Serenity’s voice cut through the room. Quest froze. He looked back at his sister and I could see the confusion flash across his face before it hardened into frustration.
“This nigga put you through hell, Ren. He kidnapped you, tied you to a bed, forced drugs on you, and you want to save his life?”
“That’s your problem, Quest. You always underestimate me and make assumptions.” She pulled away from me and wiped her face with the back of her hand. Her eyes were still glassy but something underneath them had sharpened. Something that had been forming in that motel room for days while she counted water stains and planned her next move. “Give me the gun.”
Quest looked at her for a long second. Then he flipped the gun around in his hand and held it out to her grip-first. She took it and the weight of it settled into her palm and she wrapped both hands around it and walked toward Mega on the floor.
She stood over him and pointed the barrel at his crotch.
Mega’s one good eye went wide. “Serenity, wait. Baby, please. We can talk about this.”
“I’m pregnant,” she said. Her voice was steady and cold and clear. “It’s yours.”
His face changed. Something moved behind the fear that might have been shock or confusion or even a flicker of something human. “What? You’re… Ren, if you’re pregnant, then we can work this out. I’ll change. I swear to God I’ll change. For our baby. For us.”
“Our child will never even know who you are.”
She pulled the trigger. The silencer turned the shot into a muffled pop and Mega screamed in a pitch that didn’t sound human and grabbed between his legs and blood poured through his fingers and he writhed on the motel floor howling and begging and calling her name.
“Serenity please! Please! I’ll be different. I’ll be a good father. Just stop. PLEASE.”
She watched him for a few seconds. Let him beg. Let him feel what it was like to be powerless and in pain and asking someone to stop who had no intention of stopping. Then she raised the gun to his head and pulled the trigger one more time and the begging stopped and the room went quiet and Mega’s body went still on the brown carpet of Room 6 at the Mountain View Inn.
Serenity stood there with the gun hanging at her side and stared down at the man who had beaten her, drugged her, assaulted her, and kidnapped her. Smoke curled from the silencer. Her hands were steady. Her face was dry.
I walked over to her and stood beside her and looked down at the body and then at her.
“It feels good, doesn’t it,” I said. It wasn’t a question. I knew the answer because I’d shot Ahmad in our apartment and walked out feeling lighter than I had in years. Because Serenity and I were the same in this. Women who had been hurt by men until we decided to stop being hurt. Women who pulled the trigger and didn’t apologize for it.
“More than you know,” she said.
I put my arm around her shoulders and she leaned into me and we stood there for a moment, two women over a dead man in a motel room in Berryville, Virginia, breathing the same air and carrying the same knowledge that some men only stop when you make them stop.
“Congratulations, by the way,” I said.
She looked at me and for the first time since we’d found her, something soft crossed her face. “Thank you.”
“How far along?”
“About eight weeks. Maybe nine. I found out while in rehab.” Her hand went to her stomach. “He forced me to snort coke,Mehar. Multiple times. I just hope the baby is okay. I hope I didn’t lose another one. And that they’re born healthy.”
“We’re going to get you to a doctor first thing. Whatever happens, you’re not alone.”
Quest came back inside. He looked at Mega’s body on the floor and then at his sister holding the gun at her side and he didn’t say a word about it. He just walked over to her and put his hand on her head and pulled her against his chest.
“You and this baby are going to have everything,” he said. “I promise you that. Whatever you need, whenever you need it. You got me.”
“I know,” she said. “There’s enough love in this family. This baby is going to be just fine.”
Quest called the cleanup crew. Gave them the address, the room number, and told them to make it disappear by morning. Then he handed me his car keys.
“Take her home in my car. Rider will go with you. I’ll wait here for the crew.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Get her out of this room. She’s been in it long enough.”
I helped Serenity to the car. She was unsteady on her feet and leaned against me the whole way. Rider walked behind us, his good hand on his weapon, scanning the parking lot. I got Serenity into the passenger seat and buckled her in and she leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes and put both hands on her stomach.
