Chapter 13

“Clear.” I hear Uri’s voice through my earpiece. He’s with old Betsy, his favorite rifle, on the roof of one of the buildings facing the church, covering our backs in case Jasper decides to play dirty and tries to kill Hunter again.

“Clear,” Gabe echoes as Lori adds, “And crystal.” They are lying in wait in another building. I don’t know what exactly Gremlin is doing here. They went to two different addresses where Malcom could have kept the diary but didn’t find anything.

Michael and Raph have almost reached the last one, Malcom’s old trailer park home.

Hunter and I leave my Porsche two blocks from St. Joseph’s and start walking, when Serena says, “I found Opal Penn’s car.”

Hunter stops so abruptly that I stumble to a stop, almost colliding with his back.

“There!” He jogs toward a white Corolla a few feet away from us, almost hidden behind an old dumpster. “It’s Opal’s.” He points at the little disco ball hanging from the rearview mirror.

“She’s here?” I look around but can’t spot her. It’s four fifty in the morning, still dark. There are only two streetlamps illuminating the opposite side of the block and the empty church’s car parking lot far ahead. This impoverished area is not frequented, especially this early in the morning. There’s not much around. Just a few neglected buildings, trash littering the cracked, smelly road, a couple of rusted cars among other, beat-up ones, and an unkempt park. It was never a great neighborhood, but it turned into a ghost town after the murdered priest scandal.

“I don’t see anybody,” Uri says.

“Me neither,” Gabe confirms.

“Maybe she’s inside the church,” Lori suggests. It seems the most viable explanation.

I see Hunter clenching his fists, dread and fury gripping his face. I don’t want to leave him like this, but he needs to go inside alone.

I grab his nape and pull him down. He lets me. “Grizzly, whatever is waiting for you inside, remember the plan. We are here to back you up.” I say it on his lips before giving him a quick kiss filled with all the emotions he awakens in me. He answers with the same passion and squeezes my ass cheek hard. I feel his gun pressing against my torso.

“Be careful, Red. Want this ass later.” His words are cocky, but his worried eyes are a whole other story.

“Never say no to a good pounding.” Lori’s life advice slithers between us, pulling us apart. “Don’t move away! I want more Eros, but this time, Reacher, wrap one leg around him and twist those hips.”

“We’re here to stop a criminal and a murderer.” Gabe’s monotone voice makes Lori huff a “sorry.”

“Later!” I wink at Hunter and then dart toward St. Joseph’s east side, trying to keep myself in shadow until I stop and duck behind a small wall twenty feet from the church. I need to reach the broken window thirty feet up the brick wall that will allow me to get inside. I need to perform a wall run, a climb up, and a roll. Which sounds easy, but it’s fucking not on a barely standing, old as fuck church.

“Okay. It’s parkour time. I’m going in,” I say in the bracelet’s mic on my wrist before sprinting toward the church. I push my left foot on the side of a column and use it to give me a boost up the wall. I walk up using my bare hands for the first time, and it’s actually better for grip than using gloves. The holes in the broken bricks and some pieces of stone jutting out of the wall make the climb faster as I go quickly up. The balcony on this side has collapsed, leaving only the long stone beams. I jump and grab one with both hands, then I take a big breath and haul myself up. My biceps are bulging, pulling up the whole weight of my body until my chest is on top of the stone. I move up the rest of the way and stand on the beam. The broken window is five feet above me. I move my right foot to the next beam when I suddenly feel my left one dropping as the long stone collapses and falls to the ground with a crashing sound. I stretch my arms out, trying to keep my balance as I push my weight forward.

“Are you okay? What was that?” I hear the deep alarm in Hunter’s voice.

“I’m okay,” I pant. “Where are you?”

“About to enter the church. You?”

“Almost in.”

“I have eyes on Hunter,” Uri says.

“Bros…keep him safe.” My voice is not as steady as I wished it would be.

“Got him,” Uri replies.

“Nothing will happen to him,” Gabe assures me.

“We got your back, Jacks!” Lori confirms.

I bend my knees and launch myself up, using my upper-body strength to grip the window trim with both hands. A piece of broken glass cuts my palm, but I don’t let go. I swing my right leg up and haul my ass over the window, being careful to avoid other sharp pieces.

I crouch down. I’m in the bathroom on the second floor. Someone must have slept here. There are dirty blankets covered with dust in the corner and old beer cans.

My hand is bleeding and hurts like fucking hell. I tear a piece of fabric off my sleeve and wrap it around the wound, but it doesn’t really matter now. Hunter is what I need to focus on.

“What are you doing here?” The surprise in his voice makes me unsheathe my knife from the holster on my back and move toward the broken door.

“Shhhh! I hacked Jasper’s phone.” Opal’s voice reaches me through Hunter’s earbud. So she is in the church!

“I have old Betsy on her, just give me the go,” Uri says.

“Uri, wait!” Hunter scream-whispers, lifting his bracelet near his lips.

“Who’re you talking to?” Opal asks.

“It’s not important. Why did you hack Jasper’s phone?”

“We found a body in a warehouse yesterday, a young guy, who I took in a couple of times for possession and gun dealing. Malcom Bindy,” she starts to explain.

“Bullocks!” Lori cusses in my ear as I move to the baluster.

Shards of glass crunch under my sneakers even though I try to avoid them. I lean over the stone railing, but I’m only able to see Hunter from my position. The floor caved in, and I can’t move any further. I need to think of a way to get down to him.

“I thought I saw Jasper arguing with him at the Milton hotel where the police fundraiser was held. The one I told you about. I was leaving the bathroom, and I heard raised voices from the back entrance. It was just a glance, so I didn’t think much of it. But then I found Malcom dead a few days later, and when I asked Jasper, he denied the whole thing. But I knew he was lying. I could feel it. Call it a cop intuition or a woman one, I just knew it!” She sounds agitated. “So, I went back to the hotel and checked the video from the back entrance, and it was Malcom who Jasper grabbed and shoved outside. He didn’t look like himself, Hunt. It was like his body was possessed by something ugly. The smirk on his face…”

“The plot thickens like my grandma’s béchamel,” Lori remarks.

“She sounds sincere,” Gabe says.

“What did they argue about?” Hunter asks. He’s wearing his void mask.

“I couldn’t tell. But whatever they discussed made Jasper furious.”

“Ask her why she didn’t come,” I tell Hunter.

“Why didn’t you show up yesterday?”

“Someone has been following me. I’m not being paranoid, I swear.” I see her hand grabbing Hunter’s arm.

I don’t fucking like it. I don’t trust her. I need to get to him.

“And then the captain told me I was off Malcom Bindy’s case. A coincidence?”

“There are no coincidences,” Hunter and Opal say at the same time, and I see Grizzly’s blank mask cracking slightly.

“I know there’s something going on. And I didn’t want to involve you. I’m sorry I didn’t contact you to cancel, but I went underground to get to the bottom of this.”

Her explanation seems consistent. But I can’t trust her until I examine all the facts.

“Serena, check if what she said is true.”

“On it.”

“I think she’s being bloody honest,” Lori says.

I look down and see a column on the left of the baluster I can use to slide down. I sheathe the knife again and leave my phone there on the ground. I grab the railing. With a vault my body goes over it, twists to the left, and dives down. My knees and arms wrap around the column as I slowly glide down. The friction hurts my palms and my inner thighs—the worn-out fabric of my jeans doesn’t shield me much. The column trembles slightly but holds my weight until I land as silently as I can on my feet.

“I’m on the ground floor,” I whisper into the bracelet mic to let Hunter know I’m close.

“I see you,” Gabe states.

“You’re like Batman.” Lori lets out a whoop.

I keep myself hidden behind a wall while I look around. Every surface I see is coated in dust and dirt. I can still clearly spot the large, dark, dried blood stain on the floor where the priest fell from the pulpit.

“Bones and Bully Boy found the diary!” Lori suddenly exclaims. He’s talking on the phone with Michael and Raph. “They are saying that the diary is bloody thick, they need some time to go through it. But Loretta wrote about two people molesting her. The priest and the other man who liked to watch.”

What the fuck?

“No,” I hear Hunter breathe out.

“No? Why did you ask Jasper to meet you here?” Opal asks Hunter.

“I—” Hunter stops talking and spins around.

“I didn’t know this was a family reunion.” Jasper Penn is ten feet away from them. He’s holding a gun, pointing it right at Hunter’s chest.

Terror infiltrates my chest and spreads like a horrific disease, taking my sanity and my breath away, rushing through my veins, infecting all my organs. A pounding fills my ears, and a sick feeling takes hold of my gut. I nearly lose my shit and reveal my presence when Hunter moves slightly to the right to shield Opal. It makes me love him even more and want to punch him in the face for putting himself in harm’s way. Stupid motherfucking hero complex.

“Where the fuck did he come from?” Uri snarls.

“Not even Serena detected him,” Gabe says. How the fuck is that possible? Opal must have been in the church already, but Jasper? Was he hiding?

“Jasper, what are you doing?” Opal sounds shocked.

“What I should have done a long time ago,” Jasper scoffs. “Raise your shirts and show me there are no wires underneath.”

“I can take him out.” Uri is ready.

But Hunter moves his head slowly, signing a no while showing his cousin his bare chest and back. Fuck!

I need to trust him just as he did me. I grab the handle of the knife at my back and slowly take it out. I should have let Gabe come inside, he’s a robotic fucker, but the king of tossing blades.

After Opal pulls her shirt down again, Jasper orders them to slide their phones and guns toward him. They both do, and Jasper kicks the weapons away and stomps the hell out of the phones until I hear a crack.

“That was new,” Opal groans.

“How did you get in?” Hunter asks him, using the coldest tone I’ve ever heard from him.

Now I know what Opal meant when she talked about an ugly smirk. Jasper’s lips curl into a cruel sneer. “A tunnel.”

A tunnel?

“There was no tunnel in the blueprints, we checked,” Uri says. “Serena look for older blueprints of St. Joseph’s Church.”

“How do you know about the tunnel?” Opal asks, an ominous feeling falls among the cold walls of the church.

Jasper huffs with annoyance. “Always too curious for your own good, sister dear. You had to put your nose where it doesn’t belong. I told you to let it go, but no, you had to check the hotel camera feed, didn’t you?” He clicks his tongue in disappointment. “I never understood why our father acknowledged you.”

“Me neither, since he didn’t give a fuck about me,” she mutters. “What did you do, Jasper?”

He grips the gun tighter, and I almost give Uri the order to shoot.

“You don’t get it yet? You’re such a mediocre detective. That little bitch ruined everything the evening she killed Cal. Everything! We had such a good thing going. Nobody suspected us.”

Motherfucker! Did he just admit he abused children with his brother? That he is the other guy from Loretta’s diary?

“Us?” Hunter’s body starts to tremble, his nostrils are flaring, eyes blazing. His fury expanding around him like a tangible, living thing.

“I hated you for so many years!” Jaspers snarls at Hunter. “Wanted to see you dead for killing Cal. For ruining my entertainment. But I knew an ex-cop in a prison was a fate even worse than death. So, I let it be. When you got out, I had found other ways to enjoy my little hobby, and you were so weak and pathetic. Revenge wasn’t tantalizing anymore.” He waves the gun before pointing it at Hunter again. “Then that fucking letter arrived.”

“He got a letter too,” Gabe voices. Malcom wrote two letters then.

“That girl died, but she was still giving me problems.” Loretta.

“Why did you order a hit on her father?” Hunter growls so viciously, I can barely understand him.

“Because at first, I thought it was him who sent me the letter. My mistake. In my defense the letter was anonymous, just like the one you received. Yes, the junkie told me.” Malcom. “He was waiting for me outside the bathroom in that hotel, accusing me of ruining Loretta’s life and trying to blackmail me. Idiot! He figured out who I was from her stupid diary. Found it in an old box her father sent him. So, he had to die, and you as well. It’s only poetic justice that it will happen here, don’t you think?” He points at the bloodstain on the floor.

“Did you order a hit on Hunter too?” Opal’s voice is a weak whisper, her hand is squeezing Hunter’s arm. She looks deeply upset.

Jasper arrogantly raises a brow at her. “He’s a damn P.I., I knew it was just a matter of time for him to start sniffing around, and I have a career to protect. Though, you have to see how incompetent both of you are at your jobs. You never suspected a thing about Cal and me.”

I need to kill him. Now!

“Nobody did!” Opal finds her voice again, pushing away from Hunter. “You’re so twisted inside, fucking sick. You disgust me, just as Cal did.” She spits on the floor.

“Bold statement when you have a gun aimed at you.” I see that unpleasant smirk on Jasper’s face just before he pulls the trigger. The thunderous sound reverberates along the church nave, making my heart stop beating.

I go from feeling terrified, frantic, fucking furious, bordering unhinged, and deranged to being utterly numb. My hand doesn’t hurt anymore. I can’t feel the soft cotton fabric of my shirt on my skin, nor my jeans. The ache in my muscles is gone. The cold temperature doesn’t affect me, the drops of sweat rolling down my spine disappear. Can’t smell the stale, moldy air anymore. I have the urge to accept this nonetheless. Because if something happened to Hunter, the pain would be too devastatingly excruciating for me to survive.

Then Opal stumbles and grunts in pain. I see a red spot taking shape on her green sweater at shoulder height. “Fuck!” she screams. Hunter moves quickly to push his palm over the wound, sending a homicidal glare at Jasper.

My eyes slide up and down his body. He’s fine. He’s fine. The words keep echoing inside my head, and a shower of sensations abruptly falls on me. I almost jump out of my skin at the sudden, very shocking full-sensory onslaught. I have to steady myself against the wall as the weight of all those feelings pushes heavy in my head and on my body.

“Opal needs to move. I don’t have a clear shot.” Uri says.

“Me neither. The column is shielding Jasper,” Gabe lets me know. Fuck!

“This is getting out of hand,” Uri utters my thoughts. I tried to let Hunter control the situation, but now it’s time for plan B.

“Serena, go,” I whisper.

“You’re surrounded!” The AI voice suddenly resounds in the church, making Jasper jerk back in surprise. “Drop your weapon. We recorded every word you said.”

He’s backing up, looking around, waving the gun, trying to detect where the voice is coming from, but the echoing acoustics of the church make it harder.

“You’re finished. Drop the gun now, or you’re dead.” Serena’s words float down to us from my phone on the second floor.

Two red dots appear on his chest from Gabe’s and Uri’s rifles. “I’m not the only one with red on me, motherfucker!” Opal barks at him, making him look down at his torso.

Jasper still has his weapon up, and I know desperate men can turn illogical when panic assaults them. So I take a deep breath, thinking, this is it.

This is my moment.

I grab my knife by the blade, feeling the metal between my fingers, letting the coldness seep into my skin. My eyes laser focus on Jasper and his hideous, malicious face. I slowly push the air out of my lungs as I aim my knife at his black heart and toss it. As if in slow motion, I watch the blade flying toward him, rapidly spearing the air and hitting…the column to his far left.

Really? So much for my fucking moment.

“Blimey O’Reilly” I hear Lori whisper.

I see the exact moment Jasper spots me. The gun moves my way, but before he can shoot, a bullet hits his shoulder—Uri?— shoving him backward, and then with a bear-like roar, Hunter tackles his cousin hard to the floor. The pistol slides away under one of the broken pews.

Grizzly snarls in his cousin’s face as he lifts him from the lapels of his jacket and slams him back on the hard floor. “I will kill you if it’s the last thing I do.” He then proceeds to pound Jasper’s face and chest.

“That’s hot,” I choke out.

“Help me,” Opal yells at me as she tries to stop him, but Hunter is too lost to it.

“Let him have his revenge,” I tell her, using my hand in the air to signal my bros that everything is fine. “He needs to vent.”

Opal looks back at Hunter with a deep furrow between her brows. But she seems to listen to me when, with a groan, she picks her and Hunter’s guns up from the floor and walks toward me.

She’s almost as tall as me, her skin is lighter than my grizzly’s, but they have the same high cheekbones and dark brown eyes.

“Who the hell are you?” she asks, wincing as she stands next to me.

“I’m Rami, Hunter’s boyfriend.” It’s the first time I introduce myself like that, and I fucking like it. “May I?” I point at her wound.

She nods. “Boyfriend?”

“It’s new,” I tell her as I pull the collar of her shirt down to check the injury. The bullet went through.

“Uri, Opal needs to see a doctor,” I say into the bracelet.

“Coming,” he replies.

She lets a whistle go. “You’re the game creator Hunter asked me to check out.” She seems to have just recognized me. So that’s how Hunter Bear got the information on me.

I need to install an alert that lets me know when people are looking me or anybody else in my family up online.

“Yes. And that’s all you need to know since you’re a cop. Trust me,” I tell her.

“Well, whatever this is and whoever you guys are…thank you,” she breaths out, and I nod.

“Magnum P.I., I think he’s out,” Lori’s voice pierces the church air, and Hunter finally stops the beating. His chest heaves as he stands up. After gifting the unconscious body a final hard kick, his eyes dart around until they stop on me.

Those obsidian pools suck me in just like the first time I met him.

He walks to me with that long-legged, confident gait. He looks like a predator engaging his prey. His big lips are stretched in a long line, hands flexing at his sides, chest quickly rising and falling. As he reaches me, he grabs my nape and yanks me to him, crushing his lips over mine, delivering a hard, almost punishing kiss.

“We had a plan!” He growls when he’s done devouring me, and I’m panting—and hard as steel.

“It changed.” I stroke his smooth back, pausing my fingers over an old scar.

He grits his teeth, clearly not happy about my reply. “We’ll talk about this later,” he hisses.

“If that means that you’ll vent all this anger on my ass… yes, please!” That makes him growl low and viciously once again. His fingers painfully sink into my ass cheek.

“Sexy, furious grizzly,” I murmur on his skin as I bite his chin. He pulls my hand from under his shirt and looks at the bloody cloth around my palm.

“It’s just a small cut,” I reassure him as I witness the concern filling his gaze.

“I’m fine, by the way!” Opal huffs, as Lori passes her a bandage to apply to her shoulder.

Hunter moves his eyes to her and shrugs with a forced half smile. “I know you are. You’re the Truth Whisperer!” he teases her.

“It still fucking hurts, butthead!” she barks at him.

Hunter’s smile drops as he looks around. His gaze stops for a few seconds on the old dark spot on the church floor and then moves to Jasper’s body. Gabe is tying his hands and feet.

“What the fuck just happened?” Hunter strokes his head. Now both of his hands have cuts and bruises.

“Ramiel’s atrocious aim almost got him killed, and you bloody hammered your repulsive cousin to the floor after you found out he enjoyed watching his priest brother ruin children’s lives,” Lori replies with a succinct summary of the last fifteen minutes.

“Thanks for the recap, little one,” Opal scoffs.

“Anytime.” Lori smiles brightly at her.

“And yes, your aim is incredibly shitty.” She sinks an imaginary knife into my bruised ego—still stings.

“I distracted him, didn’t I? What did you do? Got shot!” I remind her.

“I kept him talking, didn’t I? Hence, the Truth Whisperer,” she retorts. “I want to know everything, Hunter.”

“And after he tells you, you’ll forget all about it. You never saw us. Any of us.” Uri stares at Opal until she nods in understanding.

“You guys saved my life. And with my forgetful memory, we are even,” she states.

“Let’s get out of here.” Hunter wraps his heavy, warm arm around my shoulders and pushes me toward the exit. I lace my fingers with his, being careful of his cuts, and smile up at him.

He brushes a finger over my cheek. “You need to shave, I can’t see my triple-dimple smile well.”

“Your what?” I frown as he grins, and all thoughts are…poof! Gone.

Except…“Wait! My phone.”

There’s a golden plaque over the glass door that says FUNS room, but it looks more like a torture chamber than an entertaining one. There”s a table full of sharp tools on the left, a large squared sink on the back and Jasper tied down to a metal chair, naked, gagged, bloody, and bruised. The sight doesn’t repulse me. He deserves what he’s about to get. And so much fucking more.

What confuses me are the plastic sheets covering the floor and walls. They’re yellow with little palm trees. I turn to the lab where Rami is happily hugging Michael, and a smirk hitches up my lips.

“You must be Hunter.” A woman in her sixties is slowly coming down the stairs. Her black hair with a few white strands is tied in a perfect knot at her nape. She looks too thin, but her gaze is firm and resolute. “I’m Meg,” she introduces herself. Her smile is open and sincere.

“Ramiel’s foster mother.”

She nods. “How are you feeling?” She looks at Jasper.

I grind my teeth. “Ready.”

“So, you don’t have a problem with…this?” I know what this means. The family side business.

When we first arrived here, I actually realized how deeply serious this family is about their…vigilante business. They have a base to carry out the operations, with a well-equipped lab, a tech corner, and a torture room. Their system works perfectly, and they’re actually doing good—in a nonconventional, idiosyncratic, outlandish way.

“I see a group of men trying to balance an unfair world.” I look down at my roughed-up hands. They have a lot of blood on them. “Sometimes, you need to dirty yourself up to wash away the filth surrounding you.”

“What you did for that girl was a heroic act. If only what motivated you was mostly saving her and not your unreasonable guilt,” Meg says, like she’s seeing right through me.

“So, this is Rami’s boyfriend and anchor.” Anchor? A short woman with blue eyes, a petite figure, and an amused smirk walks our way. “Let me look at you.” She whistles, sliding her astute eyes all over my body.

“Linda, lay off him!” Ramiel comes out of the lab and curls himself around my side, swathing me like a warm blanket and melting my dark thoughts away. My dick twitches at his nearness, even though both his mothers are here.

Linda raises her hands in the air. “Just getting to know the man who turned you into a real boy!” she teases, but her smile looks full of gratitude.

“He does look like the fairy with turquoise hair. His black wound might be thicker though!” Lori jokes, stopping near the FUNS room door. “Your asshole cousin is waking up.”

We all turn to Jasper, who’s frantically looking around while futilely pulling against the restraints around his wrists and ankles.

“Kids! Uriel, Sariel, Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, it’s time,” Meg calls them. Kids?

“Those are the Angels of Wrath’s names, from the New Testament,” I observe.

Linda nods. “The Book of Revelation. It fits, don’t you think?”

It actually does. Ramiel told me they had angel names, but I didn’t make the connection with the Angels of Wrath. In the New Testament, they bring judgment and punishment upon the wicked.

“It’s bloody hilarious!” Lori comments.

“What did I miss?” Sari comes over with the others. He looks so damn delicate with his white skin, lean body, and graceful bearing. Now I understand why Uri is so protective of him.

“Loretta’s diary confirms Cal and Jasper used a tunnel to bring the kids into the church from an abandoned house. It had an old tunnel running underneath, which was used in the past to smuggle illegal items until the railway was moved forty years ago and the church was built on top,” Raph says.

“Jasper or Cal brought the kids through the tunnel, and then Jasper watched while Cal… I really couldn’t keep reading. It’s horrifying,” Michael turns his head into Raph’s chest.

“You don’t need to, we know enough. Let the nightmares of the past lay still,” Linda utters.

Ramiel nods. “I checked the video of Malcom and Jasper’s fight, though. Serena could extrapolate part of what they were talking about by reading their lips.”

“She can do that?” Uri asks.

“Yes, she’s a self-evolving AI.”

“She’s not going to turn into the Terminator, right?” Lori’s brows wrinkle while he tries to stifle a yawn.

Ramiel ignores him. “Malcom went there to confront Jasper. He did blackmail him, wanted to start a new life elsewhere and needed the money.”

“So why did he give me a letter as well?”

“He was a drug addict, quite unstable. But I think his plan was to get the money and then tell you all the truth, hoping you would take care of Jasper,” Meg suggests.

And I would have. I will.

“Do you want to come with me?” Ramiel asks me, his head tilted up to look at me.

His beautiful bright gold eyes are studying me intently. I can see the whole world in them. Our world. And I know I want to share everything with him. The good. The bad. The ugly. And the bloody.

“Of course, my love.”

“Your love?” he pronounces softly, his voice has a bit of a quiver in it.

I lower my head and shift my body, shielding us from his family’s curious eyes.

“I have reconsidered my stance on fate.”

“Yeah?” His brows slightly bunch up.

“Some things are meant to be. You are for me, Red.”

His lips turn up in the brightest, most beautiful smile. I lick away the solitary tear that is running down his cheek.

“You know butterflies drink turtle tears?” he whispers, brushing my cheek with his fingers. I turn and kiss them.

“Love your crazy animal facts,” I confess. I really do.

“Because I’m your love.” His smile turns into a wicked smirk. “Your slutty love, who wants to blow that fat cock you’re hiding in your pants.” He still puzzles me, I never know what he’s going to say. But my blood heats, and that particular appendage thickens.

“You know we can hear you, right?” Raph huffs.

“Do this at home. I just want to see some blood before going to bed,” Uri adds.

“Way to ruin the mood,” Ramiel grumbles, turning toward the door and tapping in the code. Uri follows us and goes to play with his knife in the corner.

As soon as Jasper sees us, his eyes widen. He says something, but the gag in his mouth muffles it.

“It’s part of the code.” Ramiel points at Uri. “Revenge kills are never done alone.”

The code, right. I need to get a copy of that.

“Politicians love to blabber all the time. It’s our turn to talk now,” Ramiel tells Jasper as he goes to the tool table and chooses a small knife. “The strike bird is one of my favorites.” He also grabs an iron stake, stalking slowly toward Jasper with a happy smile on his face, which is kind of creepy in a situation like this.

I just stand there and look at Jasper while my gut starts to burn with hatred and revenge. He did all those horrifying things for years, hurt a countless number of people. He killed Malcom and Loretta’s father and tried with me and Opal. And there’s also the fake charity matter.

I need Ramiel to know one thing before he continues with his bird talk. “I will kill him. He’s mine.”

He glances over at me, eyes narrowed. “I’m yours, nobody else,” he claims possessively. Then he nods and turns back to a trembling Jasper.

My spunky red.

“As I was saying, the strike bird is fascinating because after catching prey, it impales it on thorns, branches, or barbered wire, any available sharp point.” Jasper’s fearful eyes follow the stake that Ramiel keeps waving in the air as he talks. “Earning the name butcher bird. Then it proceeds to eat its prey by dismembering it with its strong beak. Now, personally, I’m not a cannibal, but my boyfriend has a dog, and I bet he’d love a juicy, meaty bone.”

I’m pretty sure Ramiel is only saying that to make Jasper piss himself—which he’s doing. Fuck, it stinks.

“That was fast.” Ramiel turns to me for a moment with a disgusted expression.

“Get to the point!” Raph’s bored voice suddenly booms into the room, but when I turn around, the glass is tinted, preventing me from seeing who’s outside. They thought of everything.

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch!” Ramiel barks as he lifts the iron stake and then swings it down hard. A loud, piercing cry fills the room, and I see Jasper’s tearful eyes widen in agony. Drool is rolling down the corners of his mouth.

I am not a bloodthirsty person. For me, it’s always been kill or be killed. I just do what I have to do. But in this case, I’m on Ramiel’s side. Jasper needs to suffer for what he did, and impaling his dick on an iron stake looks like a fit punishment for his sins.

Then Ramiel moves the knife in his right hand. Is he really going to dismember him now? Like the butcher bird?

Jasper is shivering, his skin is covered in sweat, his glasses have fallen on the floor, and he keeps moaning while trying to talk against the gag. He jerks back as Ramiel lowers the knife to his pec, but there’s nowhere to go as the sharp point starts carving the name LORETTA on his chest.

“You tried to take what’s mine and now you have to suffer,” he explains while the knife keeps moving.

My fingers brush the beads around my wrist. Fuck, I love my vengeful, crazy, sassy man.

Jasper’s screams and howls lose intensity as Ramiel keeps carving. There’s a puddle of blood and piss under the chair now. And it keeps getting bigger.

I don’t feel any wrongness in what we are doing. Quite the opposite. But I know that it’s time to end this.

“Red,” I call.

He spins around, showing me he added a bear on Jasper’s stomach. I would smile, half-exasperated, half-amused at him if I wasn’t about to kill my cousin.

“My turn,” I tell him. He pouts like I stopped his fun, but lets the bloody knife drop on the table.

I move toward Jasper, feeling both Ramiel’s and Uri’s eyes on me as I stop behind him. The stench of body fluids and sweat mixed with the penny smell of his blood almost makes me gag.

His head is lulling, but he jolts and wails when I push a finger inside the bullet wound on his shoulder. I wrap my other hand around his chin and jaw and bend my torso until I’m ear level, feeling Jasper quivering uncontrollably under my fingers.

“Say fuck you to your brother from me,” I whisper darkly. Not waiting for an answer, I pull up, and gripping his face tighter, I yank my arm back and give a firm tug. His neck twists. The death-announcing crack rings out in the room, and a sense of peace and fairness washes over me.

Because it’s done. It really is. Loretta, Norman, and Malcom can finally rest in peace.

“Are you okay?” Ramiel reaches me as soon as I let go of Jasper. His hand finds mine and starts the stroking. I don’t mind the blood on his fingers or mine. I press my forehead to his and take a big gulp of his fresh scent.

Home. My home.

“That went from holy shit to zero Superman fast,” Lori comments. The glass wall turns transparent, and I see Ramiel’s family staring at us. Linda is even clapping, like we gave them a show.

“Nice carving, Rami,” Raph says. “Much better than Uri’s last one.”

“No, it isn’t!” Uri sounds offended. “And I used rusted nails and still got a sculpted masterpiece of finesse and delicacy.”

Is he still talking about carving human skin?

“I wouldn’t call ‘DIE PIG DIE’ delicacy,” Gabe deadpans.

“They are both great.” Sari’s sweet, placating attempt goes ignored.

The debate goes on, and I realize Ramiel is strangely silent. When I look down at him, he’s staring at me with that dazed look that means sexy business.

He crosses his arms behind my neck and pulls me down to whisper, “Take me home, Grizzly, and keep your promises. Show me who owns this fabulous ass.”

His words dance through my body, and I release a low, feral growl.

“We need to get rid of the body.” Uri’s voice annoys me greatly, and I snarl at him.

“Okay.” Ramiel giggles, giving me a fast kiss, brown eyes filled with mischievousness. “As soon as we get rid of the body, you’ll take me home and…do all the rest.” He winks and slaps his own ass.

Oh, I will.