Page 22 of Loathe

“You expect me to forgive you after everything you’ve done to me? To my mother? Even to some of my friends? The fact that you think I could even consider forgiving you shows me how stupid you truly are. You are so delusional, it’s pathetic,” I screamed at him as my emotions started taking over.

I needed to do it fast now. His staff would have heard the yelling, and I didn’t know their orders.

He stayed quiet as I stood before him with my mother’s gun pointed at his face. My hand shook with adrenaline, and I told myself to take a deep breath. I needed to aim true.

I took a moment to center myself before putting my thumb on the hammer and pulling back. The click of the metal echoed loudly in the quiet room and thoughts coursed through my mind.

“I loved you my whole childhood, even while you were being awful to me. I always hoped that you would change and be different, but I guess that wasn’t meant to be,” I said through gritted teeth, words coming fast. “Now, it’s time for you to pay for the things you’ve done. You better hope that Hell accepts you, because Heaven sure as hell won’t.” I quickly squeezed the trigger before I could change my mind.

As my finger pulled back on the trigger, my mind flashed to a memory of him holding my hand as we walked through the park and him pushing me on the swing while my mother laughed. While the memory played in my mind like a film strip, I wondered, for a split second, if I should feel guilty for what I had done. But as the memory faded and I remembered the hell he’d put me through, I realized I wasn’t obligated to feel anything for the monster anymore.

Truthfully, I never was.

I watched as the bullet drilled a hole in the middle of his forehead and his brain splattered against the white wall behind him. I dropped the gun and collapsed to the floor, trying my best not to throw up. Many different emotions started to swirl around inside me, but I tried to push them down. I didn’t want to feel anything when it came to him. I was glad the cocksucker was dead and couldn’t hurt anyone else.

My eyes filled with tears, and I blinked my eyes furiously to get them gone. I wasn’t going to let myself cry over him no matter what I had to do.

I didn’t have time to feel the emotions that were swarming inside me as I heard chaos erupt outside. My thoughts immediately turned to Cameron and I became afraid for him. I hunkered down beside the bed as I heard bullets ricocheting off the outside of the house and hoped that we’d all live to see tomorrow.

I tried not to think about what could happen to Cameron, because of me. He had to make it out okay, he just had to.

I stayed on the floor beside the bed and listened to the shots being fired and the screams of the ones who were being hit with the bullets. I prayed that none of them were Cameron as the barrage continued. Bullets kept flying and pinging all over the house, and I worried that they would end up coming through the wall and hit me. I stayed still on the floor beside the bed as my father’s blood and brain matter slid down the opposite wall and landed on the floor just a few feet from my head. I tried not to think about it as I felt my stomach roll like it hadn’t before.

“Don’t throw up,” I told myself as I laid there hoping that it would be over soon.

I looked behind the chair that I’d been sitting in and saw a pillow on the floor behind it, so I grabbed the pillow and held it over my head. I knew it wouldn’t do much good for protection against a stray bullet, but I knew it would keep me from looking at the carnage I had caused.

I laid there, listening to the guns go off and hoped that those I cared about were okay.

I knew that things were about to be different for me and that scared me. I wasn’t sure if being the head of a mafia chapter was what I really wanted, especially since it had once belonged to a monster. I didn’t want to be thought of that way. I knew I had a choice to make and not a lot of time to make it.

I heard more shots ring out then silence. I laid still and held my breath, listening for any sign that Cameron was okay. Tears filled my eyes as I thought about what it would be like to live without him, and that was not a reality I wanted in my future.

I told myself to stay calm as I heard footsteps coming down the hall. I hoped it was Cameron as I sat up and waited for the door to open. It was at this moment I realized that he was the man I truly wanted to be with and I hoped that he felt the same for me too. He’d helped me through so much and he hadn’t even realized it. The door opened, and he rushed to my side, pulling me into his arms.

A whimper of relief left my body.

I was safe. The monster was dead. I was free.

Chapter Twenty-One

Cameron

I listened intently to everything that was being said between Phoebe and the monster that had raised her. My body was tense and my nerves on edge as I waited for her to give me the signal that meant something was wrong. I was ready to handle business and honestly, I was hoping that he would do something so I could be the one to end his reign of terror. I listened as she stood up to him while dealing with the emotions that facing him had made her feel, and I felt so proud of her for the way she was handling it. I was unsure of whether she would have the strength to pull the trigger, so I was surprised when I heard the click of the hammer and the boom of the round. As soon as I heard that sound, I knew it was time to move.

I shot a round off at the security guy by the front door and dropped him like a deer in headlights. I quickly found cover behind one of the large statues that were scattered across the well-manicured lawn and hunkered down as her father’s men fired on us. As I fired a shot at the second security guard, the undercover detail that consisted of members of the Crypt Keepers and some of our members swarmed in. Bullets were flying all around us. I bent down behind the statue even more as bullets ricocheted off it and whizzed past my ear.

I raised up long enough to put a bullets into a few more of the guards as more backup came. Once they arrived, they took over and had the place taken over within twenty minutes. There were more dead than alive and the ones that were alive surrendered and promised to work for Phoebe if they could stay alive. I knew that Phoebe would be scared, because of all the gunshots, so I decided to go in and look for her.

I walked inside and marveled at how well the place was put together, and realized with him gone that she was technically in charge of his mafia now. I wondered to myself if she realized that and told myself that I didn’t need to say anything about it, because she may not want to have anything to do with it.

I walked through the giant living area and started to panic when I didn’t see her anywhere around. I hadn’t heard anything through the earpiece in some time, though I figured she was hiding and processing what she’d done. Even if she hated that man, murder still did something to the soul.

I called her name through the earpiece first. When I got no answer, I shouted and heard her yell from somewhere down the hall across from the living room.

I ran down the hall and threw open the bedroom door, seeing her father’s lifeless body lying on the bed. I was in shock for just a moment, because I’d never really seen a dead body before. But I quickly pulled myself out of it and grabbed her from the corner where she was hunkered down.

“It’s okay, Princess, I’m here. Everything is okay. It’s over now,” I tried to soothe her as she panicked in my arms.

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