Page 91 of The Price of Mercy
I shrug and feign indifference. “What’s done is done. We can only move forward.”
Kane suddenly slides me beneath Zane’s good arm and steps in front of us, grasping my hands in his as he stares into my eyes. “I am more than ready for that future, Mercy, but there’s a promise I’ve got to keep first, and you might want to leave for this part.”
A wave of anxiety makes my body shake. “What, um, what promise is that?”
Zane slips a long, heavy switchblade into our joined hands and wraps Kane’s fingers around it. “Make the fucker bleed.”
I inhale sharply. “Here?But it’s—it’s Christmas!”
“A lot of accidents happen during the holidays.” Zane takes careful steps backwards and pulls me along with him. “Do you want to stay or go for this, Mercy?”
My heart hammers as I look between all three of my men, each one as determined as the last. None of them are leaving, not even Sam, so I won’t, either. “I’m staying.” I hold Zane’s arm tightly around my middle. “But please don’t let go. I might—” I swallow hard. “Pass out?”
“I’ll catch you,” Sam vows, following us to the other side of the room. “I promise.”
Samuel finally speaks, his breaths rattling and wet and grotesque. “You can’t kill me. Iownyou, Samson, you and your whore and this whole goddamn cesspool. Even you, Malachi.You’ll never escape my purview. I am everywhere and everything in this fucking city. Do you hear me? I am?—”
“Dead,” Malachi snarls, slamming Samuel’s head against the ground. “Dead, dead, dead, and no one will mourn you, Samuel, not even your fucking son.”
Mr. Wright’s eyes latch onto mine, and the hatred burning in their depths makes me nauseous. Bile rises to the back of my throat as he chokes on his fury, blood pouring from his mouth and staining the floor. He says something that I can’t hear, but my brother flinches hard enough that he slams his fist into Samuel’s skull.
Sam must hear it, because he flinches, too.
I tug on his arm. “What did he say?”
“I don’t want to repeat it.” Hooking his fingers through mine, he takes a deep breath. “But I think he hates your family more than I realized, Mercy.”
If my body weren’t running so cold, I’m sure that I would flush with embarrassment. “I don’t know why,” I murmur, squeezing Sam’s fingers. “We’ve never done anything to him.”
Zane sighs in my ear. “Yeah, you did, baby. You stole his son from him.”
Silence falls over us as Kane takes slow, steady steps towards his target. The cadence of his footfalls is like a metronome counting the final seconds of Samuel’s life. The closer he gets, the louder Samuel’s screeching becomes, filling the room with a panic greater than any I’ve ever felt before. My entire body is on edge, the hairs on my arms and neck standing up as shivers course through me over and over again. Zane holds on tight and rests his chin on my shoulder.
“You can close your eyes,” he murmurs, staring straight ahead as Kane kneels beside Malachi. “I won’t tell him.”
“He’ll know,” I whisper, as sure of it as I am of death. The scent of it is familiar, and I’ll recognize it when it arrives, butfor now, Kane is taking his time. Cutting away Samuel’s clothes, leaving him naked and afraid as the dull edge of the knife drags down his body like a lover’s caress.
The funny thing is that Samuel suddenly goes eerily quiet. For all his barking, he doesn’t put up much of a fight. I think he’s waiting for Sam to jump in and save him, but Sam isn’t watching his father’s final moments, he’s carefully studying my face. Trailing his fingertips up and down my arms, stepping closer as Kane makes the first cut, exhaling into the curve of my neck as he hovers, not impeding my view but shielding my body from the violence. He draws a shaky breath and leans into me, pressing my body firmly against both his and Zane’s.
Tilting my head, I press a gentle kiss to his cheek, and he collapses, forcing Zane to hold both of us up as my knees buckle.
“Shhh, shh, shh, it’s okay. I’ve got you.”
A sob wracks his chest, and he buries his face in my hair. We don’t speak. We don’t kiss. We hold onto each other as part of his world collapses, seeping through the cracks and soaking into the earth, where it will be forsaken and forgotten.
Chapter 36
Sam
In the aftermathof my father’s death, not much changes. The businesses continue to prosper and his staff keeps me in the loop, but I’m not obligated to run around for him anymore, so I don’t.
I spend time at Mercy’s house.
All of my time, actually. Sitting at the kitchen table with Grandma Star as Zane attempts to make her famous chocolate-chip cookies, mixing cement with Malachi as we patch up old holes in the walls of the mortuary, and, yes, even having round table discussions with Kane and Mr. Morningstar as we consider the future of his business. With my father gone, the invisible ban on contracting the Morningstars’ services lifts, and calls are slowly rolling in.
Not just for funerary services, either.
Everyone who comes by the mortuary sees the mural that Mercy’s working on. We post progress photos online of both her artwork and the cemetery itself as we sweep it clean of decay and plant perennials for the spring and summer. It’s attracted enough attention that people are asking us to “color the city,” but I don’t think Mercy’s interested in that. She’d rather brightenher family’s graves, both the ones on the property itself and in the city’s sprawling cemetery.
