Mario looks up, and his mouth opens. "Summer, sweetheart, I can explain …"
"Shut up," I yell at him.
I lower Summer gently onto a chair by the wall. I pull the jacket tighter around her shoulders and crouch in front of her, so my eyes are level with hers.
"You don't have to watch this," I say quietly. "I can have Andreas take you to the plane."
She looks past me at her father and her brother on their knees, her swollen eyes are steady.
"I don’t care anymore."
I press my lips to her forehead, then I stand and turn to face the men who sold my wife. Mario is already talking, words tumbling over each other.
"Saint, listen to me. It wasn't my idea, it was Storm’s. He set the whole thing up. Castellano approached him months ago, I didn't know until …"
"Dad, shut the fuck up." Storm spits blood on the floor. "Don't beg. He's going to kill us anyway."
Smart boy.
I walk to Mario first, he's shaking so badly his teeth are rattling. I crouch in front of him, I’m going to look him in the eye when I sign his death warrant.
"You sold her to me because you valued yourself more than her, you always have, you fucking selfish piece of shit.”
“You put me in an impossible decision,” he argues.
“Maybe I did, but then …” My eyes narrow “You didn’t leave her alone, no, you fucking sold her again. To the one man in the world who would cut her open to get to me." I grab his jaw and force him to look at Summer, wrapped in my bloody jacket, cuts crusting on her skin. "Look at her, look at what you did to your own daughter."
He starts crying, but it’s not because of what that animal did to my wife, no, it’s because he knows he can’t save himself anymore.
"I'm sorry," he sobs. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry …"
“No, you’re not.” I don’t hesitate because I don’t give a shit about the whys. One shot. Clean. Between the eyes. He drops sideways, and I don't look at him again.
Storm doesn't cry, he just stares at his father's body, and then he looks at me with what looks to be acceptance or maybe spite.
"You think she'll forgive you for this?" he asks. "Killing her family in front of her?"
I look back at Summer, she's watching, face blank, tears running silently down her cheeks, but she doesn't look away.
“Why don’t you ask her?” I say. “Hey, babe, do you forgive me for this?”
Her eyes look up at me. She’s still fragile, but I see that steel spine kick in.
“I do.”
Then I turn back and smirk at Storm, and as much as I want to drag this shit out because this fucker deserves it, I don’t. Quickly, before he even realizes, I put a bullet through him. His eyes widen in surprise before he crumples to the ground.
I wipe my hands on my pants and walk back to Summer. I kneel in front of her and take her hands in mine, her small, bruised fingers wrapped in my bloody ones.
"It's done," I say.
She looks at me for a long time, the cuts on her face, the split lip, the circles under her eyes. The girl who was drugged, chained, and sold by her own family is looking at the man who just killed them for it.
"Thank you, now take me home," she whispers.
I lift her into my arms and carry her back through the corridor, past the bodies, up the stairs, via the kitchen, and out into the night air. The estate is chaos behind us, sirens in the distance, the sharp smell of smoke from somewhere on the property, but I don't look back. I don’t care. I have everything I want and need in my arms.
She presses her face into my neck. Her breath is warm against my skin, and she whispers so softly I almost miss it. "I love you."
