Page 30 of Mine, Forever

“Come on, Eb…” He came for me, but I stepped back out of his reach.

“You don’t call me that.”

“That’s your name, darlin’.”

“Ebony is my name. You can call me Ebony.”

“Okay,” he said, sighing. “Ebony, come on. Your mother is looking for you.”

Something in me snapped at hearing my mother was waiting for me. She’d never waited on me, ever. It had been the one thing I’d always wanted, for my mother to care enough to look out for me. I didn’t want to be in this room full of people pretending to love me because I was unfortunate enough to be related to Giordy.

I wheeled around grabbing Jett’s gun from its holster and shot at the room. People were diving for cover as I took aim and shot at people left, right, and center. Giordy took off, knowing he was going to cop it if I caught up to him. Everyone was scrambling for their guns to shoot me, but I was too quick. Don’t ask me how I learned to shoot with such deadly accuracy, but fuck, it easily came and was more efficient than strangling. I shifted throughout the restaurant, shooting at anyone I saw moving. Soon, it was a floor buried underneath a sea of bodies and blood pooling everywhere.

I felt laughter bubbling to the surface as I looked for the weasel Giordy. I didn’t need witnesses, especially the fuckhead who had destroyed me as a child. Giordy was running from me, tripping over tables and chairs trying to get to the back door. I blocked it, and he was forced up against a wall. He had tears running down his cheeks because he knew I was going to fuck him over. He was aware that I was going to end his miserable existence.

Why?

Because he let those things happen to me as a teen. He let me become what I was, and now he was going to exploit me to hurt Jett. And that was enough for me to want to kill him. I smiled as he realized he was a sitting duck, and felt Jett come up behind me to watch. As I edged closer to him, I saw him whimper, falling to his ass against the wall.

“Please… Ebony, I’ll do anything you ask. Please,” he begged me like the coward he was. That was the difference between Jett and Giordy, other than having something to stand for, Jett didn’t care if he died.

He was carefree and ruthless, which was exactly what I wanted to be.

“Jett is the one who did this to you. He’s the one who stole you from your loving family.”

“Jett showed me the truth. He awakened me.”

Looking down at Giordy’s pants I saw a wet patch spreading across his crotch and down his pant leg. “Jesus! Did you just piss yourself, you sorry piece of shit?”

He whimpered again holding his hand up to block the bullet. I pulled the trigger, sending a shot straight through Giordy’s hand and through his head, splattering his brain and skull all over the wallpaper behind him. His body flopped to the side hitting the ground with a sickening thump.

Oddly, I felt relieved once it was done. The hand holding the gun fell to my side, and I took in a deep breath, surveying the damage I’d wrought upon the family that had failed me.

A scream sounded from behind me. I spun, aiming the gun at my mother.

She didn’t move, her eyes wide as she looked at me.

Without thinking, I raised the gun and pulled the trigger watching as she dropped to the ground with a thump. It wouldn’t kill her, but it was enough to wound her so she wouldn’t come looking for me. I was no longer her daughter, which I guess played right into her hands. After all, it was what she wanted all along.

Looking around the restaurant, I took count of all the bodies.

Twelve.

Jett was in front of me. I looked up at him but didn’t say a word. I couldn’t read the expression on his face. He was a master at hiding his emotions which is what I wanted to become—an enigma. Handing him back his gun, he holstered it as a smirk appeared.

“Feel better?”

Smiling, I walked past him out to the car where I slid into the back seat and waited for the next step in my new life. Would Jett take me into his organization now that I’d done something none of his men had been able to do or would he sell me out?

Whatever the answer, it couldn’t be worse than going back to Serenity or what was left of my family.

York cleared his throat, interrupting my train of thought. “Welcome to the organization, Ebony.”

JETT

I looked around the restaurant with what I could only imagine was an impressed, smug look on my face. Ebony had done what I’d wanted to accomplish for the past year in just a few minutes. She’d been ruthless with no hesitation whatsoever. She hadn’t killed her mother, but that was okay. I knew Adora-Lee from earlier years, and I felt no regret for harming her. She was a grade-A bitch. She had too much riding on her model-daughters’ careers to do anything to me. I’d promised to check up on her in a few days which had rattled her far more than her daughter shooting her.

Pulling out my cell, I dialed my clean-up crew. This would fall back on me which I honestly didn’t care about—I just couldn’t let this get to Ebony. York had taken her back to my apartment while I dealt with the mess, but damn was I happy to do it. Giordy was fucking dead, and this city was mine once and for all.

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