Page 70 of Vicarious

So I stay Viper’s hand and take his gun.

Phae scoffs. “Want to kill me yourself?”

I kneel down to look her directly in the eye. “No.”

She’s surprised, and I sense Viper is surprised next to me too.

“You know, for a long time I thought I was living your life vicariously. Standing in the place of a dead woman who didn’t get the chance to live this life with her husband and children herself because of a tragedy.”

I run the barrel of the gun down the side of Phae’s face, and she doesn’t falter. It can never be said that Phae wasn’t stupid brave. That’s for sure.

“But this was never meant to be your life. You never wanted it to be your life, even when it became clear that your husband did. You were never suited for it,” I explain. “So you decided to destroy it in the hopes that you could make your life something other than what it was. Be something other than a woman married to an enforcer who would one day grow up to be a mob boss.”

I take the gun from her face and lean forward. “I was never livingyourlife vicariously. You were livingmine. And you tried to fuck it up for me before I could ever live it.”

“I never—”

“I know it wasn’t on purpose. Doesn’t mean it’s not true. But you saved me once. So I’m going to save you. Tonight, you’ll leave with your life.”

“What’s the catch?”

“You’ll stop this crusade of yours.”

“I’llneverstop.”

“You won’t have a choice.”

I stand up, aim at the exposed electric engine of the car and shoot.

Once.

“No,” Phae says as the realization dawns on her.

Twice.

“No. Stop it. That’s all my life’s work.”

Three times.

The car and everything in it goes up in dramatic flames. All the physical evidence needed to take down Pray and his criminal empire going up in flames along with any hope of ending Pray’s empire without a war. Even with the electronic copies that Viper no doubt has, it will be nothing for Pray’s crooked lawyers to get them dismissed as fake and contrived with the purpose to defame him.

“Now you have no choice,” I say handing Viper back his gun.

“Get her in the car and take her back,” Viper orders his men.

They pick Phae up off the ground and drag her to a well secured car. Phae’s not going anywhere. Even if she could, she wouldn’t be a danger anymore. She has nothing.

Eileen pulls up at that moment causing Viper to make a noise of disapproval and say, “Late. That’s unlike you.”

“Or right on time. Your stupid fucking wife drew a bunch of attention to this. Every fucking cop in the state is going to be here soon.”

“There’s no way this isn’t getting back to Pray,” Viper mutters.

“Doesn’t Bella own most of them?” I ask.

“Of New York City, for certain. But not of the whole state. We’re fucked if we don’t come up with something. Eileen?”

Eileen gives Viper a helpless look. She’s got nothing. Phae may not have been able to fuck up Pray and his empire, but she’s certainly fucked up our plans.

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