Page 1 of Peaceful Chaos

Fall Out

Sin

Five dead bodies.Five people who walked into Ford’s gym breathing, now lie scattered on the floor like broken dolls. Most people would say one dead body is too much, but most of those people haven’t met Jesse Wilson. Even with the changes Raven is bringing out in me, I still can’t find it in me to mourn for the loss of a rapist. The others didn’t deserve this ending though, especially not Natalie and Tessa.

I've killed without remorse. From the time I was a child I've stood on the other end of a gun and dealt the retribution Damien demanded, but I've never killed with such recklessness. Not once have I left behind a scene like this. It only took minutes for Damien to end three lives and order the death of two innocent women. Perhaps that's the part that cuts me, the waste of it all.

I don't regret pushing Damien to end Jesse’s life, but without him I can't say his two friends wouldn't have followed a different path. Given time and space, they may have become, if not decent people, at least not evil ones. Now they'll never have the chance to discover what they could have been.

Then there's Natalie; a missing daughter, a slave, a mother, a woman who never had a chance. Raven and Lucien will never get to know the mother who was so cruelly taken from them, twice. Her daughter will grow up in a much darker world without the light she so clearly shined. I see it every day beaming from Raven. It certainly isn't a trait she got from her father.

Lucien wraps his arms around Raven, and the two of them stand silent in their grief, mourning a mother they'll never get the chance to know. For once, I'm not jealous letting someone else comfort her. This pain is theirs, and no one else can understand it the way they can.

Ford's knees buckle, and Shane rushes to wrap his arms around his friend. Silent sobs shake his large body. No matter the deterioration of his relationship with Tessa, there was love there once. Shane continues to hold him as he breaks in front of our eyes. He'll spend the rest of his life asking himself if there was anything he could have done to save her.

Grant Holbrook watches me warily, knowing if Raven weren't here I'd be adding his blood to the gallons congealing under our feet. His turn will come. I might have made some serious miscalculations tonight, but I learn from my mistakes.

Agent Brett Marks walks into the room and freezes. "Fuck," he mutters.

I glare at him. "Mass murder wasn't part of the plan?"

"Get them back to the house and sit on them until I get there," Holbrook orders his partner.

Ford's head snaps up, and he starts to pull away from Shane. Ted moves to help him hold Ford from going after Holbrook.

"We aren't going anywhere with any of you," Lucien growls and moves Raven to stand behind him.

Holbrook narrows his eyes at him, and the vein in his head starts to throb. "Do you think this is a fucking game? You all thought you'd take down the biggest criminal organization in North America on your own? You're a bunch of children playing grown up, and right now I want you out of my fucking sight so I can do my goddamn job!"

"Your job?" Ford's voice is low and eerily calm. "I didn't realize the federal government was in the business of murdering innocent women."

Holbrook ignores him and addresses Marks once more. "Now, Brett. I don't have time to deal with them."

My fists clench at my sides. Never in all my life, even the years I was a slave, have I ever felt as helpless as I do at this moment. "We're the problem? It isn't that you sold your soul to the devil? Because that's who Damien is, and he owns you now."

He points at the lifeless body of Jesse Wilson. "You accuse me of having blood on my hands? You pushed Damien to put a bullet in that boy. He's dead because you manipulated Damien into seeing him as a threat. Without your pushing he might have let him live."

"Jesse was dead the moment he went after Raven. I kept telling you that, and each time you dismissed me."

"I was wrong about you. I thought you were redeemable, but you're every bit the monster you fear yourself to be."

Raven slips around her brother before he realizes she's moving. Her hand lashes out and strikes Holbrook across the face. "Don't you dare judge him. It seems there's only one monster here, and I'm looking at him. Do your job? If you had done your fucking job in the first place, like you'd promised, Jesse would have been behind bars when he came after me the first time. You dare lash out at my husband for protecting me when you didn't? Fuck all the way off!"

A flicker of remorse crosses his face, but it's too little too late. Jesse was a threat to Raven, and there was no turning away from that. It's a tragedy, but a necessary one. Holbrook should take note, anyone who comes after one of mine will end up as worm food.

Marks's radio crackles to life. "All clear."

"He's gone," Holbrook says, though it's unclear who he's speaking to. We all saw Damien leave, and after that exit he's unlikely to change his mind and come back to kill us now.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Tessa's hand twitch. "That fucking hurt, asshole," Tessa groans and rolls to her side.

Natalie starts to cough. "That's not how I pictured our reunion."

Raven gasps, and Ford rushes to Tessa. This time Shane lets him go.

Holbrook rubs the tension from the center of his forehead. "You really need to work on your trust issues. After everything I've done for you, still you don't trust me," he says to me.

"Get them out of here, Brett. I've got to get all the evidence processed from the scene as quietly as possible. Tessa and Natalie have to disappear."

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