Romero didn’t hesitate as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in tight.“Thank fuck,” he murmured clutching her even tighter before pulling back.“Alright, fine, as long as you’re safe.We’ll talk about your clearly injured ankle later though.Now, what else did we miss?”
“Pretty much everything,” Jason answered for him.
“Fuck!Really?”Derick asked, sounding deeply disappointed.“We missed all the action?”
“Afraid so.Glad to see you’re both alive though.What happened?”
Romero sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck.“Someone tampered with the trucks at the warehouse.Explosives were connected to the ignition systems.Thankfully, Derick hit the remote start first but we were still standing too close to the blast zone.”
“Well, that explains a lot,” Jason said, almost sounding relieved.
“We got here as fast as we could, but shortly after bypassing the house, a fucking grenade went off right in front of us and I ended up swerving the car into the damn house,” Romero continued.
“Yeah, that might be a little bit of my fault,” I admitted sheepishly.“I pulled the pin while the grenade was still attached to Matt’s belt and then he threw it outside.”
“Well, shit, I hope we didn’t hurt you guys.We were aiming for Matt,” Romero added.
“Kayla got it the worst, but at least neither of us got knocked out for the last hour like the two of you clearly did.”
“An hour?Damn, that impact knocked us both out good,” Derick said as he shook his head.
I nodded in agreement as Jason turned and tilted his head as he listened in on whatever communication he was receiving through his earpiece.Derick and Romero seemed to do the same.
“Roger that,” Jason said, then turned back to me.“The house has been cleared, and the area has been secured.The teams are moving out, so we need to go.”
“Alright, let’s get moving,” Romero said as he helped Kayla maneuver around the Hummer toward another makeshift exit into the back yard.
I nodded in agreement.“Yeah, I just need to take care of one more thing.Do you have a lighter on you?”
Jason reached into his pocket and held out a silver Zippo to me.Taking the lighter, I moved back into what was left of the kitchen and began to turn on all the burners on the gas stoves.I then grabbed the only intact bottle of whisky left I could find from one of the liquor cabinets and made my way back over to Darren’s body.
After drenching him with half the bottle, I took a long swig for myself, then flipped the lighter open.The bitter taste of the whisky stung my bleeding gums as I stared down at the man one final time.I needed to reinforce the picture into my memory so that when I eventually dreamed of him, I would remember the truth.
He was gone.And I was free.
Flicking the Zippo to life, I leaned down and spit the alcohol out in a strong spray at the little open flame.A wild blaze of fury and vindication ignited from my mouth, the surging inferno engulfing Darren’s body in the roaring fire I had longed to torch him with since the day I met him.The very breath from my lungs now carried with it a blistering storm of acid and rage, burning away the rotting source of my anguish and relentless subjugation.
I was the dragon now.And he was nothing.
“Goodbye, Darren Davis,” I whispered under my breath, then turned away from him for the final time, but just as I did, I looked down and noticed the knife he had pulled from his leg.
Bending low, I reached out and snatched the knife from the floor, gripping it tightly in my hand.His blood coated over half of the blade, and it had already started to dry on it.It was his knife, one I’d seen him use multiple times, particularly to slice off ears.He never gave me back my butterfly knife after I had stabbed him with it, so this seemed like a fair trade.
“You ready to get the fuck out of here?”Jason asked as I approached him.
I exhaled the biggest agreement of my life.“Absolutely.”
And just like that, we walked right out the fucking door into the world and made our way toward the shore, where another boat I hadn’t seen before was waiting for us.Once we were all settled on the boat with Kayla and several more of Jason’s teammates and a lifejacket secured around Camaro, I turned back to look at the house that had been my cage for nearly four years.And smiled as it suddenly burst into flames.
It really was finally over.
I could breathe again.
As the boat pulled away from the shore, I watched the house crumble, collapsing in on itself into a giant heap of rubble.I watched until the scene shrank into a tiny speck in the distance, and when my heart was finally calm again, I turned back around to face a future that was now officially mine to decide.
And I decided I wasn’t done just yet.
EPILOGUE ONE