Chapter 37

McKenzie

My heart is breaking. It feels like a fissure has started at the top and slowly worked its way down my sternum. My father truly loved my mom. All this time, I thought it was a lie. That he forced her to marry him, but now I'm not sure. As Alice tells her story, revealing the motive she's had all these years, I'm remembering things.

My mom was sick for a couple of months, and instead of taking care of her, my dad started attending auctions. At the time, I didn't realize they were auctions. He always said they were parties, but he would never tell me why he had to attend them. A flash of me sitting on the kitchen floor holding my mom's head in my lap screaming races through my mind. I squeeze my eyes shut. Did I find her dead? Why don't I remember that?

"How did you kill her?" I ask.

Alice's mouth lifts into a serpentine smile. "Jimson weed."

I clutch Nix's hand. I think I'm going to be sick. I remember my dad tearing the kitchen apart, throwing everything away.

"Did you drink any of your mom's tea?" He shakes my shoulders, tears streaming down my face.

"No, daddy! I swear."

"You put it in her tea."

"Ding. Ding. Ding."

We never touched my mom's tea. That would explain why she was the only one that was sick. My dad brought a doctor in to look at her, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.

The dean snorts and I turn my glare on him, as do Nix and Rex. "And he trusted me, all the while I was working with her. We had a plan, then you had to ruin it," he snarls at Phoenix.

Nix doesn't react, he just tilts his head at Rex, who takes his gun out of his holster and hits Dick over the head, knocking him out and effectively shutting him up.

Alice's only reaction is a shrug. Her attention focuses back on Phoenix, and she lowers her chin, looking at him through her eyelashes. "I was never meant to be a mother, but your father wouldn't listen. He wanted a son, or a little mafia princess. He was always the better parent. When I found out I was pregnant, I cried the whole nine months."

I grip Nix's arm, trying to bring him comfort. This has to be hard to hear. The woman he adored for years turns out to be a narcissistic bitch. But he stands there stone faced, listening. "Nix," I whisper. His gaze finds mine and softens. "Don't listen to this anymore."

He turns and cups my face with his hands. "I need to hear it. I need every seed of hatred to kill her."

Alice scoffs. "You won't be able to go through with it."

I turn and face her, walking toward her, letting every bit of hatred, anger, and loathing course through my veins. "I'll do it. I'll do it for the little girl whose mom you killed, for the man whose wife you killed, for the little boy who wanted a mother, and for the husband and other men you manipulated."

Alice raises her hand, her eyes flashing with anger. I flinch, but Phoenix grabs it before she's able to slap me. "Do. Not. Touch. My. Wife." She tries to rip her hand out of his grip, but he holds fast.

"You're choosing her over me." Her eyes begin to shine with tears and my mouth drops open at how manipulative she is. "Your own mother." She sniffs and I scoff. He pushes her hand away, and she sways slightly. Her eyes slide to mine. "I should have killed you when I had the chance, but that damn doctor. He talked me into drugging you up so you'd forget."

"That doctor is dead now," Nix says. Alice's eyes widen in surprise, but she tries to hide it quickly. "Another one of the men you manipulated to do your bidding."

There's a bang at the door. "Nix, your father has brought other men here. They're trying to get in that room," Victor says. My heart jumps in my throat and my pulse skyrockets.

What will he do? Will he try to save her? How could he after everything she's done to them?

Alice throws her head back and laughs. "Things aren't going quite as planned, are they, son?"

There's shouting outside the door. I glance at Rex, then Phoenix. "Nix, open this fucking door!"

Nix runs his hand through his hair. "Tell him he can come in, but only him. His men have to stay outside."

Rex walks over to the door, standing in front of it as they wait to hear back from Victor or Julian.

"He almost found me," Alice says like this is just a day at the park. She doesn't sound nervous or upset. She still thinks she's going to get out of this alive. Fear grips my chest.

What if she does? What if Nix lets her go? I can't live the rest of my life constantly looking over my shoulder.

"But I was able to disappear for a couple of years, so the trail he was on came up empty." She sits on the bed that's in the middle of the room and crosses her leg. "Then I heard you bought McKenzie, so I came out of hiding. Did she tell you the message I gave her the first time I took her?"

I pull my bottom lip between my teeth.

"She did."

She looks at me, her eyes raking over me. "It's about time."

"You are a nasty human being." I gesture toward Phoenix. "This man loves hard and you've missed out on it, but I haven't. You'll get what's coming to you, whether it's by my hand or his. You will never see another sunrise."

Alice makes a cat fighting noise and smirks. Nix grabs my hand and turns me around to face him, ignoring her. He leans down and kisses me softly. "I love you," he whispers against my lips.

I grip his waist. "I love you."

He exhales, his breath washing over me. "I don't deserve your love." He swallows and closes his eyes.

"You do. You deserve all the love in the world, and I will give it to you for the rest of your life. I promise." I kiss him again.

"I've calmed him down somewhat. I told him he can come in, but only him. He agreed," Victor says.

Nix takes a deep breath and turns to face Rex, giving him a signal to let his father in. Nix pulls his gun out of his holster. How are they going to do this? I don't think he'll be able to torture his mother the way he tortured Bill. I don't expect him to.

I glance at Dick. Him on the other hand? I wonder if Nix will let Rex do whatever he wants. When Anna and I were talking last night, I reminded her about us talking about killing him together, but she said she couldn't. She's not ready for something like that yet. I hope once she knows the people who hurt her are gone, she'll be able to come out of her shell a little more.

Nix's father enters, his eyes frantic as he searches the room. His eyes land on Alice and he sucks in a breath. "You're not killing her, Nix."

Nix places one hand in his pocket, keeping the other out as he rests his gun against this thigh. "I am, and there's nothing you can do about it. She has hurt so many people, including my wife. She will pay for her sins."

"Nix, I love her. I can't live without her. If you kill her, you're killing me."

Nix shrugs. "Would she do the same for you, dad? Ask her." Nix's dad looks like he's aged twenty years. He has dark circles under his eyes, the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth are pronounced, like they're etched in stone.

He turns to Alice. "Alice, dear. Tell them you'd save me. Tell them." She gives him a bored look and my heart breaks for him. I cover my mouth. "I've spent over a decade looking for you. I thought—"

"Shut up! You know I left. You made all this up in your head. You knew I didn't love you, but you couldn't let it go. You put this idea in Phoenix's head that it was Marcus that took me, but you chose to be blind. You knew what I did and yet instead of being a man and telling your son, you turned him against a man that probably would have helped him."

My skin tingles like a thousand tiny needles are poking me everywhere as Alice's words sink in. He knew this whole time. It wasn't a recent discovery.

Nix swirls on his father, his face red and his eyes blazing. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"I told you…" Nix's father stumbles over his words. "I told you she left."

"But you knew what she did. You knew she killed McKenzie's mother, and you did nothing about it. Why did you want me to hate Marcus so much?"

"He had the love of the woman I wanted. That's why! I knew the day she walked down the aisle she didn't love me, but I thought over time maybe she'd love me. Maybe. But she'd go into these depressive episodes, all because I wasn't enough. We weren't enough." He rakes his hand over his beard.

"Then why would you want to save her?" Nix asks softly.

His shoulders slump in defeat. "Because as much as I try not to love her. I do." Dick groans, and everyone's attention snaps to him as he regains consciousness. His eyes widen slightly when he sees Nix's father.

"Him, I don't mind if you kill."

Rex scoffs. "Oh, I will."

Dick swallows convulsively. "But the girl I bought, she won't get her money," he sputters.

"I don't want your fucking money," Ava says from the corner. "It's going to help those who need it." Dick turns to her, shocked she's still in the room. "And one of the assholes responsible for those people will get a bullet in his head." She chuckles and shrugs her shoulders. "Seems like a win to me, don't you think?"

Dick looks around the room like he's just now realizing the situation he's in, and his face goes white. "I'm not in the mood to torture you, though. I just want you dead." Rex walks toward him, slowly raising his gun as he does.

Alice stands from the bed and edges toward the door. The door Rex was guarding, but Nix steps in front of it. "Going somewhere, mother?" She swallows, her eyes darting around the room like she's also realizing the real possibility of not leaving this place alive.

Nix's father takes a deep breath and shakes his head. "Nix."

"Not one more word, father." Nix stands in front of the door and I walk to stand by his side. I clutch his hand as we all face Rex and Dick.

"You will rot in hell for eternity for all the things you did to Anna and any other girl you touched against their will." Rex looks over his shoulder, glaring at Alice. "You too, for allowing it to happen. Watching while things were done to her and to McKenzie."

I squeeze my eyes shut, a flash of Alice's laughter ringing in my ears as Bill is above me. "Breathe, love," Phoenix whispers in my ear, grounding me. Reminding me where I am.

A shot rings out and my eyes open just in time to watch as Dick's body slumps. His eyes still open as he stares unseeing, the gunshot wound to his head seeping blood and brain matter on the wall just behind him. Ava claps her hands in delight and actually giggles. Alice gasps and turns toward Phoenix, her hands raising.

"Nix, sweetheart—"

"Goodbye, mother." He raises his arm and shoots her between the eyes. Nix's father cries out and catches her slumping body before it falls to the ground. I turn in Nix's arms and put my hands on his face, forcing him to look at me. When his ice-blue eyes capture mine, there's torment, pain, heartbreak, and guilt swirling in them.

"I'm sorry," he whispers. He puts his gun back in the holster, wraps his arms around me, and lifts me in his arms. I want to wrap my legs around his waist, but my dress is too constrictive to do that, so I cling to him. "I'm so sorry for everything that was done to you. For not believing you. For blaming your father for all these years. For hurting you."

I kiss his forehead, his cheek, his ear, his mouth. I shower him with all the love and affection he should have had growing up, but didn't.

He clings to me, his head lying in the crook of my neck. "But I can't say sorry for buying you at that auction. I wanted you. I've never wanted anything so much in my life. You're mine. You'll always be mine."

I'm not sorry he bought me at that auction either. "Always."