My father grabs the glass set of grapes and snaps, throwing his arm out and smashing them against Saconne’s head. He grunts and cries as he spits out the paper towels, making my dad smile.
“Brucia all'inferno, figlio di puttana!” he yells. I pick up the glass grapefruit, planning on slamming it into his eye, when a tiny clink inside stops me. It rattles even more when I shake it a few times, and then it all clicks into place.
“You almost had me,” I taunt and drop the grapefruit, letting it explode against the floor. The shards still trickle along the floor, but a much heftier thump echoes through the space. A third phone clatters, exactly like the one I found in the mattress, and that’s when Saconne pales. “That was a very good attempt, and hilariously enough, we found it by accident.” I pick it up and slip it in the same pocket as the other two. I grin smugly at him.
“You’ll never be able to get into it—”
“Why not? Because you think we don’t have DeLuca’s?” I interrupt, and any light in his eyes dies instantly. “Don’t worry about that.”
I step back over to him and yank my knife out, swallowing down the squelching noise it makes. He hasn’t suffered nearly enough. I want his screams to haunt this little village, but we have to keep it as quiet as possible to avoid getting caught. And most importantly, I’m ready to get back. He’ll receive his punishment in hell, and stopping everything he was involved in will be revenge enough.
“We don’t have much time left, but I promised my wife that I would do what she asked.” I stand languidly and psych him out before I raise my blade another time and drive it down, right into his dick.
He screams, but it’s only for about a second before my father shoves what looks like a washcloth into his mouth. If he were as strong as he looked a few months ago, I would say he had a good chance of ripping away from his restraints. But now? There’s no way.
“You know, I thought it was rather strange when my wife asked me to castrate you, but I’m not capable of telling her no.” I jerk my hand to the right, keeping my strength until the tension releases and the blade lands in his thigh instead. “She even said that she didn’t care how I did it, just as long as your cock and balls were separated from your body before you died.” I stab at it again, and by the slight resistance, then release, I imagine I did exactly what I needed to. “Two stabs is all it took? That’s a little pathetic, don’t you think?”
I slide my fingers into the fresh hole at his crotch and rip the fabric apart, grimacing as his genitals fall to the floor. He’s gagging on the fabric in his mouth, and as tears stream down his face, I have half a mind to dart my tongue out and taste them.His screams would be sweeter if they were loud enough for me to consume, but those in the afterlife can hear him, and that’s all that matters to me.
Those women, those kids, they’re free now. A part of me will always be haunted by them, but at least now, they can be at peace. I’ll remember them for the human beings they were, not as faces on a piece of paper or just another task…another assignment. I may not know their names or anything about them, but they’ll always mean more to me than they ever did to this piece of shit, and the horror of their last moments will die with us.
Starting with him.
Despite his continued screaming, I move onto the last half of my wife’s request. I saw off his right hand first, since he used that one the most, and then his left. They’re a little more difficult to detach compared to his dick, but the thump once they smack the floor hits even harder. I lie them on top of his cock and balls, keeping them together and piled at his feet, just as she asked, then I force his head down to make him stare at it.
“My wife wanted to make sure you knewthatwas fromher.” I shove his head back and stand tall again,almostready to leave. “Finish him so we can get the fuck out of here, Dad.”
He jerks the knife from my hands, forces Saconne’s head back, and yanks the cloth from his mouth. He whimpers and gasps, somehow still conscious. His teeth chatter as his body fights to fend off the pain, and the sight is magnificent. My father leans in close and presses his lips to his ear.
“Say her name,” he demands with a tense jaw and spit flying from his mouth. Saconne continues to tremble, and I can tell by the fogginess in his gaze that we’re losing him. Dad draws the knife up to his throat, pressing it in with barely contained rage as he speaks again. “Say. Her. Name.”
“Lea—” Before Saconne can finish reciting my mother’s name, Dad jerks his hand backward, slicing his throat open in one fell swoop. Blood begins to pour down his chest in rivers, and the life in Saconne’s eyes fades in the blink of an eye.
We stand in comfortable silence, taking in the freedom that now permeates through the air. The iron seeps in with every breath I take, releasing one ghost at a time. One left. There’s only one of them left, and every voice in my head tells me we have what we need to finish this now. After months of torture and agony, and years for my father, we can finally move forward. We’re in the home stretch now, and there’s no one left to stand in our way.
Chapter 35
Ashia
Three Days Later
‘Strange Life’ - Steelfeather
“Merry Christmas, you filthy animals!” Alex yells as we all step towards the conference room. Elizabeth skips beside us and giggles, clearly recognizing his line from the movie we all watched this morning.Home Alonewas always one of my favorites. So, wehadto play it while she opened her gifts. It wasn’t much since we just got back from Italy yesterday, but Damien and Carter ran out to do some last-minute shopping once we realized what day it was. Watching her light up when she opened those few gifts was very touching, and seeing her happy made it worthwhile. Just like we thought, her and Victoria haven’t really had a normal Christmas, so we wanted to do the best we could with what we’ve got to work with.
That’s one reason they’re with us today. Elizabeth put on her princess dress, then dressed her bunny in the matching one Victoria got for her, and her confidence soared. She walked up to Damien, looked at him with those little-girl, puppy-dog eyes, and actually spoke, asking if she could come with us today.
Of course, Damien wasnotgoing to tell her no.
“You fuckers actually decorated this place?” Zeke blurts out, looking around at all of the lights and garland, and I snap around to hit his arm. “Ouch! What the hell?”
“Stop cursing in front of Elizabeth. She’s finally starting to talk, let’s not convince her to say ‘fuck’ every other word.”
“Fine.” He tilts his head and curls his lip with that brotherly attitude. “I’ll start with ‘shit.’”
Elizabeth giggles as she watches us bicker, and I groan in disapproval. I have no idea why she likes him so much despite his continuous attempts to shoo her away, but if they’re going to be sticking around, he needs totryand restrain himself. I get that Zeke doesn’t like kids, but it also kind of upsets me. Is he going to be like this towards our daughter? Will he push her away, too? That’s ridiculous to think. She’s his niece. Of course he wouldn’t…but also, Elizabeth doesn’t have anything to do with her father’s crimes. So, why is he so determined to push her away? Damien grabs my hand, breaking me from my thoughts to keep leading me forward, but I glare at Zeke anyway, earning that devious smirk that gets on my last nerve.
“You can thank Serena for the lights. Apparently, she didn’t like that I tried to do it,” Alex continues, ignoring Zeke and I’s sibling antics.
