“You miscalculated again. I watched my mother die in front of me. I was moved to a town where I had no friends, and I was abused by my stepmother on a daily basis. Then, I never got to say goodbye to my father as he was left to die on his floor alone. If that wasn’t enough, the man who took care of my wounds from my stepmother was killed and consumed. My whole life has been blood, death, and bowel. You can’t hurt me, Devon. No one can hurt me but me.”
She held up her hand, and Rogue tossed her the sterling silver lighter he always carried, and she flicked it open.
“You shouldn’t have gone after Rayna RunningWolf. That Marine is like my son. I pay back people who hurt my children.”
Everyone standing here had just learned a lot about Elizabeth. Mostly, they learned she’d had a rough life and had become someone who gave all she had to help others.
Now, she’d been pushed too far.
“Don’t!” he said, as he watched the lighter. “How did you find me!”
She smiled.
“Don’t what? Play at your level? I’m the queen of dirty games, Devon. You just didn’t know it. As for how, like I said, my hacker is better than your hacker. Rayna, the chief of police on the reservation scribbled down your rental license plate number on the back of the report. You missed it. We didn’t. You aren’t that smart. Because if you’re going to set up a crime scene, you set it up so it’s never figured out. Like this one. No one will ever figure out who the burned-out remains are in this building.”
He started panicking.
Because up to that moment, it was clear that he believed she wouldn’t do it.
Well, he was wrong.
“Sadly, Devon, your father didn’t teach you well enough. You were outsmarted by me. A woman. You played my game, and I played yours. From the car blowing up to the poison, to the plane ticket to go after my kids in Fiji, I found it all out. I even know how you learned all about the homes we have. I know that you also killed the woman who worked for our attorney. There were only so many ways that could happen.”
Lighting some cardboard, she tossed one into the mother’s casket, and then one into his father’s.
They both went up in flames as he wailed in pain. Yeah, she took his collection. His father was his most precious possession—his memory of him, and the promise to his son that one day, he’d be the best.
He wasn’t.
“Unlike you, Devon, I’m good at getting my hands dirty. I don’t ask anyone to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself—including killing you. I’m your judge, your jury, and now, I’m about to be your executioner. I just wanted you to know I beat you, and destroyed your father’s remains.NOW, had you done that to mine, I would have been hurt. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to put my mother and father somewhere else—safe. Thanks for doing the hard part of digging a hole or two.”
As the bodies went up, she tossed Rogue his lighter back to him.
“Thanks,” she said.
He didn’t mind.
“Any time, Honey.”
Elizabeth let Devon scream and wail over losing his father again. They all stood there, admiring the bonfire. Oh, and it was getting bigger. The roof would go up next, and then, this would be an inferno within the next ten minutes.
“Anyone have any marshmallows?” she asked, not the least bit concerned about his pleas.
Zayn giggled.
“I mean, we could have gotten some. I do love me a S’more,” he admitted.
Elizabeth watched the fire.
“My only regret is your daddy was already dead. Devon. Because had I gotten to him, I would have taken off his dick, and fed it to you for fucking around with my family,” she admitted, calmly.
He was rocking in the chair, trying to soothe himself. He had tears running down his face, and he was broken as he watched theONLYthing that mattered to him be destroyed.
Yeah, she knew what his ultimate collection was.
HIS MEMORIES.
HIS FATHER.
