Part 29 (1/2)
Gripping the handle of the dagger, I slid it out of its covering.
When I felt him stiffen, felt his o.r.g.a.s.m, I ran my hand through his hair and gently tugged. ”Look at me baby.”
He blinked up at me.
”I'm never going to leave you again baby, you're with me always now,” I whispered, tears streaming down my face. ”No more nightmares.”
He smiled at me, his lost little boy smile. ”You've always made them go away.”
I brushed my lips across his.
Then I sunk the blade into the side of his neck and with all my strength, wrenched it sideways and twisted.
One thirty two P.M.
”We've got a hit,” Quintanilla said, holding his cell phone to his ear. ”Local uniforms spotted Deluva's plates outside a motel a few towns over.”
Deuce didn't ask any questions, he just kept praying.
”Tell them to hold off,” Quintanilla said. ”Deluva is undoubtedly armed, extremely dangerous, unstable as all h.e.l.l and he's got a hostage. I'm going to call a team in right now.”
Quintanilla's eyes went wide and locked on him. He felt his stomach lurch.
She was not dead. She could not be dead. No. G.o.d, please G.o.d, don't let her be dead.
”When?” Quintanilla demanded.
f.u.c.k. f.u.c.k him. f.u.c.king Christ. He couldn't deal. He couldn't. His kids couldn't deal. Kami and Devin couldn't deal. His boys couldn't deal. This could not happen.
Quintanilla hung up. ”Deluva's dead.”
He shot to his feet. ”Eva?”
”Hysterical, but unharmed.”
A violent shudder of relief tore through him.
”How'd they take him down?” Tap asked.
Quintanilla pressed his lips together and made a smacking sound. He looked around the club as if debating on whether to share what he knew.
He sighed noisily. ”They didn't. The woman did. Nearly severed his head clean off with a dagger. She came walking out of the room holding it, half naked and covered in blood.”
Kami fell to her knees screaming at the top of her lungs. c.o.x dropped down beside her and pulled her into his arms.
”f.u.c.k...” c.o.x looked up at him, his boy's horrified expression mirroring how he felt. ”Prez...” He whispered. ”Foxy...”
He sat back down and buried his face in his good hand. Mick's arm came around his shoulders and squeezed. ”She's okay, Prez. She's alive.”
”She's alive,” He said hoa.r.s.ely, ”But I can tell you right f.u.c.kin' now she sure as s.h.i.+t ain't okay.”
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:.
The Demons buried Frankie on a cloudy Tuesday, wearing his cut; my engagement ring and wedding ring on his pinkie finger. Deuce stayed by my side holding me up when I would have collapsed. I was overwhelmed with grief and regret, swamped with guilt and at the same time, relief so great I felt dizzy from it.
I hoped in death Frankie found the peace he never could find in life.
I stayed a long time after the service disbanded. I talked to Frankie for a while, cried for a while.
Before I left I traced his name on his tombstone, ”Sweet dreams baby,” I whispered. ”Always.”
Before we headed home, Kami and I visited Chase's grave. Hand in hand, we sat down in the gra.s.s and leaned back against his tombstone. Sharing a seventy five thousand dollar bottle of whiskey, we held each other and cried. We cried for very different reasons, but for Chase all the same. As f.u.c.ked up as both our relations.h.i.+ps with him were, he had been loved. He'd just been too f.u.c.ked up to realize it.
Then Kami, c.o.x, Deuce and I went home to our kids and our club and the healing began.
Deuce was in a bad way. Worse off than anyone else. For a long time he wouldn't touch me, couldn't touch me. He blamed himself for everything. It was his fault Frankie hadn't been found; it was his fault Frankie had been able to break inside the club; his fault that Frankie had forced himself on me and his fault that I'd been the one to kill him.
But it wasn't. None of it was. It was Frankie's fault, all of it. This, I'd had a hard time accepting as well. At first, I'd placed blame on myself, for letting my relations.h.i.+p with Frankie get to the point it had.
But I got there...alongside my family and my friends and my club...I got there.
Getting Deuce there was another matter altogether.
But we got through it. Together. It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't easy.
Nothing worth doing ever is.
And love is worth everything.
EPILOGUE:.
Deuce scowled at his father in law. ”You're older than me,” He grumbled.
Preacher snorted. ”Both in our fifties. Only difference is you got yourself a beautiful, younger woman to keep you young and all I got is a club full of stupid s.h.i.+theads who think bathing is optional and farting is an art form.”