#8 Chapter 36
MICHAEL
I kicked in the door.
It smashed the wall. I strode inside the bachelor pad filled with black patent leather. Pussy and cigarettes filled the air. I followed the stench into a bedroom, where a naked Julian had fallen out of bed. Beer bottles littered the carpet. I ripped the satin sheets off. Whoever he’d slept with was already gone.
Good. No witnesses.
Julian struggled to his feet, dragging a baseball bat from under his desk. Deep lines carved his dimples. His pupils were blown with that drugged-out haze I recognized from all my dealings with Serena.
He laughed. It was half grief and rage.
“Serena was your whore. She was your fucking slut!” Spittle flew from his mouth as he readied his bat, oblivious to the pistol I pointed at his chest. “You knew I’d find out. You’re sick. You’re deranged.”
“Not as crazy as I’ll be if my wife dies. Where is Carmela?”
“Fuck you.”
I pulled the trigger.
Blood splattered the floor as a hole blew through his right knee. He collapsed, howling. The bat rolled toward me as Julian flailed, sobbing.
“Where is she?”
“It hurts. Oh my God. Help-”
“Take another hit, you junkie.” I seized his hair and dragged him off the mattress, heat slicing my nerves as rubber tubing fell off his nightstand. “Is this what you’ve been doing with my money? Shooting up and selling out my wife! I’ll kill you!”
“Please, don’t! I have a daughter.”
“She’s better off without you.” I shoved the Glock to his temple, and he shrieked. “My wife! You gave that psychopath Carmela!”
“An eye for an eye,” he snarled. “We know what you did to Serena.”
“That’s what this is about? Serena?”
He lunged at me with a beer bottle.
I yanked it from his clumsy grip and clocked him. He spilled over the dark floor as I lodged my foot in his upper back. As soon as I twisted his arm, Julian sagged. I’d fucked women who put up a stronger fight.
“You’re inhuman. Pure evil.” His voice was a low, guttural moan. “She showed me her bruises. You beat her. You killed her.”
My late wife had bitch-slapped me from the grave. She’d made her brother think the worst of me, and our children had almost paid the price. She’d tortured me with threats to take the kids. She’d done so many horrible things, and now, she’d cost me the love of my life.
I wanted her gone.
My gun ripped across Julian’s jaw. He slammed into the bed as crimson poured from his nose, his eyes wide and beseeching. I hammered him until my knuckles split, his soft body breaking under my blows.
“Do you know what he did to my children?” I screamed. “You fucking degenerate! Tell me where he is.”
His panic saturated the air like the unwashed, sharp scent of a man. “You’ll kill me anyway.”
“Your life could still get a lot worse.”
“You stole from him. He just wanted her back, so-so I told him Carmela’s routine. He must’ve snatched her. His address is on my phone. He said to bring her there if-if I got the chance.”From NôvelDrama.Org.
I lunged at his cell, swiped it open, and found the information hidden in a note. I pulled it up on a map.
Fifteen minutes away.
“Please.” Julian held up his hands. “I have a kid.”
I had two, and he’d handed them to Crash.
I aimed at his face.
“I didn’t murder Serena, but I am killing you.”
Three holes zipped into Julian’s head, blowing out his skull. Blood seeped under his hair as he stared at the ceiling. I grasped his arm and yanked, catching most of the mess on the bed. Then I walked into the hall, beckoning at the tall silhouette.
“Clean this up.”
The soldier did my bidding, rolling Julian in the sheets. His sightless gaze disappeared under black.
Good fucking riddance.
There was no triumph from his death.
Only rage.