An Eye For An Eye (The Club)

“A casualty of maintaining the finely crafted balance.” Red flashes in my brain. Danger. Rage. I aim the gun and fire hitting him several times. The shoulder, chest, upper thigh, I don’t care where as long he shuts up.

“And Jude, what was she all this time?”

“That’s all on you my boy. I merely facilitated closing the chapter.” He smiled and I watch him bleed out on the stone steps of his house.

EPILOGUE

LORAND

Southampton was hot in July. Viewing the horizon of clouds butted up against Lake Huron’s blue waters was a balm to my tattered soul. The breeze coming off the lake made keeping the balcony doors off the bedroom open worth it. You’d never know how bipolar Canada’s weather could be until you experienced it first-hand. The coming winter would be cold with dumps of lake effect snow buffering us from the outside world. Winter was a good time to take off from…my job.

Looking back over my shoulder I smiled, my eyes following the dips and curves of the woman slumbering in my bed. This heat was nothing new for a Texan born and raised girl like Jude. She slept soundly, the white silk sheets slid off her curved ass a little more with each lift from the gentle wind outside.

I could look at her all day long. “I feel you staring at me.” She laid face down, a grin on her face from ear to ear stuffed against the pillows.

My happy girl.

“How do you make this inaccurate observation?” A snort from the bed covers is my only answer. God I love this girl. I let my fingers dance over Jude’s pale skin. Tiny spider fine scars webbed her skin on her back from the chemical explosion, they were barely visible and made her no less perfect.

“I know you.” She twisted herself around grunting and my finger finds the blaze of branded skin on her shoulder.

My marking, my woman.

“And I love knowing you. Intimately.” I lean over her to kiss the raised scar of skin in the shape of my symbol, the Eye of Horus. My calling card, but also a symbol of protection. One that Jude herself chose and surprised me with before agreeing to move up her with me. That act of devotion would have me worshipping her until our last days. She was simply amazing.

We don’t talk about Sorenson’s death but I know she knows something. Somehow our life went on and the police detectives ruled it was likely due to a home robbery gone wrong. It was the one time I didn’t leave my calling card.

I had located old photo albums from my storage unit in Austin and paged through them. Who knows what my mother had been thinking back then. It was hard to tell who I looked like, but my sister Lacy had definitely been a Duvall through and through. I honestly had no desire to find out. As Sorenson pointed out, it was another chapter closed.

Nothing to be done.

“Now you’re just being funny.” Jude was content to be without her sight and I was happy to let things go for the time being. We’d found a doctor she liked in Montreal, but she didn’t yet feel ready to follow through with the procedure. A corneal transplant came with risks and I couldn’t blame her. She might take one look at me and run like hell. I joked that I’d have to blindfold her after the operation since that was my thing.

“Funny in love.” I kneeled on the bed and rolled over her trapping her beneath me and pressing my hips into hers. She tried to buck me off but I let my weight settle into her pinning her down.

“Can a girl get a break?” She feigned annoyance which only serves to rile me up. Waiting for the surgery was fine by me, though I wished she’d do it before I got her pregnant. I worried she’d fall and hurt herself being big and unsteady with my baby.

“As if you’d say no.” I pulled the remaining sheet from between us as Jude lay back submissively. I grabbed my member, hard and ready tracing the lips of her pussy with the head of my cock. Her juices covered me and pre-cum leaked between us. She moaned clutching for me as I teased her using the moment to my advantage and slid in feeling instantly at peace and at home within her tight pulsing walls. I was home, and this girl was meant for me only. I wanted to keep her as safe as I could.

My house on Lake Huron was Jude-proofed and safe for her to navigate even alone when I was traveling for work. I still did what I always did, but I was much

more particular at doing it and I was never gone for more than three days at a time. My name might be Falcon but I was more like a caged lion biding my time to strike. It was hard to take the killer instincts out of the assassin…

We have a house rule that Jude doesn’t ask for details and I don’t share how it went down. I’ll be retiring soon anyway. That last contract paid out much more than expected. Think Powerball and you’re in the ballpark of just how much. It would seem Sorenson, the cocky bastard ordered his own hit and we all rested a little easier as justice prevailed.

Jude doesn’t speak to her family and our holiday plans will be something along the lines of Bora Bora tiny little bikinis, and lots or protective flotation devices if she hasn’t had the blasted surgery by then.

Ella’s Dom, Ken the ugly son of a bitch flew his plane into a storm front and crashed it killing himself instantly. Honestly, I felt a little robbed by the incident, but I honest to God had nothing to do with that one. Good old fashioned karma and a dipshit with a dangerous hobby rid the world of his uselessness. I felt fine with the overall outcome there. No twitchy trigger fingers here.

Ella moved out of Karim to a small town in Arizona that made Native American crafts. She was living on a women’s only commune, and last I heard she had a pair of Dommes who kept her in line with plenty of crops and restraints. I could live with that.

Funny how things work out in the end?

The velvet box resting on the nightstand seemed to flash like a laser target. This was by no means the last gift I would ever give Jude, but perhaps the most meaningful one that made me nervous. Despite how oddly our relationship had begun it was worth every little complication and joy that followed. There was so much for the two of us to do together in this life. Even though Jude might not ever see it with her own eyes, my hope was that my love for her would see the both of us through any obstacle. We were both scarred physically and emotionally, but perhaps more beautiful for it as one joined together.

THE END