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“Why would we be here if we were going to do that?” he shakes his head.
“I don’t think your brothers knew,” I look between him and Paul. “I think you two have been planning this all along, but now you’ve decided you don’t want to give me up after all.”
“Yes,” Paul agrees while Shane stares at me.
Paul still has the remote held up in his hand, his finger hovering over the button and I realize if he is going to buy this, I am going to have to lay my heart wide open. I need to speak my truth because it is the only thing that is going to convince him.
I point my gun at Shane and I look into his eyes. My hand trembles but my voice doesn’t.
“I despise you! I hate you more than I have ever hated anyone in my life.” I hear his brothers’ gasps at the venom in my voice, but I block them out and keep my eyes fixed on Shane. “I know that you think that I love you, but you are deluded. I could never love you. You make me sick. My skin crawls when you are anywhere near me. When I think about the times you have touched my body, I want to tear off my own skin!” The tears are running down my face now as I spit out all of the hatred and venom that I have been storing for years.
“If you ever touch me again, I would die from the agony of having to endure it. You disgust me!” I shriek and he just stares at me and takes it all.
But then I see it, from the corner of my eye, what I’ve been waiting for. Paul drops his hand to his side as he enjoys the show. Me turning on his nephews is what his delusional mind had been hoping for. I hate guns, but I have a perfect fucking aim.
I spin and squeeze the trigger and Paul Ryan drops to the floor before he even had time to realize that I’d moved. My only regret is that he didn’t see it coming. The remote he was holding clatters to the floor and I walk over to his body. He took a bullet straight between the eyes, but I have tried to kill this ghost before. This time, there will be no doubt in my mind that he is gone. I unload the remaining five bullets into his body, which jerks as each sliver of metal tears through it. And with each shot fired, the tears fall down my face faster and harder. When the chamber is empty, I keep pulling the trigger as I stare at his lifeless body, until I feel strong arms around me.
“He’s gone, sweetheart,” Shane whispers in my ear.
I turn in his arms and cling to him. “I wasn’t talking to you,” I sob.
“I know,” he soothes as he hugs me tightly to him. “I know.”
After Conor checks I’m okay, reprimands me for sneaking out of bed, and then hugs me tighter than I have ever been hugged before, he and Shane tell me to go with the twins while they stay behind to take care of things, which I know is code for disposing of Paul’s dead body. Seemingly unable to even look at their oldest brother after recent revelations, the twins don’t argue and together the three of us walk out to the Audi they drove here in, leaving the beat up Land Rover for Shane and Conor.
Liam sits in the back with me with an arm wrapped around me as Mikey drives us back to the house. We’re all quiet. There is so much to say that it seems like there is no good place to start.
“You think he always knew?” Mikey eventually breaks the silence.
“If he did, then he’s not the man I thought he was,” Liam replies with a sigh.
“How could he not tell us?” Mikey slams his hands down on the wheel of the car.
“I don’t know. I think of all the conversations we had about how much Patrick hated us and he never once told us why.”
“You think it’s even true?” Mikey asks.
“I don’t know. Shane said it was, didn’t he?”
“But if it is, then…” Mikey doesn’t finish his sentence.
“I know,” Liam looks down at me with tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry, Jessie.”
“Don’t even!” I say as I look away and snuggle against his chest. “Let’s talk about all of this when we all get back to the house. There is no use in speculating and driving yourselves crazy until then.” For now, I just want to sit in this car next to Liam’s warm body and cherish this feeling of being safe and loved before we deal with the fact that the man who has made my life a living hell could be the father of two of the men I love more than anything in this world.
“Hmm,” Liam agrees and Mikey turns up the radio and we listen to it for the rest of the way home.
Chapter 35
Conor
Iwipe a bead of sweat from my forehead before it rolls into my eyes making them sting even more. It’s only early morning but the July sun is already beating down on us, and chopping up a dead body with an axe isn’t as easy as it sounds.
“Fuck!” Shane hisses as a splatter of congealed flesh and blood hits his t-shirt.
I grin at him. “I told you to take that off.” I look down at my bare chest which is covered in blood too.
“All right, Rambo. Let’s just get this over with so we can get cleaned up and back to the house.”
