39. Lorcán

"This is fucking sad.If Matteo Amante could see that the Irish were the ones to kill me, he'd be so disappointed," Anthony drones on.

I've known the man for years. I knew he was self-deprecating, passive-aggressive, and a complete fucking narcissist.

Nothing is ever Anthony's fault. Everything that happens to him is because of someone or something else. I tried to be his friend, to be that person he needed, but it was too hard. Anthony was all just a part of my cover to protect Elena.

"You're such a rat," he spits at me.

"You know, I'm starting to feel a little guilty that you had to be around this asshole for four years," Declan teases as he lugs another body into the moving truck that's parked in our garage.

Lev and his crew came to help with the cleanup.

"I would like to kill him," Lev comments as he stares at Anthony, who is sitting on the floor of the truck, completely unphased by the dead bodies around him.

"You had your chance," Finn reminds the large Russian man.

"He took my Tasha; he must suffer."

"He'll suffer. He killed one of my men, held a gun to my brother's head, and tried to take my bonded away from me."

"One hit," Lev counters, and Finn nods his head.

He punches him in the chest, making Anthony wheeze out in pain. Lev grins and shakes out his fist.

"You're lucky you never touched her, or I'd cut your dick off," Lev sneers.

"How are things with your future wife?" Declan asks him.

"She stopped trying to bite me. I think that's progress."

Declan nods his head like that's a normal answer. There are six barrels, three dead bodies, and one wheezing Italian in the back of the truck as Declan lowers the hatch.

"I'll send in my clean-up crew to clean your place up," Lev offers.

"Thanks."

"What's another thing for me to do? Save Omegas, cat sitting, I'm just a man of all fucking trades," Lev complains.

"Didn't kill the fucker though," I grumble.

"I can't do it all," he replies and I try not to let my annoyance show.

I can't be, not really. He sent multiple texts to Cillian, letting him know shit went south in Reno, and all he was able to do was successfully grab Natasha. There was no way we could have anticipated all this shit was happening—not when we were so preoccupied with Elena's heat.

Anthony groans as he lies on his side in the truck. We patched up his gunshot wound so he wouldn't bleed to death. He's pale but still coherent. I'm not sure if he expected Elena to plead for his life or not, but she didn't.

There's a dark part of me that wants to drag this out, that wants Anthony to suffer for the way he's treated Elena and what his intentions were. There's also the complete exhaustion that's attempting to take over and just wanting to be done with it all.

With Anthony finally out of the way and all the agreements we've come to with the other families, we can finally be a pack and move on with our lives.

Lev laughs as he looks at something on his phone. "My soon-to-be father-in-law would like a body part as payment for his transgressions."

"You could still cut off his dick," Finn suggests easily, loading the chemicals into the trunk.

"Perhaps something less disgusting to carry around. Maybe a few fingers," Lev replies.

Finn nods his head like it's a good compromise, and Anthony finally looks like he's scared about his fate.

"We need to cauterize it so he doesn't bleed out," Declan points out.

Finn grabs a small hand torch, giving it to Declan. Anthony shimmies toward the wall of the truck as Lev takes a knife out of his pocket.

"Hmm. I think I'll take them all," he hums gleefully, grabbing Anthony's hand and pressing it on the floor before sawing his knife down on the digits.

The knife doesn't cut through right away, so he has to press harder, making Anthony cry out in pain. Lev lets him keep his thumb, but it doesn't matter, anyway.

Lev holds out Anthony's hand as Declan uses the torch to cauterize the wound. The smell of burned flesh makes me want to gag, but I watch as the disgrace of a man suffers.

Anthony screams one more time before promptly passing out.

"At least he'll shut the fuck up now," Finn grunts, leaning up against a workbench in the garage. "Are we ready to get this shit over with? I'm hungry and tired."

"Maybe we can stop and get some BBQ on the way," Declan jokes, and I give him a disgusted look.

"I like you," Lev remarks before hopping out of the truck.

Finn hands him a plastic bag, and he stores Anthony's fingers in it before putting them in his back pocket. He washes his hands in the sink and takes one last look around.

"Have fun with that." He waves his hands at the truck. "Should only take a day or two for cleanup, and then you can bring your Omega home. Tell Cillian I said hello."

Lev doesn't wait for a reply, just exits through the side door of the garage without another word.

With the chemicals, barrels, and bodies loaded, we take the moving truck and make plans to meet Tadhg and Cormac in Arizona.

"I'm too fucking old for this shite," Declan complains as he helps me lift the barrel into the boat.

"You look fucking stupid with that headlamp."

"You have a headlamp on too, you eejit."

We've been up for what feels like days on end, and my body feels like it's going to give up. But there's no time for that shit. We need to get this handled while it's still nighttime.

"Thank fucking Christ he only brought three guys," Declan complains as we get the barrels and gravel loaded first.

Tadhg and Cormac carry one body at a time. It's times like these, I really wish I picked a different career path or that we had more men to make this shit easier. But when it comes to tossing bodies, only the most loyal members can be trusted.

Finn tosses Anthony over his shoulder and places him on the seat before slapping him in the face.

"Rise and shine. Time to watch your friends sink."

Anthony's eyes roll to the back of his head, but they blink open as he looks around. It takes him a while to orient himself in the dark night, but it's obvious we're in the middle of nowhere.

"I think burying them in the desert would've been easier," Cormac grumbles, and I rub the sweat off the back of my neck.

Maybe he's right, but that would've also been a ton of digging. It's too bad Declan's contact at the morgue got fired. I grimace, thinking about that creep, and what he was willing to do for a few bucks.

This boat launch is nearly abandoned, and there's no one around for miles. The lake isn't monitored like other bodies of water, and we're using that to our advantage.

Finn drives the boat, using sonar to find the deepest area of the lake. It doesn't take long. It's eerily quiet and dark out here, that is besides Anthony's mumbled pleas behind his gag.

"Usually, I'd torture you for days, Anthony. But the fact is, I'm fucking tired, and I'd like to get back to my Omega."

I open the lid to one barrel, and we heft the first body in, contorting him to fit inside before shoveling driveway gravel to weigh down the barrel. The other men work on the other two bodies, and I can't wait to get this over with.

Anthony must notice the last, empty barrel because his panic rises and he yells more frantically around the gag.

"It will be nice not having any in-laws," Finn says as he pours gravel on top of a man's dead body.

"Not that it matters, but I had Matteo's blessing before he died," I admit.

"Exactly, it doesn't fucking matter," Finn replies with a roll of his eyes.

It takes longer than I would like, but eventually, the three bodies are in their barrels, covered in gravel. The lids are tightly sealed, and it takes all of us to put the barrels on their sides and roll them off the back of the boat.

They're so heavy they immediately splash into the water and begin to sink to the bottom.

Anthony watches wide-eyed, sitting in the passenger seat of the boat. I'm covered in a sheen of sweat, but killing the man who was a threat to the person I love the most gives me a second rush of adrenaline.

I pull the gag from his mouth, and he looks at me with wired, watery eyes.

"Just shoot me. Get it over with."

I grin at him, grabbing the back of his neck. He smells just as bad as he looks, but I hold his gaze.

"You think we're just going to shoot you and toss you in the lake? If we weren't so tired, we'd have you locked in a warehouse for weeks. But it's apparently your lucky day. It's honestly a shame Cillian isn't here, considering you shot him."

"I think we're maturing," Declan sasses proudly, making us all laugh.

It's a delirious sort of laugh, one where we've pushed our bodies to the limit and can't believe this ridiculous situation we've gotten ourselves into.

Finn stands next to me, the boat slightly rocking with the wind as he grabs Anthony on one side and I grab the other.

"What are you doing? No. It doesn't have to be like this. Elena will never forgive you," Anthony begs.

"See, that's where you"re wrong. You never really knew who your sister was. She didn't even ask for us to spare you," I deliver the news in a soft, patronizing tone.

Declan and Cormac grab his legs as he tries to wiggle around. We place him in the barrel, and he sobs as we fill it up with rocks. He cries in pain from the weight, but we just keep filling it until he's covered up to his neck.

"This is for Elena, my brother, and Cian, you motherfucking piece of shit," Finn snarls.

Anthony screams as we place the lid on the barrel while he's still alive, sealing it tightly and rolling it off the edge of the boat, just like the others.

The splash radiates through me as we watch him sink deep into the lake's dark depths.

I can't imagine it will take him long to die, truthfully, he probably deserves worse. But this will have to do for what he's done to our family.

We all sit on the boat in silence for a while, the slight current shifting us back and forth.

"I think it's safe to say they're at the bottom by now," Cormac offers.

"I'd appreciate no more cleanup for a couple of months. I think I threw out my back," Declan says, and I nod in agreement.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Finn states, turning on the ignition as we sail back to shore and back to where we belong, leaving the Amante legacy behind us.