There wasn’t time.
I knew Moretti was beaten and he knew it too.
I’d secured all his main locations, killed most of his men, taken over his home.He could’ve faced me like a man.Tried to bargain like a man.It would have been useless, but still.Instead, he decided to involve Goldie and my family home.If there ever was a doubt that I’d kill him as part of my revenge, there isn’t anymore.
I hoped that’s what he wanted with her.To use her as a bargaining chip for me to let him go.Because that was the only scenario that allowed any hope at all.
“He just wants my attention.He knows he’s beat.I’ll keep him talking while you get the men to surround the house and take the rest of his men out,” I told Caputo.I also told him to get Codelli and one of the docs from the Rouge Angels MC clubhouse.Just in case.
Then I drove home.Alone.Entered the garden by climbing that magnolia tree my sister always used to escape.I knew about it back then.Didn’t tell anyone.And it cost us dearly.But at least the tree is still standing.
I saw Goldie sitting at the kitchen table from the darkness of the garden, her golden hair shimmering more than ever under the overhead light.And it was the first time I felt like I could breathe since I learned what Dante had done.I could’ve just stayed there, smelling the night-blooming flowers and looking at her.Like a ghost.I hoped that when I’m dead, I get to do that.
Just as I thought, Dante and five of his guys were in the kitchen with Goldie and Maria.The last of his men.
No one stopped me as I entered the house via the garage, no one even saw me as I stood in the doorway that leads from the garage to the kitchen.
But I sure heard Dante’s nasal voice telling one of his men to teach Goldie some manners.I also saw the guy—Julio—walk up to her with his signature cold menace look on his face.It was the last thing he did.
I shot him straight through the head, knew the bullet would hit the target with a hundred percent certainty before I even pulled the trigger.My Goldie’s hair was sprayed with blood then, but the look of pure joy and relief as she saw me was the best thing I’d ever seen.
“What took you so long?”she asked as I told her I’m here.Just so she’d know I came for her and nothing else.Not really.
But then I lost sight of her as the rest of Dante’s guys started shooting at me.Didn’t get to hit much before sniper-accurate bullets took them out.Caputo really outdid himself getting all that organized in the short time it took me to get here.
Dante was cowering behind his chair, looking at his dead men and Gianna, but not me.I rushed to him and lifted him up by the lapel of his jacket.Then I pressed the blade of my family’s knife to his throat.The handle grew hotter and hotter in my hand, as though the knife itself was alive, filled with the angry, eager ghosts of my family.They were all by my side, urging me to avenge them.
Dante was trying to look defiant, but his lip was shaking slightly and the sour smell of fear wafted off him.
“I told you I’d come back and take my revenge,” I said to him.“And here I am.”
“I should’ve killed you while I had the chance,” he said in a shaky voice.
“Yes, you should have.Because now I will kill you, and enjoy every second.But you’re in luck.I’m not gonna make it last.Although you deserve nothing less for scaring my woman like you did.”
His lip started shaking worse and worse, the fear in his eyes growing more intense as he slowly realized that this was it.The end of his life.I wasn’t gonna torture him, so this look of pure terror on his face was going to have to last me for the rest of my life.At least he got to see me take everything from him.
“We can still come to some sort of arrangement… you let me go… I’ll leave the country… never come back…”
“Enjoy hell,” I said and plunged the knife into the side of his neck.
The memory of his hot blood gushing out and pouring over my hand was going to have to last me the rest of my life.The knife was once again cool in my hand, the ghosts of my family now satisfied.
I was satisfied.My dream of avenging my family had finally come true.
I looked back at Goldie.Her father was standing between us, a disgusted, enraged, hateful look on his face.
But I only saw Goldie’s pretty eyes, so full of life and happiness and relief.
I didn’t even see Codelli raise his gun, didn’t hear him shoot, hardly felt the bullet hit me.
But I do feel Goldie cradling my head now, see her beautiful face clearly as she begs me to hold on, tells me she loves me.
“Not as much as I love you,” I tell her, because she needs to know.“You’ll be fine without me.This was always meant to happen.”
Meaning the curse.I hoped it would give me a little more time with her.But I knew it probably wouldn’t.
I tell Caputo not to kill Codelli.Goldie will need her family after I’m gone.
