“No. I’m staying. You can go and wait in your Dodge if you want, but I’m not moving until they know what I did.”
Slade watches me for a long moment, his eyes narrowing as he tries to see through me, but I’m a closed book. No one in, no one out. After what feels like a lifetime, he finally nods and steps back beside me. “Okay,” he murmurs. “We wait.”
The five of us stand in silence, listening and watching as the flames grow wildly and out of control, and as I take it all in, I feel as though this fire is a symbol of my life. Ever since I was four years old, my life has been dictated by someone else, it’s been a mess of pain, terror, and sadness and now it’s time to take it all back.
I deserve to find happiness and what’s more, I deserve peace. I’m done fighting. I don’t want to do this anymore so this has to be it. I’m too exhausted to keep going. I’m not saying that I’m giving up. If Lucien were to keep coming for me, then I’d find the strength, I’d borrow it from somewhere until it’s over. I just don’t want to have to keep fighting. I never should have had to in the first place.
The flames soar high into the sky and my fingers start twitching. Where the hell are they? They should be running out of here, desperate to save themselves.
“Someone’s bound to notice the smoke and call the cops soon,” Damian warns, saying what we’re all thinking but not wanting to say.
This needs to hurry up. It’s one thing getting busted for this, but I don’t want the boys getting in trouble too.
I nod and turn to Rivers and Noah. “You guys don’t have to stick around for this. This shit is on me, I’ve already dragged you in enough.”
Rivers shakes his head. “I’m not going anywhere,” he promises. “I’m part of the reason you ended up here in the first place. I want to make sure you get out and that this is really over.”
I give him a warm smile and nod. “Thank you,” I whisper, hating that I’m allowing my emotions to get the best of me. Now isn’t exactly a great moment to have a sob fest over my new connection with the kid who murdered my mother.
Jesus. I really am fucked up.
There’s another bang that has my head whipping back toward the house. I have no idea what must have exploded but knowing Lucien, it could be a number of things. Hell, I know he has illegal fireworks in the basement and a shitload of things worse than that. I wouldn’t even be surprised if there are actually explosives inside that house somewhere.
Noah starts to get fidgety and I can see he’s ready to bail. It wouldn’t be great for his career if he was to get caught here. I’m about to tell him and Rivers to get going again when the garage door of the mansion opens and Lucien’s SUV comes barreling out of it.
I grin.
“Showtime.”
The SUV comes flying up the driveway, desperate to get away from the fire. It’s roaring toward us but we stand as one, not one of one flinching at the threat. As the SUV’s headlights shine upon us, the driver hits the brakes, bringing the SUV to a screeching halt.
There’s silence for a beat as everyone calms their racing hearts and then it’s on.
The passenger door flies open with the mansion burning behind it. “You did this, you little bitch?” Maria shrieks, throwing herself out of the SUV and flying toward me in her silk nightdress that showcases her big, fake bouncing tits which are demanding to be strapped down in one hell of a supportive bra.
Her hand flies out and for a moment I expect Slade to step in my way, but he knows I need to be the one to handle this. She’s so fucking predictable. My hand snaps up and like lightning, I catch her wrist between my fingers. “You’re damn right, I did it.”
Before she can even squeal, shriek, or scream, I shoot my other hand out in a tight fist and punch her right in her fake as shit nose. A satisfying crunch sent blood spurting in every direction. Shay had gotten her at the wedding and now this…fuck, I’d hate to see her nose afterward.
Damian howls with laughter as satisfaction soars through me.
Fuck, that felt good.
I bounce on my toes ready to go again but the bitch stays down. Damn it, I was hoping for a little more action out of her. One thing is for sure, with the doctors refusing to touch her nose again, she’s going to be stuck with however it heals from this. I wonder what her country club bitches would think of that.
Slade’s posture tightens and I glance up to see Lucien storming toward us with two guards at his back. If it were just me, Slade and Damian, I’m sure the guards would try to take us out, but they're outnumbered and thankfully hold back. “What is the meaning of this?” Lucien roars, waving back at the crumbling empire he had built from a lifetime of deceit and dirty money.
I grin wide as the adrenalin from punching Maria pumps through my veins. “I had to draw you out somehow,” I tease.
“You burned my fucking house down.”
My eyes bug out of my head, enjoying playing with him. “Oh, shit. Did I?” I peer around his shoulder at the burning house and cringe. “Damn. It seems I did.”
“You’re going to pay for this. Mark my word, princess. You and all of your friends are going to pay.”
I shake my head. “You see, that’s where you’re wrong,” I tell him as Maria wails while trying to scramble to her feet, giving up when one of Lucien’s guards carelessly grabs her upper arm and hauls her up. “This is the end of the road for you. From now on, it’s over.”
Lucien bellows out an obnoxious laugh. “It’s only just begun. You thought your life was shit now, just wait and see what I’ll do to you now.”
“There’s nothing left for you to do,” I yell, only calming myself when Slade presses a hand to my lower back. “You sick fuckers had my parents killed! You kidnapped me and Blake, raped me, threw us off a fucking bridge, attacked Blake, and shot both me and Slade. Fuck, you even married me off against my will by threatening electrocution! But guess what? I’m still here.” I step toward him, loving how the four boys instantly step with me like some kind of force. “You can’t break me, Lucien. It’s over.”
Lucien’s guards glance at each other, both with a weary unsure look in their eyes. “He raped you?” One of them questions, looking over Lucien’s shoulder at me.
I nod. “Six months ago. I was still seventeen and then he tried it again the night he brought me back here,” I say, knowing both of these guys were there when he dragged me back inside his mansion. “And the night before the wedding.”
“Please,” Lucien scoffs, rolling his eyes. “It wasn’t rape. You enjoyed it.”
Fury takes over and my fist snaps out once again but this time it doesn’t exactly have the same devastating effect. “You call beating me enjoyable? Was I loving it when I screamed for you to stop? What about when I tried to kick you away? That’s not fucking foreplay, Lucien. That’s a kid begging a fucking grown-ass man not to touch her. I wasn’t a virgin but you were that fucking rough that you left me bleeding and scared. Is that the result of something enjoyable? You fucking raped me, just like you raped Daniella in high school and again when she finally went to the police.”
Lucien’s eyes narrow and I watch as his jaw clenches, realizing something has been said that shouldn’t have been. The guard takes a step back from Lucien, anger pulsing in his eyes. “My kid sister was raped by a rich, entitled prick like you.”
Hurt sails through me at what his sister would have gone through but I don’t have a second to be upset for him. After all, the guard must be blind to not notice all the other shit going on around here. He’s fine with kidnapping, shooting, and murder but draws the line at rape? What the fuck is wrong with this guy? Either way, he just stepped back from Lucien, and right now, I couldn’t have asked for anything more.
As usual, Maria has a way of drawing the attention back to herself as she gasps loudly, looking at Lucien in disgust. “Daniella Pierce?” she demands, skipping over the guard's comment while looking between me and her filthy husband. “Rochelle’s best friend? You had sex with her?”
<
br /> “Raped,” Slade growls. “He didn’t have sex with my mom. He raped her.”
I raise my chin. “He didn’t just rape her, he got her pregnant. The one very thing he wouldn’t dare do with you.”
Maria’s eyes bug out of her head as she glares at Lucien. “She’s lying. Tell me she’s lying.”
Slade laughs. “I’m standing right here, lady. You can check my DNA if you want.”
Fury blazes in her eyes and as if forgetting about the blood pouring from her nose, she strides up to Lucien and slaps him so damn hard that his face rebounds off her hand and snaps around. “My father always said I was too good for you.”
Lucien growls and shoves his hands against her shoulder, sending her flying back into the guard. “Get off me, you whore,” he demands. “Don’t act so high and mighty. I know you were screwing the pool boy. Why do you think he suddenly stopped working two weeks ago? That’s right,” he says with an evil smirk playing on his lips. “I fucking slit his throat and watched him die. You’re lucky it wasn’t you. Believe me, I sat up at night watching you sleep, trying to convince myself not to kill you too.”
Maria’s eyes bug out of her head as I suck in a gasp. That’s another life that’s on me. I was the one who told Lucien about Maria’s affair and now the pool boy is dead. How fucking messed up is this going to get?
Maria pushes off the guard and races back at him. “Me? I’m the whore for sleeping with the pool boy? What about you? Why do you think I had to sleep with him? You were too busy raping teenage girls every night. Tell me, Lucien, how many have there been over the years? One hundred? Two hundred? When is this shit going to end?” She waves her hand back at her burning home. “Look what kind of mess your filthy little dick has got us in now. That’s my fucking home burning to the ground. My home. I paid for that. I worked my ass off for that so you can act like some big-time businessman, and you’ve gone and fucked it all up again. You’re a fraud. Is this why we had to leave Aston Creek nineteen years ago?”
I watch the show with my mouth gaping open. Did she just guess that he’s raped at least one hundred girls, maybe two hundred? What the fuck is going on here? He’s worse than I thought.
I want to ask about Maria claiming that all the money is hers and that she’s the one who bought this home but I’m far too hung up on that number; two hundred teenage girls.
What the actual fuck?
Lucien doesn’t respond but the answers are clear in his eyes. Maria shakes her head, beyond furious. She steps into him, lowering her voice. “Just tell me one thing,” she growls, flicking her gaze back to me. “Why her? Why touch the one girl that could ruin it all?”
I go to move forward, desperate to hear the answer to that but Slade’s hand curls into the back of my shirt, forcing me back. Lucien’s gaze cuts over to me and darkens, making chills run down my spine. His tongue travels over his bottom lip and as if forgetting where he is and that his wife is standing before him with their house burning behind them, desire enters his gaze.
Slade growls, his hand in my shirt curling into a fist and hurting my back but now I think it’s me holding him back instead of the other way around. “Because it was mine to take,” he finally tells her. “I raised her, I paid for her, I gave her a home to live in. It was mine.”
Maria hits him again. “Don’t you fucking lie to me. I know there’s more to it than that. Why did you do it?”
Lucien’s eyes flash and his control slips, his words coming out louder than I’ve ever heard. “Isn’t it clear?” he yells, questioning his wife, unable to stop staring at me. “She looks just like her.”
“Looks like who?” Maria spits.
“Rochelle. She looks like Rochelle.”
I suck in a gasp as Maria screams and launches herself toward the other guard at Lucien’s back and within the blink of an eye, she has his gun in her hand, trained at her husband's chest, breathing heavily. “What did you just say?” she demands.
Lucien’s eyes go wide, his hands flying up as he tries to back away. He knows he fucked up. This whole thing started over Maria’s jealousy for my mom. How stupid could he be to admit that?
Slade grabs me and hauls me behind his back as Rivers, Noah, and Damian step into his sides, blocking the gap so I can’t get around. All I can do is peer around Slade’s arm, unable to take my eyes off the crazy playing out in front of me.
“Put the gun down, Maria,” Lucien warns, trying to calm his deranged wife.
She steps closer, making the guards flinch. “You raped the girl I raised because she looks like Rochelle Fucking Daniels?”
Lucien swallows hard, trying to calm the situation but his wife has finally lost it and looks like a fucking psychopath. “Calm down, Maria. Let’s go somewhere and discuss this rationally.”
“Yes or fucking no?” she demands, waving the gun and making him jump.
“No. Okay, no. I didn’t. I lied. That’s not why. Rochelle is a nobody…”
Maria grins. “You’re a liar, Lucien,” she says shaking her head ever so slightly as a strange calmness comes over her. “Enjoy rotting in hell.”
BANG!
Chapter 19
My eyes bug out of my head as Lucien’s body crashes to the ground, his hands desperately clutching at his chest as Maria screams in horror, shocked by what she’s just done.
“NOOO,” she shrieks in a panic, rushing down to Lucien’s side as the one guard who was willing to remain loyal throws his arms around her waist and tries to haul her back, wanting to get away from the scene so he can claim she has an alibi when the police come searching. The amount of times I’ve had to lie about Maria’s and Lucien’s whereabouts is just ridiculous. I wonder how many of my lies have saved them from jail time.
Blood pours from Lucien’s chest and I know that if he doesn’t get help quickly, he’s going to bleed out, yet I don’t see anyone rushing in to save him. I never intended for tonight to end like this, but I have no complaints.
If Lucien dies here, then so do all my problems. I might have made a point in burning down their mansion, burning down the house that is home to all the nastiness in the world, all the bad memories, and horrible crimes acted against me, but as long as Marcus’ money is coming my way, I was forever going to be hunted by Lucien Valentine.
I was a fool to assume it would end here tonight, but how could I have seen this? How the hell would someone guess that a crazed wife would pull a gun on her mobster husband over a little jealousy from twenty years ago? Maria might have put an end to her own problems tonight, but in doing so, she’s also put a stop to mine and created a shitload more of her own.
I will not go down for this. If the cops come asking questions, they will know who pulled that gun even if it means admitting my involvement tonight.
Maria gets pulled to the back of the SUV while kicking and screaming to get back to her dying husband, but at this point, I can’t tell if it’s to kill him quicker or if she wants to try and save him. Judging from the crazed look in her eyes I’d dare say she wants him dead, but no, that shit is mine tonight.
If Maria got the pleasure of being the one to shoot him, then I at least deserve to watch him die.
Yep, okay…I think it’s about time that I admit how fucked-up I’ve become.
What kind of eighteen-year-old girl willingly wants to stand above someone and watch the life drain out of them? Last night I killed a man and tonight I’m going to watch another die.
I’m so seriously fucked up. I should get a medal.
I never used to be this way. There was once a time that I was a good girl, filled with innocence and love. That seems like a lifetime ago. It’s certainly not the woman I am now. I’m hard, untrusting, and cold, and the only time I feel anything like the girl I used to be is when Slade is there, trying to remind me that I’m better than all of this.
The boys stare in horror, watching as the devil is finally brought down. The guards haul ass, knowing that cops will be here soon, yet I find myself unable to
move. Within seconds, the door is slammed on Maria and the SUV is pulling away, the tires screeching against the drive.
Disappointment floods me. I wanted her to suffer and I wanted it to be at my hands, but losing her home and knowing that it was me who took it is going to have to be enough. Without her mansion, she’s a nobody. No one is going to take her in and nobody is going to offer her a shoulder to cry on. She’s alone.
I’d be a fool not to assume that she won’t build herself back up and when she does, she’s going to be worse than she’s ever been, but she’ll leave me alone. This fight is between me and Lucien, while hers was wrongly with my mom.
The headlights disappear from sight, leaving us in the flickering glow of the flames that slowly lap at the sides of this hell hole. There's just enough light left for me to watch the life drain from Lucien’s eyes.
I’ve imagined this day for years. I’ve thought of all the million ways a man could die and I’ve pictured myself doing each and every one, yet there’s something oddly soothing about this. The burden of killing him isn’t on my hands and right now, I don’t know if I should be happy or sad about it, all that matters is that it’s over.
I step out from behind Slade and start making my way toward the man who lays struggling on the polished driveway. Slade catches my hand and as I glance back at him, he shakes his head. “What are you doing?” he murmurs, trying to keep this private but in the dead of night, his voice practically soars through the breeze.
Slade pulls back on my hand, trying to bring me back to him but I tug it free and drop my gaze, unable to meet his eyes. “I have to,” I tell him, knowing that he’ll never quite understand while wishing I could somehow sound a little stronger.
I see him wanting to fight me on this, desperately wanting to grab hold of me, throw me over his shoulder, and drag me back to his truck, not letting me out until we’re in the safety of Aston Creek, but he knows it’s not going to happen.
Seeing his hesitation, Rivers’ hand falls to Slade’s shoulder. “Let her go, man. I know you don’t like this but in order for her to move on, she needs to face this straight on. She needs the closure to make peace with herself.”
Real Girl: Aston Creek High (Book 4) Page 14