Page 104 of Final Exit

“Do you really think that’s going to stop me? Where is he?”

“What are you going to do? Arrest him?” Jace scoffed.

“He deserves justice,” Kade said. “None of this vigilante crap you’re so used to dishing out. It’s vigilantism that got us all in this mess to begin with. I can’t think of a better night to end that kind of thinking than tonight. Can you?”

Mason frowned. “It’s not like he can get his say in a court of law. He’d tell them everything about us. We’d all end up in prison for all the laws we’ve broken, even though most of them were broken in service to our country.”

The bitterness in Mason’s tone wasn’t lost on Kade. He knew what this war against EXIT had cost Mason, and what it had cost Jace. They shared a lot of war stories in the past few days, planning this assault. Both of them had nearly lost the women they loved because of EXIT. But so had Kade. He’d almost lost Bailey. And he had a right to see it through to the end—to its rightful end—just as much as they did.

He glanced back at Bailey, then said, “Take me to him.”

Mason cursed, but turned around and led the way deeper into the woods, with Jace and Kade following. They’d gone a good quarter mile from EXIT by the time they stopped. Faegan sat at the base of an oak tree, his arms and legs bound to the lower branches. With shoe strings.

Kade looked down at Mason’s and Jace’s shoes, which were missing their laces. Faegan’s shoes were missing the laces, too.

“Seriously? Shoe laces?”

“It was all we had,” Jace said.

Kade turned back to face Faegan, the man who’d ruined his life in every way it could be ruined. He’d never wanted to kill a man in his life. But this man, who’d nearly killed Bailey, tempted him.

“Faegan, you’re under arrest,” he said.

Mason and Jace swore beside him.

“Go to hell,” Faegan said.

“I vote we leave him out here tonight, like Jace and I had planned.” Mason looked at Jace and Kade. “Give him some time to think about his sins while the possums and rodents chew on his flesh.”

“Works for me,” Kade said, knowing full well he wouldn’t do that. But he wouldn’t mind giving Faegan a few tense moments thinking that he would.

The three of them turned around and headed up the hill.

“I don’t care where they lock me up,” Faegan yelled after them. “I’ll get out one day. And when I do, the first thing I’ll do is track down your women and kill them.”

Kade stiffened, then stopped, his back still to Faegan.

Mason and Jace stopped with him, exchanged glances.

“That’s right,” Faegan yelled. “Sabrina, Melissa, and Bailey. I know all about them, where to find them.”

Kade closed his eyes, tuning out Faegan’s tirade as he thought back to another time, not so long ago, when he and Bailey had been talking about Hawke.

“What if one of the people involved was someone you loved? Hawke was the closest thing to a brother that I’ve ever known. I loved him. If he was someoneyouloved, would you have chosen to save his life, over Simmons’s? Would you have at leasttriedto save his life?”

He’d said something self-righteous and condescending, he was sure. Because he’d thought himself to be so honorable at the time, his faith in the law, in justice, unshakeable.

More of Bailey’s words came back to him.“Have you ever loved someone? Pretend Hawke was your loved one. Now would you have called Simmons?”

He’d replied,“It wouldn’t be right. I couldn’t trade one life for another like that, no matter how much I wanted to.”

And Bailey had said,“Then you, Kade Quinn, have never really loved someone.”

He opened his eyes. She was right that day. He had never really loved someone. But he did now.

“Keep looking over your shoulders, boys,” Faegan taunted. “Because one day, I’ll be there to do my worst. I’ll gut all three of them. And I’ll save Bailey for last. I’ve got millions of reasons for her to suffer most of all.”

Kade looked at Jace, then Mason. Then they slowly turned around and pulled out their pistols.

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