Page 44 of The Devil's Demise

My body feels it all, the past, the present. It’s all a swirl of an avalanche with me in the center.

“I see her head,” Doctor Andrews says. “Come on, Jade. Push!”

A scream rips out of me, Enzo’s voice reassuring me that I can do it. “You’re doing great, baby. She’s coming. She’s about to meet her mommy.”

My vision blurs, and with another groan, I feel as she enters the world. But when she cries, my entire body does too.

“Give her to me!” I shout, my voice crackling like a slow growing fire. “Please.” My voice lowers, my chin trembling.

The doctor looks up just then and lifts her in his arms. Once he places her on my chest, I burst into tears, sobbing as she lies there, her hand on my breast, her small body tucked over the safety of mine.

It’s the most magical feeling, and that fear I had, the one telling me she’s going to be taken away, it melts away into more love than I could ever imagine having for another child.

“Lauralyn Avery Cavaleri.” I tuck my palm over her tiny head, naming her after my mother Laura. “Welcome to the world, baby. You’re safe here. I promise.”

* * *

ENZO

THREE MONTHS LATER

There was no way I could ever comprehend what it meant to have a baby, but Lauralyn has taught me a lot in the last three months. Not all of it had to do with late-night bottle feedings or what to do when she won’t stop crying. She taught me patience. She taught me gratitude. But most of all, she taught me no matter how much you could love, there’s always room for more.

It feels like she’s always been here. That the world before her just simply didn’t exist. She lies across my chest, Jade sleeping soundlessly beside me, while Robby’s in school. Jade has been very overprotective of Lauralyn, and I understand why. I let her do whatever she needs to do to feel safe. Having our daughter now and imagining some fucking bastards taking her, hell, I’d want to burn down the whole damn world. I don’t know how she survived. She’s stronger than I could ever be.

I kiss the forehead of my tiny angel, her little lips open as she peacefully breathes. Could you stare at someone nonstop? Because I can.

Jade stirs beside me and I hope it’s not because she’s having a nightmare about the past. She hasn’t had one of those since before she got pregnant. Therapy has helped. Her job has too. Helping those women has helped her in return.

I’ve done all I could to make her feel safe, like finding the third man who hurt her when she worked for those fucking animals. I killed the other two while she watched, but this one—Sammy fucking Rio. I killed him myself a month later.

* * *

“Please, I’m sorry! If you let me go, I swear I’ll—I’ll disappear,” he frantically begs, fat tears pouring out his eyes as he sits in the basement of one of our hotels, zip ties around his legs and hands. Two knives stick out of him, one over each thigh.

“Yeah, you will.” I snicker, playing with the pliers in my hand, walking up to him, blood seeping out from the large gashes under both of his eyes. “Begging won’t help you. Nothing will. Not with me.” I dig the pliers under his chin so hard, I draw blood. “You’re gonna die painfully, and those kids of yours, that wife who doesn’t know who the hell she’s fucking, will never see you again.”

His sobbing is heavy as I grab his hand, edging the plier to his nail, and he instantly sits straighter. “Wha-what are you g-g-gonna do with— Ahhh!” Gradually, I peel the nail off, taking my sweet time as he continues to scream in terror.

“I’m gonna take everything from you. Because, see . . .” I toss the nail in the trash as Dante holds the man’s head steady, so he doesn’t continue to rattle the chair. “She’s not here, and I get to be as bad as I want to be.”

In a flash, I’m on him, punching his cheek, his hand in mine as I peel every single one of his nails. He screams louder, the ragged weight of his gasps growing heavier. I revel in his pain, remembering what he did to her.

“A baton? That’s what you did to her.” I rip another nail as he shouts in agony. “Tomygirl!” I pull off every single one until all ten are gone.

Raising the pliers to his neck, I shove it into his pulse, and with a jerk, I move them away, then jam it into his neck. Blood squirts out across my face.

“Ahhh! K-k-ki-kill me.”

“But I’m having too much fun.” I chuckle with a sinister tone.

Dom hands me a razor, a vicious snarl on his face. The razor lands on top of Sammy’s ear while I hold it between my fingers.

“No!” He shakes his head. “P-please. You—you can’t.”

“I can,” I grit. “And I will.” The slicing is quick, the knife too sharp. Then I’m holding his ear in my hand. I could barely recognize what he’s saying, the sniveling growing louder.

“You can give it but can’t fucking take it?” I round a punch to his nose, crimson gushing out.

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