller cage off to the side near the door.
“Wait, when did that get there?” Joe asks, staring in that direction.
I shrug because who would know? “Maybe when we were busy forcing Hitchens to drink pee?”
Joe snorts before bursting into giggles and I can’t help but join her. The sound is infectious.
“Oh, I think they’ve finally snapped,” Ana murmurs, her funny accent making my laughter even worse.
“Yup. Watch one torture and go totally loco,” Vi shakes her head sadly.
“Loco? Us? You brought your own gator!”
“Hey, that’s all Chewy, don’t lump us in with her,” Kaia winks.
“I don’t care. My baby will not miss out,” Chewy kisses Chomper on the snoot and makes baby noises at him before placing him in the middle of Hitchens’ back.
Hitchens screams silently, his face a mask of pure horror and fear and I can’t look away. Instead my eyes hold his dark gaze, no longer cold and evil, but defeated and broken. This is what Iwanted to see. That is what will help me sleep at night as I cuddle my girls and soothe their nightmares. Maybe when they’re old enough and asking what happened to their sperm donor I will tell them, but for now all they need to know is that their monster has been slain.
Turning in Vex’s arms I cuddle into him. I listen to wet jaws clamping and tearing, to the last rattling breath of a dying man, and the somewhat angelic voice of a six and a half foot blonde man.
“It’s done, baby.”
“Good. Now let’s go cuddle our girls.”
Epilogue
Vex
Three weeks. It’s been three weeks since we rid the world of Travis Hitchens and I slept like a goddamned baby that night because of it. The tension that had been running through The Keep has disappeared, leaving in its place a feeling of hope. Taking a deep breath I let it out slowly, savouring how much easier it feels to breathe now. Hitchens is gone and thanks to my brother and Wire forcing Hitchens to sign on the dotted line to waive his parental rights, Loyal and I have been able to adopt the girls officially. I know that Wire and Chewy organized the paperwork to say we have always been the girls’ parents, but Loyal didn’t want that. The girls loved their mom, and have memories of her. Loyal is adamant that she’s not replacing her, she’s just loving the girls for a very,verylong time until the girls can see their mom again. We aren’t replacing anyone, just loving them.
“Whatcha doin?” Loyal asks, coming up behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist.
“Just thinking about how perfect our life is.”
She pokes her head around my arm. My head tips back and I laugh as she raises a brow. Right at this very moment the twodogs are going crazy as Justice and Damian try to run them through the agility course they’ve made. The kids are running around like headless chickens, River is trying to time the dogs and the brothers are taking bets on who will win. Damian is slightly butthurt that no one seems to want to bet on Barbara. I get it, between her and Joe’s well trained, fluffy dog Mosely, we all know who is going to win. Which becomes incredibly clear when Joe’s little dog speeds through an old tire balanced on its side and Barbara gets halfway through before her large rump gets stuck.
“It’s alright mon cherie, wiggle!” Damian demands, feet spread apart, wriggling his butt. As if that is going to help Barbara in any way.
Loyal giggles behind me, watching the chaos.
“I cannot believe that man is a lawyer,” Loyal says once her giggles subside.
Wire and Chewy thought they ran a pretty comprehensive background check on Damian. And they did on Damian Devereaux. But Damian LeCompt, his actual birth name, is a man of many talents.
