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seventy-four
Draven
Something broke Costas.
Tony and I could see it as our friend stood over the man who treated him like a son. To save the woman we loved, he had to kill the man who taught him how to survive our world. There were no words as the silent brute moved toward his mother to untie her first. They had their own reunion because he knew Millie wouldn't be the only victim of Mario and our fathers’ wrath.
Tony and I just kept doting affection on Sunshine, refusing to let her go for anything after the scare we had tonight. She'd go where we went, or she'd be placed in a better hiding spot. My heart couldn't slow down as we kept touching her body. Some bruising lined her arms from rough grips, but her face had some heavier blows taken against it.
Before we could take everything in, I heard a weird sound beside us. Grating metal against concrete called my attention to see Kasey dragging a corroded crowbar at her side, marching toward Mario's dead body. She must've gone to the corner she stood in after seeing the rusted piece of metal. Tortured since earlier, sheer grief drove her to a brink of madness, one that felt all consuming, and I knew it well. That's how I wound up in prison because I couldn't keep mine at bay.
"Take Sunshine to the truck," I warned Tony the moment I realized where Kasey’s dark mind had taken her to. Costas noticed the same thing I had, removing his mother from what I could only imagine would turn into a horror scene. Sunshine wept, unable to control her tears. I had no idea what she went through while under the care of Mario, but Costas had given us a small idea by mentioning the doctor. She didn't need to see the revenge her best friend was about to have. Kissing her temple, I closed my eyes, knowing Kasey needed this, but Sunshine couldn't handle the darkness about to be presented. "She doesn't need to see this."
His eyes cast toward our girl's friend, seeing the present loathing creating a stench of revenge around her. Kasey heaved her breaths, trying to get her tears to turn off. I knew the debilitating sense of sadness well, and I let mine show through as unabridged wrath just like she demonstrated now. Instead of preventing her from doing what her mind desired, I stood by and let her. Just like I needed to release my physical, pent-up aggression toward Alexander, she needed the man to pay who killed the man she grew an attachment to.
Debris from the forest still cluttered her red hair and dirt streaked her legs because of how fast she'd ran through our underground tunnels to find help. There was no doubt in my mind that she bolted for help the moment she couldn't get the cellar door open herself. She tried to do everything within her power, but it hadn't been enough to save Rocco.
Raising the crowbar above her head, she struck down with all her might, letting out a vengeful wail. Being in a place no one would ever hear her, I let her be as loud as she needed to be to feel a sense of satisfaction. The tip gouged his lower belly right below his navel. She felt the harsh reality of breaking into someone's body. Instead of growing sick by her actions, she lifted her leg against his thigh dangling over the car and jerked the handle out with the slushy sound it made.
Again, she struck. Like a banshee, she screamed her damnation out into the open sky. I just watched as chunks of his flesh began being ripped away right before some of his innards began to seep out. The wet, digging sound of her swings told me she had every intention of mutilating him past the point of recognition. She'd let the hook drag within his open cavity, making sure to stew what remained.
"You sonofabitch!" Kasey shrieked, swinging even harder to plunge right through what she'd ripped open, hitting the surface of the car below him. Her crowbar now turned red, feeding on its prey she delegated action against. Costas joined me in watching her destruction, but he didn't say anything as the woman mutilated the person who'd been his father figure most of his life.
"Thank you for saving her," I choked out quietly under the loud umbrella of Kasey's shrills. Her muscles were trembling, showing she didn't have much left in her to take out on him.
"It's my job," he replied. And while the promise he made to Tony rang true in that answer, I knew otherwise.
"It's your heart," I reworded before patting him on the back. Moving away from him, I knew Kasey was two seconds from collapsing into her madness, losing her mind to it even more.
Being so close to the edge of losing her emotions, I did the only thing I could think of. Ripping her away from the murderous sight, I pulled her into my chest. At first, my move made her angry, seething I'd stop her, fighting my hold. She struggled in my arms as I kept holding her to me, refusing to let her slip away completely. Unrelenting, her heart openly bled before me to see exactly what Rocco meant to her. In two weeks, she'd learned what love could be, but she'd been robbed of time to have it longer.
"Let me go!" she cawed. My hands locked around her upper arms to contain her rage.
"He's avenged," I quietly murmured for her to hear it without an audience.
Kasey finally stopped struggling, turning her gaze back to the sight of her unadulterated bloodlust. She saw the streaks of blood that had flown all around the room. His spleen and intestines decorated the front of the car like a hood ornament. She didn't come out unscathed, looking like a tribal warrior instead of a simple woman, spreading it to my clothes. Her chaos had held her captive, but I helped release her to see the impact of her blind rage. Luckily for her, I knew the need, the itch, to get it out of one's system.
Falling into me, new tears sprang for a different reason. No longer able to support herself, Kasey relied on me to hold her steady. "He's really gone… Rocco's gone."
Knowing it was my time to leave with the women, Costas and I shared one look where he promised to clean up the scene as I got the women the medical attention and comfort they needed. Seeing firsthand how far our fathers would go drove me to restless thoughts about Sunshine's safety. Could we keep her close when the enemy slipped inside so easily?
As I drove us home, Kasey sobbed into the chest of Costas's mother. Even though they didn't know each other from Eve, they trauma bonded. Tony held Sunshine on his lap beside me, refusing to let her sit anywhere else as she confessed the troubling words about who truly fathered Costas. The truck held all the power I needed to get my own fix in. Punching the gas here and there, I knew I'd never wreck with my woman and man in the car.
seventy-five
Millie
Feeling the wreckage through my body, I still didn't know if I'd ever feel right or normal again after what I just experienced. The blood that splattered on me during the shooting scared the living daylights out of me because for a moment, I thought it was my own. Mario had been like a father to Costas, so I didn't think he would choose me over the man who raised him. Now, I wrapped myself in a fur blanket by the back window, eyeing the man who stood on the back lawn near a fire he lit.
No matter how many blankets I tried to wrap around me, I couldn't feel any warmth coming in. Even with my eyes on the fire that burned the corpse of the man who kidnapped me and hurt me, all I felt was this numbness and pain. The grief stemmed from Costas. I couldn't imagine what he was going through as he stood there and watched the body burn.
My eyes wouldn't leave him, and Draven knew better than to bother me after they brought me in and cleaned me up. Not even allowing a shower, I refused to leave Costas alone during this struggle. He didn't deserve to feel isolated and deserted during such grief, so I finally braved heading for the back door. After giving him adequate time to say his farewells, he didn't deserve to feel like he had no one on his side. Especially after saving my life and his mother’s.
My tepid feet carried me with a heaviness and ache in every step. My body hadn't quite stopped convulsing in small shivers because I still couldn't believe what happened tonight. With my bare feet feeling the sensation of the prickling grass, I could tell someone freshly cut it from how sharp the points were. They weren't sharp enough to hurt, but they centered my focus on something other than the traumatic grief inside of me.
Arriving at his side, I didn't say anything. I couldn't. Every time my mouth tried to open, my lip quivered, and no sound came out. My emotions were too close to the surface, causing a struggle to express my gratitude now. Every thought circled around thanking him for saving my life, but when I finally opened my mouth, a different word fell from my lips, one I hadn't been prepared to ask.
“Why?” My subconscious nearly demanded to know. How could he save me but not the father figure who raised him? Breaking down once again, I felt the surging stream of tears streak my cheeks. Luckily, I only said that word to not have to address him again with my emotions revealed.
