Page 174 of Reckless Vengeance

“You’ll never find Marla, and she’ll never know the truth about the daughter she actually birthed. Tragic, really,” he sighed dramatically, his eyes widening as he must have seen something in mine.

The anger, resentment, pain, and unanswered questions became silent, a numbness washing over me. I’d never get answers about Mom, I’d have to find her and tell her about Claire, even if that meant sharing my mom with the one bitch I despised.

I’d intended on dragging this out, to make him suffer for his sins, but then I wondered why I wanted to waste any more time on the piece of shit. It had been eighteen years of hell, and I was ready for it to be over.

I fucking deserved to heal.

“Fuck you, Max. I hope you burn in hell,” I said calmly, pulling the trigger with zero regrets.

The bullet hit him in the eye, and I fired another shot to his head, just in case. I wasn’t letting him live to play this twisted game of his anymore.

His body slumped to the ground, blood whooshing in my ears as I took a moment to study him. The man who’d dangled puppets of monsters in front of me my entire life no longer looked scary. He looked small, crumpled on the floor as blood oozed out of his head and face, and I glanced at my hands to find them still.

No shaking, no adrenaline crash or anxiety, just peace.

Gunshots around here wouldn't really attract the cops, so I wasn’t in a hurry to leave. I contemplated putting a few bullets in his chest too, but excessive gunfire would draw attention. For all I knew, the Soldiers were close by, and I didn’t want to deal with them today.

I put my gun down the back of my pants after staring at his lifeless body for a while, pulling my phone out and taking a deep breath. I needed a cleanup, and hopefully Skeeter wouldn’t lose his shit since I’d promised him I’d give him a heads-up before making a mess for him again.

I pressed the phone to my ear, keeping my eyes on Max as if he would wake up any second and lunge at me. There was no answer, so I tried twice more before calling Diesel.

No answer.

“Fuck,” I hissed, glancing around at the mess. Even if I could clean this up by myself, which I really couldn’t, I couldn’t exactly drag him down to the Mustang and shove him in the trunk.

I tried Diesel once more before scrolling through my contacts, my finger hovering over Hunter’s name. Could I trust him with this? Would he fuck me over?

I didn’t really have another choice, so I risked it as I called him.

“Hey, babe. Can I call you back? I’m in a meeting,” he greeted me, making me wince.

“I need help.”

There was a silent pause, then I heard rustling and murmurs in the background before he spoke again.

“I’m on my way. Don’t move,” he instructed before hanging up, the tone in his voice telling me he knew this was serious. No questions asked, he just dropped everything for me.

It took me a minute to realize I never told him where I was, but I figured he’d just track my phone anyway, so I waited.

I didn’t move from my spot in the middle of the room, not wanting to risk making the crime scene worse. The less I touched, the better.

It was starting to get dark, the winter night air sending a chill through me, and I was relieved when I heard car doors.

“Hot Shot?” Hunter called out quietly, his gun appearing through the crack in the door first.

“It’s just me,” I replied, his gun lowering as he stepped in, his eyes dropping to the body behind me.

“I see you’ve been busy,” he murmured, flicking his gaze back to me. “You okay?”

Marco appeared behind him, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise as I answered.

“I’m fine. I tried Skeet, but⁠—”

“He didn’t answer. No surprise there,” he supplied for me, stepping close. “Where’s the gun?”

“In my pants.”

“Take it out and put it down. The cleanup crew will dispose of it, and I’ll get you to mine. You need to be scrubbed. Tiny flecks of blood, gun residue, all of it needs to come off. Mark can stay here until the guys arrive,” he said with ease, glancing at Marco. “You good with that?”