Page 90 of His Reluctant Savior

“Take him up to his bedroom and put him in the tub. I’ll bring up some water.”

Sully did as he was told as I turned to face Dalton. “Stay down here, Boy Scout. Just because you’re a part of my life now doesn’t mean you have to face death.”

I expected him to argue, but instead, he hugged himself and nodded, looking down at his feet. “Does it make me a coward? I wanted him to pay, but…”

I pulled him against me, and he wrapped his arms around me. “Not wanting to be a killer doesn’t make you a coward.”

“I’m still complicit.”

“You are,” I said, because there was no point in sugarcoating it.

“But I don’t want to see it either. I thought I did, but now that I’m here…”

“It’s okay. Sully and I will handle the dirty work. Why don’t you go back to the car? We’ll be out soon, then we can face Rush together.”

“Okay.”

I lifted his chin to look at me before I pressed my lips to his, giving him a kiss I wanted to deepen but didn’t. We had a job to do. “Go on now.”

After I handed him the keys to my car, he walked off, and I headed upstairs to watch Wesley Mardsen sign his life away, literally and figuratively.

Like Mardsen, Rush cried like a fucking baby, though he held himself together longer than Mardsen did. In the end, they were both gone by their own hands. Their reputations were ruined, and their families would suffer from the aftermath, but in the end, the men made their own choices. Their actions caused all this.

We framed Derrick Meckes with the murder of Evelyn Vega, playing it off as a lover’s quarrel. I fucking hated that part. Evelyn deserved so much more. But Sid convincedme that in the end, I still lived and had something to look forward to, and the lie protected me from discovery.

Surprisingly, after his arrest, Derrick kept quiet about what he knew. He probably sensed his own demise should he speak out, knowing those closely involved had died or had been ruined. Despite the suicides, he would see them as suspicious.

Congressman Fines’ car went out of control while he’d been drinking and crashed his car over the edge into the Potomac River off George Washington Parkway, dropping about fifty feet. He died on impact. We had Layla wipe his computer clean of all evidence tied to that video.

In fact, all traces of the video had been destroyed where we could find them, along with my evidence. There might have been others floating around, but we couldn’t do much about that until a copy surfaced, if ever. There was only one copy left, and that was in the hands of The District to be used as collateral if we needed it.

We didn’t bring to an end a sex trafficking ring, but we gave justice to one young woman who held no power and no one cared about but us. And those men would no longer represent the American people.

The government was thrown into chaos, and the American people were shocked at the suicides of Rush and Mardsen. The news and other media outlets had a lot of commentary and opinions as to the timing of their deaths, and conspiracy theories went rampant. They even tried to tie the death of Congressman Fines to the suicides, but they would find nothing. Veil and Layla would keep track of anything potentially leading back to us or anyone making accurate connections.

Justin Patel from CloutFox ran from the United States and went into hiding in an unknown country. The U.S. would eventually find him and he’d be extradited home for trial for pedophilia. He could hide for as long as his money held out, or people got tired of protecting him. In the end, he was finished.

Meanwhile, Devon Mercer lost everything. Once his company suffered, his stock crashed, and people sold off all their shares from Oilvo. There were talks about selling the company for cheap, not wanting to lose out on oil and gas production. If it did and he recouped his money, we would find other ways to make Mercer’s life a living hell.

Even better? Once the money vanished, so did The Brotherhood. There was no point in working a job if they wouldn’t get paid or the contract was null.

One month later

“Why do I feel like we didn’t make the world a better place after all this?” I asked after turning off the news and resting my head on Sid’s lap on the couch in his condo.

He dragged gentle fingers through my hair, with his other arm draped over the back of the couch, holding his tumbler full of bourbon, looking down at me. “I know it seems like we didn’t do enough. Get rid of one bad guy, and another crops up. Plus, it’s not what you hoped for. They didn’t get prison time or call out to the world what they truly were. But think of it this way… Rubi can rest in peace. We not only got rid of a rapist and pedophile, but we stopped a corrupt leader in the DOJ and a corrupt congressman. I think we did a pretty good job, if you ask me. Did the world learn of their sins? No. But they can’t hurt anyone else again, especially you, Boy Scout. In the end, you are family. You are mine. I protect what is mine with my life. I will do whatever it takes.”

I reached for his face, pressed my palm to his cheek, and smirked. “Whateverit takes? Hmm, should we test that theory?”

His brows dropped, and his blue eyes gleamed and sparkled from the dim lighting of the lamps. “Theory?! Fact, Boy Scout. It’s a fact.”

“Prove. It.”

He set his glass on the end table. “Oh, you’re asking for it.”

I huffed at him. “Promises, promises, but I don’t see any action happening. Typical.”

I swore I just blinked, and suddenly, I was face down on the couch with him pressed against me and my arm twisted behind my back. “Testing me, are we? Are you sure you want to test me? I may just fuck you raw right here, and my cock is dying to be inside you again. It’s been too fucking long, Boy Scout.”

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