I walked around the desk as I pulled the gun from my pocket. With a strong arm, I raised the weapon and looked down the barrel as I pointed right between his eyes. I watched with satisfaction as the fear crept into his features, as he wrestled with the painful finality of death.
He dropped his hand from his stomach and bowed his head as he gave up. He’d already lost so much blood that he couldn’t think straight any longer. His heart was beating fast, beating hard. The pulse was quickening in his ears, and the devil had begun to knock on his front door.
“This is for Hades.” I squeezed the trigger and watched his brain splatter against the opposite wall. His body fell a millisecond later, lurching backward until he was a corpse on the floor. The blood made a puddle under his body, and his skin started to turn white as death settled in. My office had been demolished by the corpse bleeding out in front of me. It was almost poetic, the way he died where he’d first cornered me years ago.
I lowered the gun and stared at him for a long time, treasuring the sight of his dead body. I was supposed to unload every bullet into his body, but I just wanted to stare…to treasure this moment as long as I could. His regime was over, and now I could get my life back.
I could get my husband back.
Other employees of the hotel came by to see the commotion, and when they saw the body, they immediately turned away, some of them throwing up because it was such a disgusting sight. People offered to call the police, but I told them I already had it taken care of.
I called Hades.
He answered after several rings, and he was in a cold mood. “What?”
He said he never wanted to talk to me again, never see me again. Only if it was important was I allowed to reach out to him. Judging by his response, he assumed this call was not important at all. “Come to the Tuscan Rose in Florence. I killed Maddox, and now I need to get rid of the body.”
There was such a pregnant pause over the line, like the calm before a storm. My words were so incredible that he probably didn’t know how to respond. And rightfully so. “Repeat what you said.”
“I killed Maddox. Meet me at the Tuscan Rose.” I couldn’t stop the smile from coming into my voice the second time I said those words. It was true… Maddox was dead. The thing keeping us apart was no longer a threat. We could finally have what we’d always wanted.
Instead of asking a million questions like he wanted to, he just obeyed my orders. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. Make sure he’s really dead.”
“Trust me. He’s gone.”
Hades burst through my office door in a t-shirt and jeans. Instead of looking at me and rushing to my side, he tilted his head down and stared at the body. He clearly needed more definitive evidence that it was really Maddox, because he grabbed a piece of paper and placed it over his hand so he could reposition Maddox’s body and get a look at what was left of his face.
He stared for a long time.
Seconds trickled by until a full minute had passed. Hades took in Maddox’s expression; his bright blue eyes were unmistakable. When he had the evidence he needed, Hades released his body and let him fall back to the floor.
He slowly rose to his feet and ran his fingers through his short hair, like he couldn’t believe that this moment was true. His greatest adversary was dead, and now he was a free man. He finally turned to me, his eyes open wide and his expression incredulous. “What the fuck happened?”
“I killed him.”
“Obviously. But how did this happen?”
I understood he was in shock, but I’d expected a different reaction. Once he’d confirmed Maddox was no more, I’d expected him to move into my arms and hug me tightly. I’d expected a deep kiss that celebrated our reunion. “I came to the hotel because I assumed he would follow me. When he walked in the door, I shot him.”
He placed his hands on his hips as he continued to stare at me in disbelief. “Just like that?”
“Yeah…just like that.”
His eyes widened. “I don’t understand…”
“I assumed if I came into the city, he would confront me…because he’s an asshole like that. He enjoyed hurting me, enjoyed scaring me. I moved to another city because I couldn’t stand being anywhere near him. I assumed he would take advantage of the fact that I was alone here. So, I had my gun in my pocket, and when he walked in, I shot him.” I pulled the gun out of my jacket pocket and clicked on the safety. I set it on top of the desk and looked at him again.