Page 109 of Revenge

As my hand shook uncontrollably, I lowered the weapon as Gerard roared, his entire body shaking with fury. Kai caught my wrist and took the gun off me. I felt defeated, and my limbs felt like they were tied together with pieces of string.

My shoulders slumped, and I was only just aware that other men had entered the room from a door behind Henry and his colleague.

Lester and the men from the helicopter had guns pointing at the heads of Gerard’s men.

“About time,” I heard Sean grumble from his location.

Kai and his men now had complete control of the room and from the expression on Gerard’s face. He knew he was beaten.

“You, filthy whore,” he spat at me, the table between us pushed into my legs as he moved. “Just like your mother.”

A second wave of fury lit me up but before I could react, I saw Cillian take a step forward from the corner of my eye just as Kai lunged.

The sound of Kai’s fist as it rammed into his father’s face should have given me some comfort but it didn’t.

Kai had punched his father so hard, that his nose must have broken, blood oozed down his face as he fell back onto the sofa.

“Watch your mouth,” Kai growled, his body shaking as he glared down at the man he used to call father. Someone he thought he could respect.

Turning me to face him, Kai placed his hand under my chin and said, “Look at me, Ava. Not at the blood, OK.”

And that is when I realised that it hadn’t bothered me. I pulled my chin out of his hand and stared down a Gerard Kinlan. He was holding his face, his eyes watering down his cheeks. A broken man, at last.

And I felt nothing. No distress by the crimson mass that bubbled down his nostrils, no happiness or sadness and no sense of justice.

Just numb.

The next few minutes seemed to go in slow motion. Lester and Sean, directed Hamish and the two other men out the backway they had come in. That left just, Gerard, myself, Kai, and Cillian in the room.

As his father gripped his nose, his son leaned over him. Then Kai said those final words, “You are dead to me.” His voice was firm, revealing no cracks of emotion.

Gerard started to say something, again in that language so very different to my own.

As Kai tucked me into his side, I saw him exchange a look with Cillian.

I couldn’t be certain, but I thought I saw, Kai gave one single nod towards his man. Like they had a secret understanding.

As Kai led me from the room, holding me close, my tired body, aching. My limbs burning. When we got to the end of the corridor, he turned me in his arms.

Drawing my face up to his, Kai lowered his forehead onto mine, as he had done in his office.

“It’s over.”

And almost as if on cue. I heard one single gunshot coming from the room we had just left.

A thick silence fell between us.

Kai was right, it was finally over.

Gerard Kinlan was dead.

Seventeen

Ava

Sliding my legs off the bed, I sat up and reached for my phone which I’d left on the bedside table. I was still alone in Kai’s, or should I say our bedroom and must have fallen asleep on the bed.

It was close to midnight, where the hell was he? The ticks next to the WhatsApp message I had sent asking where he was remained unseen so I called him.

---