Page 57 of Blade

As I come down the steps, I see everyone is here as I expected. Looking over to Pyro, I see he’s hanging from the ceiling in just his briefs, and he looks like he’s had better days. His face is swollen with a few bruises and cuts. I guess a few of the guys came down to warm him up over the past few days.

Viper steps up and smirks as Pyro hangs his head in defeat. “Where are the rest of your men, Pyro? There were six of you who escaped that night at the warehouse, and you only had two men with you.”

I guess Pyro doesn’t want to bring on more torture because he doesn’t even hesitate to answer. “They disappeared when I talked about coming back. Z and Troy were the only ones who stayed loyal.”

“And look where that got them.” Cara snickers from the table.

Viper chuckles and cracks his neck before looking over to a frightened Layla. “Tonight, you will watch what we do to your brother. You will die knowing all this could have been avoided if you had just walked away. But I want to know one thing. Why take Maria? She was innocent in all this.”

Layla frowns and huffs. “She was not innocent. This was all her fault. She ratted me out and caused me to lose my job!” she snarls.

This girl is completely crazy. She lost her job because she was out partying, calling out at the last minute, and leaving the diner short staffed. She was warned and still continued to pull her stunts. If anybody is responsible for losing her job, it’s her.

“I don’t have the energy to try and level her crazy. Bear, have your fun.”

Bear steps forward with a menacing smile. He’s definitely going to enjoy this. Last year when Pyro issued the shootout at the clubhouse, Bear took a bullet and almost lost his life. We didn’t know at the time, but Sara was pregnant. If he had died, he would have left behind two daughters and his newlywed wife. He has some serious payback to issue tonight.

“Wait, please. We’re sorry, okay. We’ll never bother you again. Just please let us go,” Layla pleads.

Viper turns to look at her over his shoulder. “It’s too late for that. Everyone has a choice, and you chose to wage a war over a fuckin’ job. Your choices led you here, so no amount of begging is going to stop what’s about to happen.”

Viper walks over and stands next to the table where Cara and Sara are seated. Cara pulls a bag of popcorn from behind her back and Bear barks out a laugh, shaking his head at her.

“I might not be able to participate because of my wrist, but Iwillenjoy the show. Make me proud, Yogi Bear.”

A few snickers go around the room and Bear rolls his eyes in annoyance at her nickname for him. Bear pulls out his knife and starts off light. He begins to remove all of Pyro’s fingernails and he screams in agony with each rip. Layla cries and pleads, but it falls on deaf ears.

Normally we wouldn’t go this hard on a woman, but she took great pleasure in starting this war, so she will see it to the end. Bear cuts Pyro’s boxers away, and he actually starts to piss himself. Bear looks up at him in disgust before grabbing a pair of gloves.

“Maria told us how you were bragging about raping my Prez’s Ol’ Lady the minute you got your hands on her,” Bear growls darkly before cutting off Pyro’s dick. Pyro screams and Layla sobs harder.

We all thought Maria would quit after being kidnapped, but she said she loved her job. She doesn’t blame us for what happened. She told us she knew we didn’t want this war and that Pyro and Layla were an evil that needed to be extinguished from this world.

Over the next few hours, we watch as Bear removes fingers, toes, eyelids, and everything in between. We witness Bear completely dissect Pyro’s body. Covered in blood, Bear took out his gun and put a bullet right between his eyes. Layla sobbed and whispered apologies to her deceased brother. Sara hopped down off the table, grabbed Bear’s gun, and ended her life.

Layla’s head hung and everyone looked relieved to have this chapter closed. Everyone headed out of the basement and Bear rushed up the stairs to his room to get clean.

Walking through the door, I hung my cut just as Bianca came flying out of our room. “Everything okay?” she asks.

Smiling down at her, I wrap her up in my arms. “It’s finally over.”

Epilogue

BIANCA

2 WEEKS LATER

Life has been pure bliss for me. Cam and I are planning our wedding, and life at the compound has calmed down from all the drama. We’ve been enjoying the last few weeks of summer before the kids go back to school. The girls still have one more year before they go off to Pre-K and the thought makes me teary-eyed at how much my girls have grown up.

Sofia leaves in a few days to get ready for her third year at Yale. Armor has been walking around, looking like someone kicked his puppy. He hates the distance, but he continues to support her, knowing this is only for a short time. Plus, Paul said since Sofia has been an outstanding student, keeping her grades at an A-plus average, he agreed to fly her out twice a month instead of her current one weekend a month. That definitely softened the blow to the anxious couple.

Today, we’re helping my mom officially move in with Smoke. He proposed last night, on top of making her his Ol’ Lady. I’ve never seen my mom happier in my life. Smoke adores my mom, and he loves her in a way that I could have only hoped for.

The guys wouldn’t let me help so I sat in the living room with my mom and Cam’s sisters, watching the guys move everything in. Paul and Crystal took the kids so they wouldn’t be in the way. No shocker there. When Crystal caught up to Cam and Torch, she marched right into the clubhouse, pinched their ears, and marched back out the door, taking them with her. The guys were howling with laughter.

“This is the last of it, Sweets. Where do you want it?” Smoke asks as he holds a box of clothes.

“The bedroom is fine, honey.”

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