With that, I punched her right in the face and her eyes rolled back.
Glancing up at Liam, he smirked throwing me his phone.
Guess who’s driving toward us, the text read. I hated guessing, but just this once I would enjoy playing along.
LIAM
“Vance, Vance, Vance.” I smiled at the bonded and gagged man in front of me. He looked so weak, so . . . not worth my time. How there was ever a time where I dared worry about him was beyond me. He was a sexually perverted old man with Russian friends.
“I’ve dreamt of killing you since I was child,” I told him, pulling the gag from his mouth. “I thought about how many ways I could destroy you, and I have to say, this was one of those ways.”
“You think this is over?” Vance asked, and Mel punched him in the jaw.
“Love, he’s mine to beat the shit out of.” I frowned at her. Rolling her eyes, she held up her hands before leaning against the tree with Saige kneeling in front of her.
Our men gathered around us, all watching with joy, pride, and most of all excitement. They had grown to either enjoy my method of torture or hate it in silence. Either way, this has been long overdue.
“What were you saying?” I asked him pulling out a knife. “Something about this not being over?”
Vance grinned. “You stupid Irish bastard. You thought I was something to worry about? You don’t even know what’s coming. I was your buffer, without me she will come after you next.”
“You’re not making sense, Vance,” I sighed running the blade against his cheek. “And you don’t have a lot of time to explain.”
Again, Vance grinned, looking over to my Mel. “Ruthless isn’t she? Just like her mother.”
At that, Mel’s eyes narrowed.
“Oh is that rage?” he asked her, and I punched him right in the face, sending him onto his back, but he just laughed.
“Correction, that was rage.” He grinned before coughing up blood along with a few teeth. “But poor little Melody, the little girl who lost her mother so tragically at my hands. But wait?”
He laughed on like a mad man. “She isn’t even dead!”
“What are you talking about, Vance?” Mel replied shooting him in the ankle.
But Vance was so mental, he didn’t even flinch.
“I mean, my sweet girl, your mother is alive, your mother and grandfather are both alive actually. Ruling in secret. They have just been waiting for us to kill each other and pick up the pieces.” He sighed shaking his head.
“You’re lying,” I hissed, shooting him though his other ankle.
“Maybe,” he said, falling onto his back. “Or maybe all those years married to Orlando ‘Iron Hands’ Giovanni changed her, made her into something dark and ruthless. After all, the apple can’t fall so far from the tree. But you’ll see soon. You can’t touch her. She’s untouchable, they are all untouchable.”
Mel and I both unloaded our weapons into him, not stopping until every last bullet was in his body.
Grabbing Saige by the hair, Mel forced her to stand right beside Vance’s fallen body. Pulling the ripped shirt from her mouth, Mel glared into her eyes.
“Was he telling the truth?”
Saige just smiled. “Fuck you, fuck your mother, and fuck every last one of your men.”
Taking a deep breath, Mel took a step back.
“Strip her.”
Saige’s eyes widened as the men closed in on her. “You’re going to let them rape me?” She tried not to look scared. The men all cringed at the thought.
“No one wants you, whore,” Fedel said from behind her, causing the men to laugh as they approached. Without a second thought, they ripped all her clothes off, leaving her standing there bloody and dirty.
“You get to leave this world the same way you came in,” Mel said holding her hand out as Adriana handed her a pair of scissors.
“First, bald.” Kicking her bad knee, Mel grabbed a fistful of hair and cut. She pulled and cut until all Saige had were clumps of red hair. When she was done, she grabbed the handcuffs Saige was in and cuffed her to the back of the Jeep.
“Second, screaming.”
The rage, the fire, the pain in Mel’s eyes made it clear to everyone that they should not stop her until Saige suffered, and this was the only way. Mel was going to drag her body for God knows how many miles until Saige either died from the shock or the loss of blood. The animals would do the rest.
“Please . . . please . . . don’t do this. I—” Mel just stuffed a sock in her mouth.
“A life for a life,” Mel whispered to her. “You crossed the wrong family.”
Monte held open the car for her, and she smiled at me through the mirror.
“This is going to hurt you way more than it’s going to hurt us,” I said to her before stepping in through the passenger side door.
Starting up the engine, Mel hit the gas hard, and screams filled the morning sky, but I just turned up the music. We were finally on top of the world.
“When did you take out my fucking CD?” Mel snapped at me as she drove faster.
“Your taste in music is shit, love.”
“Just because I don’t like that fucking classic and old school hip hop crap, doesn’t make it shit.”
“All those artists are auto-tuned anyway. I like real music,” I said, turning it up just a little bit louder to drown out the screams.
“What the fuck is this?” She glared at the radio.
“MC Ren,” I said, and she just stared at me. Smirking, I began to rap along with it, causing her eyes to widen before she broke out in a fit of laughter.
“You are a pale-ass white kid from Chicago Elite. You are not allowed to try to rap this.”
“Hater.” I winked and as she smiled. For the first time in forever, we both felt like we could just relax.
Looking out at the lions as they rose for another day, I wondered if we were any different. After all—I killed, ate, slept, and fucked just as they did. I was the king of the jungle, and the woman beside me was my queen.
EPILOGUE
“Like Alexander the Great and Caesar,
I’m out to conquer the world.”
~ Jarod Kintz
MELODY
“Five.” I kissed his nose
“Four.” He kissed my forehead
“Three.” I kissed his cheek.
“Two.” He kissed my chin.
“One,” we said at the same time before kissing each other deeply.
“Happy New Year,” I whispered into the darkness of our room.
“Happy New Year, love,” he whispered back.
Hearing the fireworks go off pulled me away from him, much to his protests, but I did want to see all the effort Evelyn had put in. Grabbing my robe, I stood at the window taking in the sight of all those celebrating like drunken fools.
“You know they say the first year of marriage is the hardest,” Liam said, kissing my shoulder.
Groaning, I leaned into him. “We’re still in the first year.”
“Really? I swear it’s been longer than that.” He laughed, trying to untie my robe, but I slapped his hands away.
“Control yourself. We have a meeting, remember?” Despite the fact that I wanted him as well, this was important.
“You’re starting the year off wrong.”
“You’ll forgive me, now put on pants.” He was such a pain sometimes.
“You put on pants.” He glared at my bare legs.
Rolling my eyes at him, I threw him his pajama bottoms. “I can wear whatever I want! So let’s go, the family is waiting.”
He frowned but wore his stupid pants, following me out of the room and into the study. There sat the whole family, along with Senator Colemen, Olivia’s Father, who looked very confused about why he was here.