I thought the events of the past week had hardened me to violence, so it surprised me when my chin quivered. Vengeance took my salvation, but apparently, a conscience still resided somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind. Maybe that was one thing he hadn’t killed. Maybe that was the last shred of humanity I could hold onto as I burned in hell for the path I'd walked.
I would’ve done anything for him. He’d held me in his arms and promised to protect me.
I didn’t bother to stop the lone tear as it rolled across my nose and fell onto my bottom lip, pausing briefly before tumbling down my chin. “I love you too,” I whispered as I unloaded the gun, my mask slipping as he stumbled.
It’s funny how sometimes the people you’d give your life for are the ones who take it.
My breath came in shallow spurts as my hand shook. The last thing I remembered was kneeling, my eyes landing on my father, standing fifteen feet away from me with his shoulder turned toward the wall.
The part where I reached for the gun tucked in my thigh holster was a complete blur.
My father staggered against the wall, grabbing his chest with both hands, gritting his teeth as if in severe pain. “Edie! Oh, Jesus…why…?”
Coming down from the shock of pulling the trigger on my flesh and blood, a curtain fell over my emotions. No longer did the same heart beat between us. My own father sold me and Nash out to save his own ass. Val was right all along.
“You can stop the theatrics now, old man. I missed.”
Opening one eye, he glanced down, and realizing no blood stained his shirt, he sighed. “Thank God…oh, sweet mercies.”
“No,” I said, frowning as I shrugged one shoulder. “Not God. Thank bad aim. If you’d had a can sitting on your head, I would’ve blown your dick off.”
“Edie?” Taking a cautious step forward, he tilted his head as if seeing me for the first time. “What’s happened to you?”
“I’m an orphan, you son of a bitch.”
“No.” He patted his chest as if that made things all better. “I’m here. We still have each other.”
My arm extended, and he froze mid-step as I aimed the gun at his chest again. “You’re dead to me.” A laugh erupted, ending in a wet cough that burned my chest. “You know what’s pathetic,Dad? I’ve been held captive by a man you made me a living beacon for, then warned me to stay away from.”
Tears filled his weathered eyes. “Baby, I—”
“But you know what the most fucked up part is,Dad?” I interrupted, biting down on his name as if saying the word caused me physical pain. “Val Carrera has been the only man in my whole life besides Nash who has cared more about me than himself.”
“Oh, Edie…you didn’t…
“Sleep with him? Is that what you want to ask me,Dad? Did I follow my usual open-leg policy and lay down with the enemy?” I smiled, the thought of our last morning together outside his house in Monterrey filling my mind. “You’re damn right I did—over and over again.”
In an instant, my father’s face hardened, and his eyes frosted with an icy glaze. “Well, I guess once a whore always a whore.”
Shifting slightly to the right, I pulled the trigger again. My father let out a blood-curdling scream that had me rolling my eyes. “Will you please shut up?”
“You shot me again! My own daughter!”
“I didn’t shoot you. I shotatyou.” Shaking my head, I sighed at my own ineptitude and conscience. “For all you are, and the father you aren’t, for some fucked up reason, I still can’t kill you.”
A commotion up the stairs pulled my attention away from my father and toward the door. With a slew of obscenities, Manuel Muñoz flew down the stairs, an entourage of men clamoring behind him. In the middle of him, Marisol stood sandwiched, a gun tucked in her perfectly manicured hand.
I backed up as fast as I could, but with broken ribs and a sprained ankle from the tumble down the stairs, Manuel easily caught up with me, jerking the gun out of my hand and grabbing me in a choke hold. “Where the fuck did you get a gun,puta?”
Clawing at his arm, I fought for air. “I... I…can’t…”
“Let her go!”
Unable to turn my head, I rolled my eyes to the side as my father’s clenched fists charged toward Manuel. I tried to shake my head and warn him to stay where he was.
“What the hell do you care, Lachey? She’s been down here using you for a target practice.”
“I’m warning you, Muñoz, take your hands off my daughter, or—”
