“My love.” I said it quiet. “You didn’t think that all the way through.”
She blinked.
“I did my research on this address before I ever left my house tonight. See, you didn’t expect me to come, you thought it would be Savage with the ten million, so you didn’t plan ahead on calling the police. That was spare of the moment. The nearest station is forty three minutes away on a clear road with no traffic.” I watched her face start to shift. “Even if they pushed hard, given when you made that call, they’ve got twenty minutes minimum before they’re pulling down this road. That means I’ve got fifteen minutes to finish what I came here to do and be gone before they turn off the highway.” I leaned forward over the desk until I was close enough that she couldn’t look anywhere but at me. “You only fucked yourself. I don’t need that damn long.”
I straightened up and looked at her for a moment. Really looked. Past the performance and the strategy and the version of herself she had constructed to survive this night.
“I let you live,” I said. “When I was supposed to kill you I chose you instead. And you disappeared in the middle of the night and never looked back. Not a word. Not a real explanation other than the bullshit note. Nothing.” My jaw tightened. “Then you come back and do all of this like I didn’t spare your life. Like I didn’t feel something real for you even if you never felt it back.” I shook my head slow. “Then, you sat there and just spit in my fucking face, letting me know you played me from jump. You won’t do this to another man. I can promise you that.”
I leaned down and pressed my lips to her forehead. Held them there for one second.
Then I pulled back, placed the gun against her temple, and kissed her lips one final time while she shivered in fear.
I stood up straight.
And pulled the trigger.
The sound was nothing with the silencer on it. Just a soft mechanical exhale. She slumped in the chair and I turned away from her before she finished falling and walked directly to the corner of the room where Grim was tied. Now, Cherish could be with her family. That’s how it should have been from the jump.
He was staring at me with wild eyes, mumbling something frantic underneath the tape. He knew how I was when I got in this mode, so I knew he was scared of what his future held.. I reached down and ripped the tape off his mouth in one pull.
He gasped. Started talking immediately.
I cut him off.
“Everything between us is not forgotten,” I said, looking him dead in the face. “You are going to be handled. But right now we need to get the fuck out of this house.” I let him know, I wasn’t in the mood for a family reunion right now. He still had me fucked up.
I pulled him up from the chair by his arm, keeping his wrists and ankles bound. When he got his feet under him and was standing straight I reared back and threw everything I had into a punch that connected with his jaw so hard I felt it up through my shoulder.
His head snapped to the side, and spit flew out. He stumbled but I kept my grip on him so he didn’t fall.
I put my mouth close to his ear after I punched his ass.
“That’s for the blackmail and all the shit you took me through,” I said low. “You ever pull some bitch ass shit like that again and I won’t walk through a house full of armed men to bring you home. I’ll be picking out a suit for your funeral, pretending that I’m not the one who killed yo ass.”
He didn’t respond. His jaw was working like he was trying to figure out if it was broken. He gave me a sinister look that let me know he wanted me dead for punching him like that, and I was ready to do it again. After getting a good look at him, I could see where Cherish and her people had been beating the fuck out of my brother. I knew that shit had to have hurt Grim pride more than anything. He wasn’t the nigga that allowed people to get up on him like that. I know this situation stripped him of his pride as a man, and as the monster he prided himself on being.
I grabbed his arm and started moving.
Marco had already signaled to the others and they were pulling back toward the exit in formation. On the way out I stopped at the security panel I had clocked on the way in and pulled the hard drive that fed the camera system. Tucked it under my arm without breaking stride.
No footage. No evidence. Nothing to tell any story we didn’t want told.
We came out the front and moved fast across the property back toward the tree line. Grim was stumbling but keeping up well enough with my grip on his arm. Nobody spoke.
The night was heavy around us, just insects and wind, and somewhere minutes away, a police response was moving toward a house that was going to tell them very little about what had actually happened inside it.
We reached the truck and loaded up. Marco had it moving before the last door closed.
I sat back in the seat and looked straight ahead at the dark road in front of us. I let the silence hold for a minute.
Cherish was done. And I didn’t feel bad.
Grim was breathing beside me, jaw already swelling, eyes forward, smart enough to know this wasn’t the moment to say anything.
And we had a long ride back to figure out what came next.
I snuck out of the hotel room before sun rise as quietly as I could. When I made it to my truck, I climbed in, shut the door, and sat there for a second.
