Page 71 of Quiet Rage
It’s amazing what little it takes for a bully to lose their strength. His strength was never real. He needs a gun in his hand to feel strong, or other men to do the fighting. Without those tools, he’s nothing but an old man in a pair of silk pajamas, his eyes bulging as he takes in the sight of his son holding a gun on him.
“You okay?” I ask Kinsley, never taking my eyes off him.
“I’m fine,” she whispers. From the corner of my eye, I see her scramble onto the bed, positioning herself behind me.
“Now listen to me,” Dad urges.
I cut him off. “You are going to tell me the truth. And in case you want to know where I heard this from in the first place, I heard it from Dante earlier tonight.” With a smile, I add, “Before I killed him. Don’t expect him to show up for work tomorrow.”
His tongue darts over his lips. “He was lying.”
“Pretty convenient to accuse him of that when he’s dead.” I take one step toward him, then another, while he backs intothe hallway. I can’t let him get to his room—who knows what he might have stashed there? “Now you’re going to tell me the truth. That’s all I want. Did you kill my mother because she was leaving you and taking me with her? Don’t make me kill you, Dad. I just want to hear it from your mouth. I want the truth before I leave this house forever.”
“Where do you think you’re going to go?”
“The truth!” I bark, loud enough that he flinches.
Sweat trickles down his temples. An innocent man wouldn’t sweat like that.
“All right! All right, I’ll tell you the truth. Yes,” he hisses, teeth bared. “Yes, because she was taking what was mine! My son! My legacy! She thought she could walk out of here with you and get away with it? She honestly thought she could do that to me. She found out, didn’t she?”
I knew it, but that doesn’t mean the truth doesn’t hit like a ton of bricks.
He must take my silence as a good sign. “That’s what we do, Kellen. That’s what an Archer does. We protect what belongs to us. You are my son. She was not going to take what was mine. And I offered to have her back, I did,” he babbles, shaking, red-faced. “I told her we could forget the whole thing so long as she fell in line and went back to being the wife she was before. She refused. She paid the price.”
Paid the price. I like the sound of that.
And I still do when I squeeze the trigger, firing into his chest.
Somehow, I hear the pounding of footsteps, the shouts of surprise over the ringing in my ears. Dad’s mouth falls open inshock before he looks down at the wound in his chest, the blood spreading like a flower, soaking into the silk. He drops to his knees by the time the first guards make it up the stairs, then falls to his side with his eyes still open but now blank by the time they join us.
He’s dead. And with him goes everything he built. Instead of the sight of his corpse dragging me down, a weight lifts off my shoulders. Otherwise, I feel nothing for the man lying in his own blood.
“He’s dead,” one of the guys mutters, crouching next to Dad and slowly looking up at me. “You killed him.”
“I wasn’t going for a flesh wound.” Looking around at them, I read almost identical expressions of shock. Like they didn’t think I had it in me. “And unless every single one of you fuckers wants to end up like him, you will accept the fact that I’m in charge now. I’m the boss. Do we all understand each other?”
There are a few quick, confused looks exchanged, but all of them nod and a few back away from me. “Sure. You’re the boss,” one of the guys murmurs, and the rest mutter their agreement.
After looking around at all of them, I notice Kinsley peering out around the door to my bedroom. “You can go now,” I tell her. “You’re free. Go ahead.”
Tears fill her eyes. “Thank you,” she whimpers.
My first act as the new boss is one of mercy. I’m thinking it could be a trend.
Chapter 32
Tamson
It’s beentwo months since I almost died. Eight weeks since we packed up everything and started over in a different city. Fifty-six days since Kellen kissed me goodbye in the hospital.
I haven't seen him or heard his voice since then. When we got home after the doctor released me, we found a set of keys, a note with an address, and ten thousand dollars in cash waiting for us. We left that same day, and we didn’t look back.
The only two times Kellen reached out to me was via text. Once to tell me that he enrolled me in classes at the local college, the other to inform me that he had scheduled weekly appointments for me with a psychiatrist. I didn’t respond to either text, but I’m going to the classes and to therapy like he asked.
My therapist, Dr. Manning, has helped me work through some of my trauma, and prescribed me an antidepressant I’m taking daily. I think the medicine helps the most.
My parents have adjusted well, making the most out of this fresh start. Dad found a new job as a sales manager and mom hastaken up gardening, turning our small backyard into a peaceful sanctuary.
