Page 137 of Lord Have Mercy Part Four: Big Son

“Holy Jesus,” he said, tonelessly, when the tale was through.

“I feel Jesus had very little to do with this,” Devin offered.

Ghost tipped his head in agreement. Checked over his shoulder to see that the door was still closed, and was surprised to find that Aidan was gone, Tango standing watch in his place, leaned back against the counter. He hadn’t adopted Aidan’s Tenny-esque charade, but his expression was uncharacteristically closed-off. Troubled, rather than cold, but angry around the edges. Shit.

But a worry for later.

He faced forward, and, despite the closed door, whispered, “And Boyle…you’re sure he’s…?”

“If he’s not in Big Son’s belly yet,” Mercy said, “he definitely drowned. He got held under for at least six minutes.”

“Plus,” Ava said, flatly, “he was gutted. He bled out if nothing else.”

At this point, Ghost couldn’t profess shock that Ava had played the final, pivotal role in Boyle’s demise, but the fact that she’d done it in front of Remy, that she would speak openly about it in front of him…

He found his gaze wandering to Maggie, who lifted her brows in a silentdon’t you get it yet?

He wasn’t sure he’d everget it, but he could accept it. He could understand that his daughter was…the way she was.

“What about Abacus?” Tenny asked, drawing his attention.

At sound of the name, Reese’s eyes snapped open, and he sat up, wiping his eyes and mouth and hitching up straight in his chair like he hadn’t been asleep at all.

Ghost nodded, slugged back the last of his coffee, and spilled a tale of his own.

By the end of it, Tenny had buttoned the head of his bed up as high as it would go, and then sat up further, far enough that Reese got up to tut over his hurt leg and adjust the pillow under it, which earned a fond/exasperated sigh from Tenny and a mutteredI’m fine. After, Tenny waved him away, but gripped onto the hem of his shirt so he wouldn’t go far, maintaining contact, and fixed Ghost with a glittering, bright-eyed look that, close as Ghost could tell, bordered on joyous.

“You killed him yourself?” he asked. “With your own hands? You did it?”

“Yeah,” Ghost said, and understood, then, why Tenny started blinking hard. “Snapped his neck. Sounded like bubble wrap.”

Tenny blinked some more, nodded, clamped his lips tight together, and looked down at his knees.

Devin reached for the privacy curtain, and halfway through pulling it, Tango said, “Ghost. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

Ghost stood. “Sure.”

Maggie kissed him before he went. And at the door, he glanced back; saw Ava smoothing Remy’s hair off his sleepingforehead, and saw Mercy watch her do it with the softest, most contented look on his face.

Worth it, he thought again. All of it had been worth it.

~*~

When Tenny closed his eyes, he could put himself in Ghost’s body, could operate his hands and see through his eyes. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t seen the building, the room, the table, the chairs, or the man Abacus himself. It had been like all the other buildings, and rooms, and tables, and chairs, and old, rich, powerful men he’d dealt with in his career. He could feel wrinkled cheeks, papery temples under his fingers. Could feel his muscles grab in a silent, violent motion, and hear the satisfyingsnick-crackof vertebrae snapping.

It was done.Abacuswasdone.

Relief crashed through him so rapturously that his stomach twisted, and he thought he might retch, and he was definitely going to cry, eyes stinging hard, no matter how rapidly he blinked.

“Hey.” Reese’s hand was warm and grounding against the back of his neck. “I know.”

Because it was Abacus – its relentless, insidious reach – that had put a bullet in Tenny’s neck, back before he was even Tennyson. That had stolen Reese from him, and put the whole club in danger in the effort to get him back. Abacus had taken, and taken, and taken, and almost taken Reese from him for good, tried to take Tenny from Reese last night, and…

And they were finished.

Oh, sure, there would be a power vacuum, and always another evil around the corner, and all of that bollocks. But right now, here in this room, Reese was well, and was touching him, and Tenny was alive, and Abacus wasdead.

Tenny turned and pressed his face into Reese’s stomach, and was rewarded with steady hands pushing through his hair, soothing pets.

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