Page 117 of Ricochet

“Daddy? Are you going to shoot that man?”

It’d been a long time since I’d had waking hallucinations of my son. Tears filled my eyes, and frowning, I wiped the moisture away and double blinked.

Still, Jay stood there.

“Is he bad, Daddy?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “I have to punish him.”

“Why?”

“For hurting you.” Falling to my knees, I let the agony tear out of my chest, breaking up my words. “And … your … mommy.”

“But I’m right here, Daddy.”

A choke of a sob escaped me, the vision of my dead son killing every corner of my soul. “No, Jay. You’re with mommy.”

He shook his head. “Remember? You said I was here.” He pointed to his heart.

A crushing ache inside my chest nearly stole my breath, and I echoed his movement, placing my hand over my heart. “Always, Jay.”

I couldn’t stop the fucking tears. Not real. He’s not real. Except, I could see his face, so vividly. The small mark above his eye, where he’d fallen as a baby and hit his head on the coffee table. The faint birthmark on his neck, which I’d told him was a special gift that gave him super powers no one else had. The blue of his eyes, like my very own, staring back at me.

“It’s okay, Daddy. I’m always right here.” His smile forced my own smile forth, his small frame blurred by the tears filling my eyes again.

“I’ll always love you, Little Man.”

“I love you, too.” His form faded into the flickering light from the fire. “I’ll see you in the night.” His whisper carried over Culling’s blood-curdling scream.

What followed was the moment that separated monster from man.

I wasn’t like them.

I wasn’t a monster.

Alec appeared, standing alongside Culling, smiling down at the poor bastard whose skin blackened with each passing second. “Go, Nick. I’ve got this.”

“Not this time, Alec. It’s over.”

His head craned toward me, cigar hanging between his teeth. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I want to start over. With Aubree. No more blackouts.”

His eyes narrowed in suspicion, his shoulders bunched, and I could damn near feel the waves of anger rolling off of him. He spat the cigar into the flames and lurched toward me. “You ungrateful fuck.”

“I’m sorry my friend. This is where it ends.” I lifted my gun and shot twice.

The bullets passed through Alec, hitting Culling once in the skull, silencing the gurgles. With the mercy shot, Alec fizzled away to nothing.

A bright light flashed where Jay had stood moments ago, and my head snapped that way.

Flames crawled along a strip of fluid leaking from one of the barrels.

“Shit.” I rocketed up from the floor, and spun on my heel, as a blaze of fire trailed at my back.

CHAPTER 52

Aubree