Page 90 of Dark Reunion

“Are you too afraid to fight me one one-on-one?” Maeve taunted Carlos. “Is your dick so small that you can’t fight one girl without your guards or your gun?” His face darkened. “And you dare to think you would’ve ever been worthy enough to have a child with me? That’s a joke. Look at you, hiding behind your men,” she continued to taunt.

He lifted his gun and pulled the trigger. The hollow click echoed louder than any gunshot. Empty.

Maeve smirked and stood as the last of his guards fell over holding their gut. The noise still surrounded them, but it was all distant and fading into the background, nothing compared to the moment between them.

“So, this is it, you’re going to shoot me?” Carlos tossed his gun to the side, his hands up, making it clear he had no weapon. “You’re going to shoot an unarmed man?”

Just then, Matteo ran in with a handful of guards. Carlos pointed at her and the others. “Kill them,” he snarled, revealing his true colors once more. Matteo glanced at Carlos, then swept his eyes to Wolf and Ricco as they helped Dean. “What the hell are you waiting for? Shoot them.”

Matteo pointed at Wolf. “Help him set Señor Dean free,” he ordered. The guards who’d come in with him fanned out, helping to sit Dean upright and get the cuffs and chains off of him.

“Traitors, you’re all traitors,” Carlos bellowed and then charged at Maeve.

Carlos kicked the toppled desk, the edge came around and slammed into Maeve’s knees. She doubled over, and Carlos hit the gun out of her hand, sending it skittering across the floor. He was on her in the next breath, hand catching a fistful of her hair. They grappled across the room until he slammed her face off the wall. Stars exploded behind her eyes, and the room tilted as the air rushed from her lungs.

“You bitch,” he growled, and that was it. Maeve had endured more pain than any one man could inflict. She pushed off the wall with everything she had, twisting them until Carlos’s back hit the wall.

She growled like a wild dog and drove her knee into his groin. As he doubled over, eyes bulging, she fisted his hair, yanked him down, and slammed her knee up again. A brutal thud rang out as bone met bone.

“Ahh,” he yelled.

Maeve broke free of Carlos’s grasp and jumped, her roundhouse kick connecting hard. Blood sprayed from Carlos’s mouth as he stumbled sideways, catching himself on the toppled desk. With a guttural growl, he snatched up a shard of glass and lunged at her, slashing wildly.

She could hear Morry’s voice in her head. The thousands of hours of training slowed everything down. She dodged the first swipe and then the second. Carlos lunged forward, and she ducked, kicking him in the back hard. He lurched forward, hitting the window ledge, and froze as the broken glass stabbed into his body.

The office stank of cordite and rage. Maeve’s pulse beat in her throat as she watched the glass fall from Carlos’s hand. He slowly pushed himself up and off the window, turned, and slid down the wall as he held a hand to his chest where the blood was freely flowing. With a groan, he rose, disbelief on his face.

“Killing me won’t free you,” he panted, taking one shaky step toward her. He smirked as he locked eyes with her. “You will always think of me. No matter what, I’ve already impregnated you.” Carlos tapped the side of his head. “Up here.”

Maeve wasn’t the little girl he’d stolen in the night. She was no longer the girl who hid in a closet, in the dark, obedient, small, and scared. No, she would never be the victim ever again.

She reached back and wrapped her fingers around the handle of the gun, tucked into the back of her jeans. Her grip was tight, but her voice didn’t waver.

“No, that’s where you’re wrong. The moment I walk out of this room, I’ll never think of you again. I didn’t remember you until I was dragged back here, and I’ll forget you just as fast. You’re nothing to me—never were, never will be. You built yourself up as a monster, but all I see is a sad, scared old man who knows the truth…when you die, the legacy you worship dies with you.”

Carlos’s sneer curdled. He drew breath to speak, but she was done listening to anything he had to say. Lifting the gun, she pulled the trigger.

The shot was clean, between the eyes, and settled whatever arguments were left.

Silence isn’t quiet. It’s the weight after impact.

Wolf was suddenly by her side. “Maeve,” he whispered, hand touching her shoulder.

She didn’t look away from the body. Not yet. “That’s for every girl you broke,” she told the room, voice low and even. “For every life you stole.”

Dean walked up beside her. He was holding his side, and blood was dried to his face, but his eyes were steady as he looked down at his father’s body.

“You were right.” Dean looked to Maeve. “He will never be thought of again.”

That lifted the corner of Maeve’s mouth and she finally turned from the body. Dawn had started to pry up the skyline beyond the blown window, thin light smearing the smoke to something almost gold. The office seemed smaller now.

The guns had quieted outside, and as she looked around, she realized that they had won. Stepping away from Wolf, she wrapped her arms around Dean.

“I forgive you. Thank you for freeing me from this place. No matter what happened after, I get why you did what you did.”

He hugged her back, and they stood there in silence, letting the past finally rest in the grave long overdue.

“I guess we should get you home,” Dean finally said, as he stepped back. “I did promise your father that I’d take you there when the dust had settled, and I’m sure his men are waiting downstairs.”