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“This is it. I’m going to gut you, gut my daughter, and then I’m going to wipe out your entire fucking club.”
Then a chair hits him upside the head. Rafael hits the ground like a ton of bricks, unmoving.
“Shut the fuck up, dad, you dick,” Alexandra spits.
I blink and look up at her.
“You have never looked hotter,” I say. “Thank you.”
“Felt good. Oh, and you’re welcome,” she says, her chest huffing and her face flushed.
I stand, slowly, groaning and knowing it’ll be a long time before my shoulder feels right again, then look down at Rafael, and then to Alexandra.
“Are you OK?”
She nods, smiling. Her lips busted, there’s blood streaming from a cut on her forehead, and she’s going to have a wicked set of black eyes soon. “It’s just a flesh wound.” Then she releases a laugh — it’s light, a lovely, shocking contrast to the bloody mess around us. “Did you mean it?”
“Mean what?”
“What you said when I called you. That you still love me?”
The words come easy, true, without doubt or hesitation. “Yes, I still love you. You saved my life. Gave me something to live for.”
She leans in and kisses me. It hurts, because everything hurts, but it’s the best kiss I’ve received in my life.
“I meant it, too. I’m sorry for storming out on you. For… everything.”
“I shouldn’t have kept you out of it when I was talking to Marquez. You should have been there. It was your right.” My eyes go back to Rafael, who is still unconscious, but still dangerous, for as long as he’s alive. “What about him?”
“I can’t kill my dad, Dixon. I can’t kill family. I can’t… be like him.”
“Do you want me to?” I mean it as a gesture, to give her something she might want, but can’t do for herself.
She shakes her head. “No. If I can’t do it myself, I don’t want it done.” For a moment, we stand quietly, and then she reaches out and takes me by the hand. Two broken souls, two broken bodies, finding each other and healing again. “Can we take him to the police?”
I grunt. “We could. They’re on to him.”
“They are?”
“It was no trick that his money man called him. That was us. Well, Ghost and me, mostly. We found a lot of information while were at his house, and he passed it on to some contacts of his. The DEA, the FBI, they’ve had suspicions about your dad for a while, and what we gave them was enough to put the wheels in motion and freeze every one of his accounts.” I smile down at Rafael. It feels good knowing that man is soon going to be completely broke and utterly powerless. Everything he fought for, everything he murdered and lied and betrayed his family for, has just been ripped away, and there’s nothing he can do about it. “They’re looking for him right now, though no one knows about this little place right here.”
“So you really came alone? Even knowing you could die?”
“I’d gladly die if it meant you’d be safe.”
“I love you, Dixon,” she says, and she embraces me. For a blissful moment, all the pain fades away.
“I love you, too.” Then, despite how good I feel, I sway as the blood I’ve lost overtakes me and the concrete floor seems ominously close to swallowing me. Apparently, the power of love fades in the face of serious stab wounds. “But you need to decide now, because I don’t have much time left.”
She nods, then picks some of the rope up off the floor. Methodically, she ties Rafael up. “I choose us. Let’s make sure my dad’s not going anywhere. Let’s call in a tip about this place, and then let’s get you to a hospital. I love you, Dixon. I want to build a new life with you.”
A new life together. That sounds pretty damn fine to me.
The hospital does, too.
"You and me,” I say.
She nods and kisses me.
