Gabriel’s body falls back on the floor with a thud, and it’s only then that her eyes find mine.
“Thank you!” she says, but the gratitude in that deep blue is more than a thousand words could ever express.
Then she tucks the gun at her back and drops down beside Gabriel’s body. Pulling the knife from his soon-to-be rotting flesh, she stays there, taking in the sight once more. Her hand finds the sliced throat, bathing in a plethora of still gushing blood. Why does she do that?
When Summer stands, her right hand holds the knife, while her left one drips with blood as she strides back, heading for where my father is. She stops next to him, letting her bloodied hand trail down his face, staying there long enough for the red on her palm to become one, staining his skin. Then she casually smears the remainder across his suit, before flipping the blade a couple of times, too fast for me to follow. I only realize what’s happening when Mason’s grunt hits my ears. There’s a knife sticking from his resting-on-the-table hand. When I zero back on Summer, the smile she holds is a beacon of light amongst a dark storm.
Then she circles the table, sitting right across from Mason.
“Does the family name DeLuca ring a bell? Or is almost a year and a half too long to remember the people you brutally tortured and killed? Katherine and Dante—my mother and father. And all of that for money my father never took from you. That man over there”—she points at Gabriel’s body—“staining the wooden floor with blood, is the one who took over, ordering mine and my brother’s deaths. Maeve and Milo. You probably never even got to hear our names, did you? When your goons shot my brother in the head, his blood was splattered all over my face—same as yours is decorated now. I was numb—unable to move or speak, barely breathing, locked in my own body—just like you are now.”
She pushes a couple of plates to the side and leans on the table.
“You asked me what I would do for your son? If I would kill for him. I can do better. I won’t kill you, though I think not a soul in this room would miss you. See, no one here is rushing to save you. Not because you’re a monster. It’s because you’re beyond saving. People fear you. That’s power. But no one loves you.”
She stands, looking down on Mason.
“Come after me. Please!”
Her statement sounds so sincere, like she truly wants it.
“I’d love to peel the skin off your body and feed it to you. Raw.”
I’m sure whoever once invented the word savage had my futurewife as a definition in mind.
Summer strides for the bag, taking another syringe out, and heads straight back to Mason. Then she pushes the needle inside my father’s thigh with enough force to make a man wince at the sight.
“What... ?” I trail off. She’s letting him live?
She glances at me, but she doesn’t answer, injecting whatever’s inside that syringe, meant to save the very man she started all this intending to kill. Then she snaps the needle, leaving the metal fragment buried under Mason’s skin.
“Oops! How clumsy of me. Thank fuck I didn’t pursue a career in healthcare.”
I don’t know if the whole needle thing hurt, but the muffled grunt coming out of my father when she twists the knife clockwise before pulling it out of his hand tells me he felt that one for sure.
“Summer,” I call out her name, but she marches for the kitchen, pretending she didn’t hear me.
Washing the blood off her hands, she draws a heavy inhale.
“Those guards outside... are they decent people?” Her question comes with weariness, pointed at whoever’s willing to answer it.
“They are the worst of the worst.”
Connor replies with a grin, already on his feet again, no doubt thriving in what’s unfolding.
“You sure?”
“Gabriel was a peach compared to them,” he continues, reassuring her of what all of us know.
Summer strides back for the table, stopping right in front of Mason again.
“You killed my dog—I’m killing yours outside.” Her gaze shifts back to Connor. “Three of them, right?”
“Wanna feed them some lead?” He asks.
“I can handle them on my own.”
“Like hell you can.” I grab her arm once more, effectively stopping her.
