Callen’s jaw clenched, shoulders tensing in the most subtle manner. The heavy set cadence of the newcomer’s footsteps as he walked around the truck struck a chord in my memory, and my mouth slicked with saliva.
“Remember,” Luci soothed. “I am here for you, and I believe in you, dearest Danny.”
“It’s about time you showed your face,” Callen ground out. I was beginning to think you got lost.”
And then there he was, grimacing at the man who’d ruined my life.
Joe.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, dad.”
How could I not have known?
Every nagging feeling when we were together that I was too stupid to listen to and, devil-damn me, Joe was the spitting image of Callen. I’d thought his face was burned into my memories for the rest of eternity. So why, then, did I not see it coming?
“I’m sorry, Dany,” Lucifer whispered.
I jumped, having forgotten he was still there.
Lucifer sat looking sorry but not ashamed. As if he were sorry it had to happen this way, but not ashamed of orchestrating it.
All of the warnings, the snide remarks and intrusions when I was with Joe…
I shoved the car door open and stomped in the opposite direction of Callen and his piece of shit son. The world blurred around me as tears gathered and fell relentlessly.
“Dany,” Lucifer protested when he caught up.
“Did you know?” I stopped to face him and hissed between gritted teeth.
His only answer was an unwavering stare.
“Lucifer! Did. You.Know?” My voice crescendoed in time with the wrath boiling beneath my skin.
Again, no answer.
Red blurred my vision and Isnapped. The worn hilt of a butcher knife materialized between my clenched fist before I lunged. He could have moved. The devil could have disappeared or snapped his fingers to end me for eternity.
Instead, the breath left his lungs in a whoosh as we collided, his back against the moonlight brick wall as I buried my knife in his stomach.
“You bastard!” I screamed, tears streaming uncontrollably down my face.
I pulled the knife out only to drive it back in. Hot, sticky blood bloomed between us as I stabbed God‘s favorite son over and over and over.
My hand gripped his throat, holding him fast against the wall, while I poured my rage into the universe. Lucifer‘s hands were on my shoulders, holding me tightly as if he were comforting me while I tore him apart. Each stab was met with a grunt, and yet he did not push me away.
When his stomach was thoroughly shredded, I changed the grip on my knife and sank the dulling tip into his chest. Muscle and bone fought against me, forcing my hand to slip on the handle and earning me a deep slash down my palm and wrist.
I didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop.
I was so fucking angry.
I hated God and his bullshit free will experiment. I hated Callen for what he did to me and Lucifer for keeping secrets.
Most of all, I hated Joe. He fed me a buffet of bullshit, and I ate it without a second thought. He sized me up, figuring me out down to every last insecurity, and turned it against me without a drop of remorse.
“I hate you,“ I screamed. My arm was numb, overworked, and exhausted as I put every last ounce of effort into erasing Lucifer from existence. How could he do this to me? To let me think I could live a normal life while Joe was abducting my friends behind my back, and then what? Serve them up to me on a silver platter?
“It’s alright, Dany,” he gurgled, comforting me, even as I took his life.
