by KJ Dahlen
James was sitting at the small table with as plate of eggs and toast. He was chewing then took a sip of his coffee. “She makes some mean eggs, man.”
Damon looked over at Ally Bella. He really looked at her closely. Sher entire body had stiffened up when he came in. Yeah, he wasn’t surprised by this either. When he fucked up, he really went all out. He was disgusted with how he’d left things between them.
She turned with a plate and set it on the table, then set down a mug of coffee.
He raised his brows at this but she did not even look at him. He glanced to James.
James shrugged and kept eating.
Damon sat and picked up a fork she had put on the plate. “Thanks for the breakfast.”
She made no reply as she stood at the counter munching on some toast.
He noted that she had made some of the tea for herself that the kid had brought her. Yeah, Lonnie was in his late twenties but he was a kid to Damon. Did she have something going on with this Lonnie? He shook the thought away. Better not be. Then again, Lonnie had stepped aside from whatever he may have considered with Alybella. His own reactions when he saw the man touching her were foreign to Damon. He hadn’t felt possessive of anyone for a long ass time. He paused. I really am falling for this girl. I admit it now. I’ve made a mess of it, but I will try to fix it. If it can be fixed.
Pausing, he almost laughed aloud. He used to be paid a great deal of money to FIX things. Then here he sat, helpless to even be able to speak to this girl. To fix what he’d done himself. He wanted to taste her again and this time, to do it right. He could show her what he, how he felt. But it would be the chicken’s way out. No, he had to talk to her first. Convince her. But of what? That he needed her? Wanted her? Those things were true, but why now? After all this time, he needed someone? He wasn’t sure what was happening but ever since the day he first laid eyes on her, he hadn’t been the same.
He took a bite of the eggs and hummed at the flavor. They were a perfect over medium and done just right. Soon, he had finished off the food. He picked up his mug and took a sip.
Ally Bella finally broke the quiet that echoed like a sound of its own in the small kitchen, “So, Damon or Max or whoever the hell you really are... why are you such an asshole?”
James had been taking a sip of his coffee then almost spat it out on the table as he laughed with a splutter.
Damon stilled and glanced up to see her eyes were right on him.
Standing, James cleared his throat with a lingering chuckle as he wiped the coffee from his chin. He grabbed his plate and headed over to the sink. He turned the water on then rinsed his plate and fork. His shoulders moved a bit with pent up laughter.
The room had remained utterly silent as he turned back around.
Damon was staring at Ally Bella.
She stared daggers back at him.
“Welp. I got calls to make.” James tried to hide his grin, as left the small kitchen.
Damon hadn’t moved. In fact, he’d waited for the man to get the hell out before he finally spoke, “What the hell kind of question is that?”
“A legitimate one,” she told him as her gray eyes blazed with a quiet rage.
He shook his head.
“Oh...” She raised her brows. “So, you don’t think you’re an asshole?”
Damon stared back at her and then he sighed. “Look... I’m sorr—”
Ally Bella slammed her cup down onto the counter. “No! See that’s the problem. We had a night together and then you were SORRY!”
He stood up and brought his plate over like James had done. He needed to reload and try this again. He’d never been good with words, just weapons. He needed to talk to her and be honest. He rinsed the plate off and then set his hands on the counter. “The truth is...” he paused. The truth? It was a hard pill to swallow but he figured he’d better fix this and fucking fast. “I loved only one woman. For years after she was gone, I believed that was all the love I would ever have. I went cold inside. I took up a living that wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t really a life. A life of taking lives. It wasn’t... good in any way.” He peeked over at her.
She stood with her arms crossed over her chest, her anger very much present.
“I was dead inside, Alybella. I wasn’t human anymore. I had women from time to time, but they meant nothing to me. Nothing meant anything to me.” He stepped closer to her. “Then when I saw you heading out to the street? When I carried you back to your apartment...” he paused.
“What? What are you trying to say?” Her arms fell away from her chest, as she looked curious.
“That I finally felt something,” he admitted. “You made me feel something.”
“Well, that could just be pity. You felt sorry for me.”
Shaking his head he said, “No. I haven’t felt pity for anyone except... Well, this young girl. She had been through hell, and because of my job, I was sent to take her to an even worse hell.”
Ally froze and stared at him. “Y-you wanted her. For yourself?”
He stared back as he clenched his fists. “It wasn’t like that. I never felt that for her. But it was the first time I hesitated in doing my job. She had been through what most people would have never survived, yet she found love, she fought back. I saw something in her that I’d lacked all these years.” Humanity, hope and Becky fought demons still, he assumed.
“So... you didn’t take her to wherever it was?”
“No, I didn’t. It would have meant that she would be literally sucked dry. Her real father wanted her actual blood to save his own worthless life. When I decide that I wouldn’t take her to that monster, I quit the whole damn job. But I was an asshole. You are right. I wasn’t a nice man. But she got her life back.”
“What happened then...” She stared at him. “To you, I mean.”
He shrugged. “This group. The one James is with...They offered me a do over.”
Alybella sucked in a breath, as she looked surprised by this notion. “A do over? Like become someone else? Have a new life?”
“Exactly. To use my skills to help people like I did for Becky. Or tried to do.”
“So what happened last night?” she asked in almost a whisper.
This would be the hardest part. He let out a sigh and moved closer so he could meet her eyes. “I had a nightmare.”
Nodding, she said, “I know. I recognized the signs. God knows, how many I’ve had.”
He reached out and grabbed her up then held her close. Her read rested on his shoulder as he spoke, “I dreamed of Petra. She was smiling at me and for the first time in a dream, I didn’t see her bloody, she looked like she did on our wedding day in fact. She told me to let go. I refused and tried to keep a hold of her. She then drifted away and told me to live finally.”
Ally Bella froze in his arms. “So when you turned from that dream...” She stepped away from his embrace. “You thought I was her?”
He slowly nodded, realizing this was it. A time when the truth would ruin any chance, they had together. Truth, he hadn’t wanted to state.
A lone tear rolled down her cheek.
His chest tightened as he swiped her tear from her cheek. He had caused this pain to her. He’d hadn’t felt anything like pain in his soul to make his chest feel constricted like this since...
“Well, now I understand,” she whispered as she lowered her head.
“You might think you do, but you don’t,” he told her as he raised her chin up with his finger and she met his gaze. “I never had an experience sexually like that with any woman. I mean it was soooo...It took it all away. The pain, the dark part that had festered in me for all this time. I realized that with you, I was another man. The one I used to be.”
Ally Bella gasped suddenly and backed all the way to the wall almost, as she put her hands up. “I am no one’s redemption, Max. I am messed up beyond belief by all that Matt has done. I can help myself half the time, let alone make your life any better.”
&nbs
p; Damon stepped closer to her again. Grabbing her hands, he held them gently. Everything he did, he made sure to be gentle with her. “No. I don’t believe that. I believe that I could be your—”
“My what?” Tears appeared in her eyes. “My happy ever after?” Her voice rose. “No. It doesn’t work like that! A fairy tale ending for poor Ally Bella?” She let out a cold laugh. “You are dreaming. Or I am?”
Damon pulled her close to his body again. It seemed that now since he’d finally opened up, the door to a better life might slam in his face. “No. I didn’t mean that I could solve it all. That I can fix it. I meant...” He pulled back and grasped her cheeks in his large hands. “...that side by side, we can help each other to heal. Be better because we have each other. That can be a reality. Not a dream or fantasy.”
She looked into his eyes as tears slipped from hers.
He kissed her, crushing her lips with his. Tugging her tightly to him, he delved his tongue in and took her mouth the way he’d wanted to do ever since he saw her this morning at the stairs.
Ally’s body was stiff at first, then she slowly relaxed into him and was even kissing him back.
This went on for several minutes until they suddenly broke apart, breathless as they locked eyes.
Damon held her startled gaze. “Can we start again?”
She bit at her lip and stared back. “I-if I live through this.”
He now glared at her. “There will be no dying. You hear me? Except for the man who did this to our lives. He will see his end soon.”
Aly stared back as she shivered.
Damon blinked at her as he realized how he might have scared her with his rage at Matt. Now it wasn’t just for what the man had done to him, but for what he’d put this woman through. “Yes, that darkness still survives in me sweet girl, but now I only use it to...live.”
Tugging her forward again, Damon held her close. He realized that he did feel different inside. Like a light had ignited his cold soul. But at the same time, he feared something for the first time in over twenty years. The one thing, he’d lost when his life had been altered all those years ago. He’d lost all his fear and it made him a better hitman, if nothing else. Now, he felt it down to his very bones... He feared that if he lost this woman, he would cease to be sane.
Chapter Eleven
Bastian smiled as Bane led the man into the room.
Grant stopped and stared at him.
Bane pushed him forward and sat him in a chair.
“Wow, that didn’t take long,” Bastian commented.
“What? You think I’ve slowed down in my old age?” Bane quipped.
Bastian would never say such a thing. “Hell no. God man, can’t you take compliment?’
Bane stared at him with that closed look, the one he reverted to when he kept his thoughts to himself.
Bastian let out a chuckle. He knew better than to mess with the man, but he could never seem to help it.
Grant stared back and forth at both men. “Who are you?”
Bastian returned his gaze to him. “You know what...I had a line all prepared for ya, Grant ole boy.”
Bane crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to wait for it.
“I was gonna say...” Bastian paused as he tore a strip of duct tape from the roll. “That we are your worst nightmare.” He wrapped the tape around his wrist and under the chair arm.
Bane scoffed.
Bastian nodded, not surprised at all by Bane’s attitude as he tore another piece off. “Then I thought about it.” He taped Grant’s other wrist neatly and swiftly. “That phrase has been way overused.” He paused and seemed to think on it as he absently tore another piece off and bent to tape a grubby pant covered leg to the leg of the chair. “I could say something like... We are all your worst dreams come to reality? Or maybe your final judgment?” He taped the leg and rolled off some more, to tape the other. “But really, we don’t like being someone’s conscience. It’s sorta creepy ya know?”
Grant’s eyes had gotten wider and wider at the man’s actions.
“So...” Bastian stood up. “I will just say this....” He unrolled a long piece and stepped behind the chair to start wrapping Grant’s chest. “There will be no more secrets for you to have. You will be revealing all your sins.” He wrapped the man’s chest to the back of the chair.
Bane had stood quietly the entire time then he noted, “Not rusty on the tape skills I see.”
Bastian shrugged. “Hey, I like bailing wire but I forgot it.”
Grant looked back and forth. “So, what is this?” He trembled in the chair.
Bane said nothing. He looked a bit impatient but he waited for Bastian to finish.
Bastian smiled again. “Are you Catholic, my friend?”
Grant blinked rapidly at him in utter confusion. “W-what?”
Bane shook his head as if he knew what was coming.
“Are you?” Bastian repeated.
Grant slowly nodded.
“Well, I bet while terrorizing young women then being on the run and hanging out with the lower classes, you have been remiss on the confessionals for sure.”
Grant furrowed his brows as he stared at him.
Bastian shrugged “Just think of me as like your priest.”
Grant’s eyes widened as he sucked in a shaky breath. “Y-you can’t mean to say...” He gulped heavily.
Bastian looked over at Bane. “I think he understands now.”
Bane curled his lip. “Just get it all.” He stepped over to a small table to tap a small device that looked like a phone but more solid with no glass on it.
Grant shot his terrified gaze over to the table. He stared.
It was like a rolled out tool kit, all black velvet. With neat rows of different knives, no— maybe not knives but scalpels and they all glinted under the light. At the very end was a silver cross, embellished with a scrolled design, anyone looking at it would know it was truly solid silver. It gleamed brighter than all the so called tools next to it.
His gaze slowly rose up to take in Bastian. “T-the Priest. Y-you are the Priest?” His voice rose to an almost high pitched squeal.
Bastian gave him a quiet nod, his smile, and amusement gone. “Make no mistake, Grant Henry Merrick. After this, you will be cleansed of all your sins.”
Grant now did what he’d thought about before...he pissed his grubby jeans.
While James was on his laptop, Damon cleaned his weapons.
Alybella walked all around the inside of the cabin. She now paced back and forth in the living room.
“Are you going to sit down?’ Damon asked her.
She shook her head. “I’m going to go crazy. I’m used to being busy. Working, messing with my plants, sewing. Something.” He tossed her hands in the air and resumed her pacing.
Damon paused to put his weapons and oil back into a case. He looked over at James.
James shook his head. “You can’t take her anywhere, so I have nothing to contribute to this problem.”
“Have you heard anything?” Alybella stopped to stare at James.
He nodded.
“Well?” she asked.
He turned to look at Damon.
“What?” Damon became alert.
“It’s not good. I mean, it isn’t a surprise but it is the nails in both Grant’s and Matt’s coffins.”
“What he fuck does that mean?” Ally Bella asked.
“My friends got a complete confession from your uncle.”
Ally Bella halted then she lowered herself to a chair.” What?”
“He told them everything it seems.”
“E-everything?” she whispered.
Nodding, James stared at her. “They have it all on tape.”
Damon looked over at her. “This is good news.”
“Well, they can’t prosecute them with it. As it wasn’t a legal...Um, confession.”
Alybella stared at him.
Damon stood and walked over to James. “Do you
have it?”
James nodded.
Ally Bella sat forward.” Let me hear it.”
James looked troubled as he stared at Damon. “It won’t be easy to listen to.”
Alybella stood up.” Hey! I am over here. This is about my life isn’t it?”
James gave her a nod. “Ok, just be warned about this Ally Bella.” He tapped a key on his laptop and they heard Grant’s voice.
“I-I couldn’t let him get away with it. He wouldn’t give me the money and I needed it. He knew the mob might kill me, but no... he refused. I was just so angry. I waited until he left his house and I followed him. We were up in the heights and those roads are treacherous...”
Alybella gasped and covered her mouth, as she looked pale.
“I passed his car and then pushed his car off the road. It went over the bluff and into the ravine.”
Another voice came on the recording, “So you killed your own brother.”
Grant was crying now. “Yes! Yes, ok? I did! Is that want you want to hear? Huh? Are you done!” he shouted as he also blubbered with sobs.
James tapped a key and the recording stopped.
Alybella was shaking badly as she clasped her hands together. “I knew it.” Tears tracked her cheeks. “Damn him.” She looked up at James. “Is there more?”
He nodded. “He was been affiliated with Matt for far longer than you probably knew. He was the one who found Matt’s mother. He’s been feeding him information for years and Matt knew all along that Grant had you in that house.”
Blinking at him, she looked surprised, “Then why didn’t Matt come for me?”
“That was their deal. Grant kept giving him what he wanted and he kept you alive for the money he was getting for your care.”
Ally let out a heavy sigh. “None of it surprises me.”
“Well, parts of what I listened to today might,” James told her.
She swung her gaze up.
“He admits to setting Matt up as well. Matt’s mother remarried.”
“I know that,” Ally Bella replied.
“Yes, but she married a Senator,” James informed her. “He hoped that by killing someone so high profile that Matt would finally get caught. He knew that Matt would never allow himself to get caught and that he would choose death by cop. So Grant figured...”