Page 141 of I Will Revel in Glory (Death by Daybreak MC 3)
“I’m gonna kill Cat,” Beast growls out, reaching for me. I put my hands up and offer him the Magnum instead.
“No, I’m not done,” I tell him, glancing over at the wall and spotting several meat cleavers stuck to the magnetic strip. I move over to it and grab one, hefting it in my hand before I pause beside Giulia’s body.
“Gidge,” Grainger says gently, but then he stands aside with Beast and lets me do my thing. I end up finishing my task and swiping an arm over my bloody face. I chuck the cleaver into the sink and then head into the storage room that’s attached to the kitchen.
The very first thing I see is a canvas bag filled with dry rice.
I blink through the sensation of déjà vu before I move over to it and dump the rice onto the floor. Bag in hand, I load up my cargo, tie a loose knot at the top and then give the two men a look.
“I need to find my phone,” I say, but then Beast is grabbing me and throwing me over his shoulder the way he did the day of the wedding. I let him do it with barely a protest, allowing Grainger to take the bag from my fingers as he follows.
“Where is it?” he demands, and then he retrieves my knife and my clutch—including my phone—as Beast heads to the back door and kicks it open. It isn’t locked anymore, that’s for certain.
We head into the cool wetness of the night, the scent of the blood on my skin mixing with that delicate wet earth smell and the omnipresent reek of ash.
We don’t stop until we’re near the woods and Beast is setting me on my feet.
“What happened to you guys?” I ask as Beast picks a quick pace and enfolds my entire hand in his so that he can drag me along with him.
“Cat happened,” Grainger snarls, holding the morbid, bloodstained sack in his right hand, my sparkly clutch in the other. It’s macabre and weird and totally and completely fucked. “After he gave you the go-ahead, he fired off a shot and drew heat on us. Took us this long to get over to you.”
“Crown and Sin went in the front,” Beast says, frowning hard as he looks over at me. “Nobody else went inside.”
Ah.
“Cat was testing me, challenging me … maybe he was even hoping I’d die?” I murmur, but then I shake the feeling off and practice my stupid fox walk, trying to keep quiet as we head back in the direction of the bikes. “Where are Crown and Sin now?”
“They should be back already,” Grainger says, tucking my clutch beneath his arm and checking his phone. “They slipped their cuts off and took a risk. We’re just lucky they’re not dead.”
We stop talking as we get farther from the casino, and the woods grow darker and wilder. There are blackberry brambles leaving sharp vampire kisses on my legs, but I ignore them, trudging through with dogged determination.
Once I get home, I might feel things. A lot of things probably. Right now, I feel nothing but sick satisfaction and relief. My men are alive; I’m alive; Giulia and Cosimo are dead. That’s all I care about.
We pause just a few meters away from a clearing and Beast hefts my duffel bag up from its hiding place in the bushes, handing it over to me. A quick outfit change, and I’m ready to ride: leather pants, long-sleeved shirt, boots, as per usual. I ditch the bloody wig, too.
When we finally emerge on the area where Cat is waiting, straddling his bike and smoking a cigarette, I feel my red lips twist into a smile.
“Give me the bag, Grainger,” I say, and he does, keeping pace with me and Beast as we make our way toward Cat, the headlight of his bike illuminating a narrow path in front of him.
I pause just in front of his red and black motorcycle.
My eyes find both Sin’s and Crown’s, even though they’re cloaked in shadow, and I’m drenched in light and blood. I feel them when they look at me, and then I turn back to Cat.
“Well,” he says with a bit of a laugh. “I’ll be damned.” He leans forward, the cherry of his smoke illuminating his face. “You really are my daughter, aren’t you?”
I untie the bag, reach inside, and grip a hank of Giulia Wolfe’s hair.
And then I throw her head at my father’s feet, just as I promised I would.
There’s a very sudden silence among the men that have come with him, a dozen or so of Cat’s and Crown’s favorites. I’m pleased by that; word of this will spread quickly through DBD and maybe the other men and their wives and the groupies and whoever else will remember to keep their traps shut when it comes to my relationship with the officers.
