Page 62 of Vengeful Rotten Casualties

LUC

Water sloshesagainst the inside of the tub as Micki adjusts herself, and the level rises as she sinks right into my lap, sidling up against my chest just the way she should. I lean down and inhale her scent. Even covered in sex, it’s fucking heady. Hell, probably even more sobecauseof the sex. She seems so much smaller this way, situated right between my legs, her back to my chest. Micki’s not a tiny woman. She’s taller than average with curvy hips and tits that fit perfectly in my hands. But against me, she feels fragile.

The reality is, though, that she’s not glass. She’s a diamond and I am the rock that surrounds her. At least, I want to be.

I drop my head, letting the wet strands of my hair fall over her shoulder as I press my forehead against her and breathe in her scent.

My body still sizzles with the electric feeling of the sex we just had. For several long moments, though, neither of us says a word. It’s as if a secret sensation has stolen between us, a silent reverie that neither of us wants to break. The only sound that echoes against the tiles of the bathroom walls is that of our breathing and the sloshing water that reacts to our every movement.

“I’m not going to kill him.” Micki’s words end that much needed silence and I lift my head, curving my arms around her.

“What do you mean?” I ask. “I thought that was your plan.”

“It is,” she agrees, slipping her hand over the top layer of water—gathering bubbles along the way. “But I don’t want to physically kill him—not yet, at least. Killing him would be too easy.”

I withhold a scoff. I don’t know what she could be thinking—she’s as enigmatic to me as the secrets of the universe. The very idea that my father would be easily killed is ridiculous, though. I must make some sort of sound, because her head turns and she glances back at me.

“I know you don’t think so. I’m not talking about theactof killing him,” she tells me. “Just ending his life would be too merciful.”

“You could make him suffer,” I offer. “Then kill him.”

“Oh, I plan to,” she replies. “Hewillsuffer.”

I frown and tighten my hold around her middle. Her skin is warm beneath the water. Right against mine, even when her mind is so far away. “What do you mean, then?” There’s still too much that I don’t know about her plans, and if we’re going to move forward after tonight, then I’ll need to know. I need to know everything. More than what she’s already told me.

“It doesn’t feel right to just … end him.” Her voice takes on a breathy quality, sounding as if it’s stretching over a long distance, as if she’s being carried away even while she lies in my arms. “If I just wanted to kill the man responsible for everything I’ve been through for the past five years, then I would’ve come back the second I was free.”

“Why didn’t you?”

She turns back around and blows bubbles off of her arm as she speaks. “Because I want this world to be safer when I leave it than it was when I entered it.” Silence hangs heavy in the air and then she leans forward, her back leaving my chest as she gathers up more bubbles. “I want to erase each of them from existence—the worst of the worst. I’ve carefully laid my traps. I’ve cut them down, little by little. For Thomas, I want him to see it coming.” She grips a puffy cloud of bubbles in her fingers and crushes them until they explode upward. “I want him to see it coming—to seemecoming. I want him to get nervous. To fear me.”

“Even if he does see you coming, I doubt he’d regret what he’s done.” I hate to tell her that, but it’s the truth. I know my father well enough to know that he regrets none of the shit he’s done. Gently, I urge her to rest back against me once more. “It’s not enough to physically hurt him.” If it was, I would’ve done it long ago.

Hell, I did do it—when I realized what he’d done. When Micki disappeared from my life, I’d attacked him and managed to get at least one good damn punch in before his bodyguards had yanked me away and restrained me. He’d merely looked down on me as he’d wiped the blood from his lip and told me that I needed to learn to choose my partners wisely. As if it wasmyfault that he’d taken her. As if it was my fault that she’d been shoved into the dark, depraved world of the filthy elite.

Sometimes, I think maybe itismy fault.

“You’re right,” Micki agrees. “That’s why I’m taking everything else first.”

“You’re taking everything else?” I repeat her words, not understanding.

Micki is quiet, her body growing increasingly colder as if the warmth from before is being leached out. She doesn’t move or even react as I rub my hands down her arms. I try to soothe her, but it’s as if she’s not here anymore with me. It scares the shit out of me. It makes me want to turn her to face me, to shake her back into existence for fear that she’ll fade away right in my arms.

When she does speak, it’s with a low voice. One full of something I’ve never heard from her. Icy rage drips from each word. “I’m going to fucking ruin him.”

I close my arms around her, my body curving over her until she’s surrounded by me. I kiss the side of her neck, opening my lips, and sink my teeth into the soft flesh there. She arches automatically. When I release her, I answer her claim.

“Weare going to ruin him,” I clarify.

As if that breaks the strange spell that fell over her, the tension leaks away once more and she relaxes against me, meeting my touch with some of her own. Her hand finds mine, turning over as our fingers intertwine.

“He’s going to tell the world what he did,” she says. “I’m going to force him to. He won’t have a choice. The evidence I’ve collected will blow it wide open.”

I see, now, what she means. She doesn’t want to just kill my father. To steal his life. No. She wants to destroy his image. His reputation. The only thing he cares about. She’s going to take the gilded life he lives and turn it into a cage and wreck him from the inside out, using his own actions against him.

“I want to look into his face when he realizes there’s no coming back,” she tells me, her words shaking with emotion. Her hand tightens on mine, nails digging into the backs of my knuckles. “I want to see him when everything falls apart around him. I want him to fuckingburn, Luc.”

She wants to light the fire and let it consume him. A wrathful queen hell-bent on revenge. Cold. Callous. Beautiful.

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