Page 47 of Tyrant

Zale reaches down into his boot, and I smother a scream as he pulls out a wicked blade. Bile bites the back of my throat. I need to bend over and empty my stomach, heave, scream, but I stand there like a shell, doing nothing, saying nothing, barely even breathing. The only strength in me is in my arms, which arelatched tightly around my daughter who’s now awake and rigid with fear.

“But as for letting them go, I fully intend to.” Zale’s sharp, green eyed gaze lands directly on me. His eyes are furious and burning so bright they’re unnatural. There is none of the kindness and warmth that have always been in Gray. “Lark can run straight to her brother and tell him everything. Tell him how his best friend fucked his sister behind his back and knocked her up.” I let out a choked cry, which seems to satisfy the monster because he turns back to his son. “She can tell her brother that instead of putting a bullet in my head, you let me go free. You think your club will care what happens to you, when they find out how all this time you’ve lied to them? You broke every promise. If they wanted me dead, they’ll want you doubly so. Don’t worry, I’ll send them a message and be sure to tell them where to find you when we’re finished with you. Since you spared me once, I’ll do you the same courtesy, though you might not thank me for it.”

“You think you’re the kind of man who deserves to lead anything? You’re insane. You’re full of bitterness and hatred.”

Zale’s sneer is oily and black. Blacker than the darkest night. “The apple doesn’t fall far as it would turn out.”

“No. There’s a difference between you and me.”

“Certainly. You’re soft and pathetic. You knew that letting me go was a mistake, but you did it anyway. You must have known that I’d come back, but you carried on here, building your little empire thinking you were untouchable, and now I’m here to take it all away from you.”

“I might be soft, but you’re a coward. You always have been, beneath that mean exterior.”

Zale’s brows crash down dangerously, and he runs his thumb along the blade menacingly. “I’m going to take everything away from you. Your ability to give orders and to lead. Your club and all your brothers will turn their backs on you. I’m going to tear down this life you built for yourself. It was never rightfully yours.”

I gasp and Gray turns and looks right at me. I believe that Zale is going to let us go. He’s mad with the lust for vengeance and power, but he’s never been the kind of man who makes war on women and children.

“Whatever happens, Lark, I love you,” Gray swears.

The men at Gray’s side clamp down hard, and another, steps forward. The third wrenches Gray’s hand away from his side. This time, Gray fights. He thrashes and gets an arm free, swinging and landing a blow, but then more are on him. More of those demons. I scream as my knees give out, finally realizing how Zale intends to take Gray’s ability to lead away from him.

My cry sets off Penny, who lets out a shrill wail over my own panic. I hold her close, screaming, the sound echoing through the night, ripped from the depths of me. I keep her face turned, I won’t let her see what I’m seeing.

Zale’s blade glinting in the night. A swift flash, a cry of agony, and then Gray is on the grass, blood pouring from his hand, grasping and clawing at the ground, writhing in shock and pain. I realize that it’s not his hand.

It’s not his hand.

I can still see them both attached to his body.

Still. I can’t stop screaming. I’m wild, a banshee, a ghost, a spirit of a dead thing trapped in my living body. My daughteris wailing, thrashing against my arms that hold her tight. I’m scaring her senseless, but I can’t stop. I’m out of my mind with horror at the violence.

Zale walks over and throws something dark and wet onto the grass beside me.

“Take that with you, girl. Tell your brother that Zale Grand is back and that Satan’s Angels belong to him.”

He stands above me, evil personified. I need Gray. I need to get to him. I can’t. Zale’s men are already lifting him, taking him writhing and groaning, to the back of the truck. I realize now there are other men back there. One of them bends over Gray. He seems to be assessing the damage. Zale promised he’d keep Gray alive.

Penny has given up thrashing and has gone still at the sound of me being sick. So utterly still. She didn’t see anything that happened here, but she heard it. she heard her father screaming in agony. She heard my heart wrenching screams. She smelled the blood. Zale Grand tainted her with his evil and he will pay.

I make that silent vow as I get to my feet, my mouth foul, my arms aching with the weight of my daughter. Her small hands close around my neck, locking there tight.

“Mama?” Her tiny little whisper tears what’s left of my heart out of my body.

It turns out when you’ve lived through the worst thing you could ever imagine, you don’t have to find the strength inside of you. It wrenches it out of you with astounding violence. I’m not the woman I was at the start of this night. I’ll never be thatversion of Lark again. I’m someone else now. Someone burning with the need to spill blood.

Zale Grand’s.

I think about the gun in the car, but I know that I can’t get there. I would never put Penny at risk like that, even if I could reach it and somehow fire a bullet straight into my lover’s father.

Zale’s attention turns from his son, back to the farmhouse. “First rule of a road trip is always come prepared. Luckily, we brought extra gas.”

His men circle the house, jerrycans in hand. I’m a silent, raging statue as I watch them douse the porch. It’s Zale who lights the match. He won’t let anyone else torch his son’s life. He has to have the honor.

The farmhouse is old, the wood dry, but even if it was brand new, it wouldn’t stand a chance against the instant rushing blaze.

Zale doesn’t spare more than a glance for the lives he just ruined. He stalks back to the truck with his men. They load themselves into the box. He gets into the passenger side of the cab and the black pickup purrs out of the yard, as silently as it entered.

I’m left here with Penny, with the ruins and the fire, the blood and the vomit. I turn my head to the uncaring stars above, witnesses to the atrocity man can commit against one another, and I make a vow that Zale Grand will die by my own hand.

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