“Give it to Uncle Roy!” Orson’s little boy, Timmy, starts bouncing the ball over to me, passing India, Sloane, Jade, and Storm’s girlfriend, Lisa. She might be a bigger nerd than Storm.
I scoop up the little man in my arms and bounce him on my knee, grinning up at Orson and Storm as Mom walks out to place crackers and drinks over the outdoor dining table. “Who’s your favorite uncle?”
Timmy looks to his father, back to me, and then to Storm. He comes back to me and points. I grin, pointing to myself. “Me?”
He lets out his infectious giggle, his little head leaning back to laugh. I tickle his tummy before setting him back to his feet where he runs off to play with Mom’s little rat dog.
“You’re good with kids, Roy,” Sloane teases, and I turn toward all of them where Jade is staring at me blankly.
“Shut up, Sloane.”
“Welcome,” she sasses, popping a carrot stick in her mouth while bringing her glasses down over her eyes. Careful who you fall in love with, every girl has a crazy best friend. And if she doesn’t? She is the crazy best friend.
“Come here,” I mouth to Jade, who shuffles around the table and takes a seat on my lap. She has that same vacant look in her eyes that she had while watching me with Timmy. I curl her legs over mine and bring my lips to her ear so only she can hear me. “Are you pregnant?”
Nine Months Later
Today is a good day to die if your name is Kyle Kane. Isaac came through around the seven-month mark and told me he needed more time with delivering Kyle. They managed to bring down two other large rings globally and have now started a force specifically to target trafficking. People think this only happens in third world countries, but it doesn’t.
Taking the steps down to the basement of Allure, I crank my neck sideways until all the tiny bones in it crack.
Wicked is behind me, with Lion close behind. It’s us. Us and Kyle Kane.
We all enter the room and I remove my MC cut, placing it onto the counter that’s on the other side of the room. Closing my eyes and counting to ten.
I find Lion and Wicked. “Ready?”
Wicked nods his head.
Lion smirks.
Wicked moves closer to Kyle, where he’s tied and seated on a single chair in the middle of the room. Kyle’s screams pierce the room as Wicked moves forward. I hit the sound dock that’s on the counter, connecting to my phone’s Bluetooth and cranking the sound up so loudly the angry metal of “Walk with Me in Hell” from Lamb of God electrifies the energy into the room. Leaning back on the counter, I watch as Wicked works his magic. The art with which Wicked kills isn’t for the fainthearted, but he’s not killing Kyle. He’s just making the final moments Kyle has breathing on this earth the most excruciating minutes he would ever feel. We settled on Wicked’s torture, Lion’s wrath, and my signature. Adrenaline pulses through my veins as I remain steady on the other side of the room, Wicked picking up a screw from a toolbox to the side of Kyle and bringing it to the front. He pulls out a hammer, and nails Kyle’s foot into the ground. The veins in Kyle’s neck pop out angrily, his flesh bright red. Wicked doesn’t stop. He continues to move around Kyle, hammering nails into all sides of his body. This is personal for Wicked. It’s personal for all of us.
I hit repeat on the song as Wicked finishes by removing each of Kyle’s teeth, blood spilling out over his mouth. He is under strict orders to not kill Kyle, that’s on me, so he’s had to work around death, make death feel like the endgame. Kyle isn’t so lucky.
Lion moves forward next once Wicked steps away, his eyes blank and teeth bared.
I smirk, taking a cigarette out of my pocket and lighting the end. Lion doesn’t fuck around, and excitement fills me when I feel how close I am to finally getting what I want.
What I’ve dreamed.
Lion’s take is simple. His knife goes between Kyle’s legs, cutting across roughly and slicing his balls and cock clean off. A cackle of laughter bursts out of me behind the screaming music, my head tilting back. Oh sweet fucking victory. Kyle’s head hunches over now, the pain clearly unbearable. I kick off the counter and take the steps I need to reach him.
Pulling my knife out of the back of my jeans, I flick it around my fingers, coming close to Kyle’s face, a cigarette hanging from my mouth. His eyes peel open softly, blood leaking from the edges. I will be the last thing he sees before he dies. Me. Bringing my knife below the bottom of his ear, I slowly slide the blade down his flesh and watch as it splits open, blood spilling from the wound. Continuing down unfazed, I take my cigarette out of my mouth with one hand, while dragging the tip of my blade down the whole half of his body. Over the middle of his palm, under his arms, over his ribs, down the side of his legs and continue all the way down around the top of his feet and up his inner thigh. Once I reach where Lion cut off his dick, I sink my blade over his raw wound over to his other thigh, down and tracing the same pattern I did on the other side until I’m near his ear. Blood and fluid spills out from him, but his eyes are still on mine, his mouth open and blood dripping out. He’s barely alive, and maybe under any other circumstances, he would be dead. Circumstances that wouldn’t involve Wicked using some sort of acupuncture to keep him alive for as long as possible.