Page 89 of Dragonfly

“For years I did whatever I could to make him happy!” she says, moving gingerly toward me. “I worked in that shitty clinic! I dealt with assholes and perves and losers all day long! I didn’t hire anyone else so that I could be the doctor, and just when I thought he might finally want to settle down, he marries you!”

“Well… if it makes you feel any better, he had to blackmail me into it.”

Her eyes bulge. “You would be lucky to have a man like him!”

I shrug, fucking with her now. Whatever she did—and I’m sure Damien will tell me—she didn’t accomplish what she set out to do. Like me, she failed. I’m not dead, and neither is my husband.

But Liz…

“Eh. He’s alright.”

Just like I figured, that was enough to push the doctor over the edge. Screaming at me, she runs right at me, dodging the bodies and the car until she’s less than a foot away from me. Her hands are in front of her despite her injury, nails crooked as though she’s going to claws my eyes out.

Bad move, Lizzie. You gave me something to latch on to.

Ducking my own shoulder, I grip her right arm, twist it, take a moment to revel in the renewed howl that tears out of her throat, then use her momentum against her. She flips over my head, landing on a pile of glass that jabs right into her back.

Once she’s down, I straddle her, using my weight in a way that she’s not getting up anytime soon.

Then, because I’m not done yet, I say, “One last question, Dr. Liz. When we got to the clinic, it was closed. You knew we were coming with my cat. Is this why you shut down? To threaten my husband? To threaten me? To betray the Dragonflies?”

Over my head, I heard Damien chuckle darkly.

After all, we both know what it means when you betray the Dragonflies.

Her eyes are still wild as she sneers at me. “Fuck your cat. I hope the sedative I sent home with that idiot ballerina was enough to put him to sleep forever, you bitch.”

Wow. I’m such an idiot. I didn’t even realize that she lied to Gen and gave her something to hurt Orion until right this very second. I guess, in my confusion, they were two different issues. My cat was unconscious and Damien was missing. Just two shitty circumstances…

But no. She used Genevieve. She risked my cat’s life. I don’t even know if he’s made it, or if Gen was able to get to the vet or not… but it doesn’t matter.

Her fate was sealed when she used my cat against me. Oh, and when she plotted against my husband…

Smiling down on Liz, I lift my hand—and the stiletto—up high before bringing it down in her side. Poetic justice and all that that I make sure it’s just about the same spot as where this woman stitched up Damien months ago.

She howls, and I pull out the knife, making sure to twist it.

“That’s for Damien,” I tell her. “And this? This is for Orion. Say ‘hi’ to Ricky for me.”

Her lips part, as though knowing exactly what to expect. She was at the dinner. She knows what’s coming.

And I don’t disappoint.

One fluid slice. The stiletto is even sharper than it was the night Damien cut Ricky’s throat. With Liz on her back beneath me, in too much pain from her gunshot wound and the fresh stab, she does nothing to stop me from swinging the knife.

Only once I see the bloody smile in her throat do I get up, then kick her for good measure. Then, hoisting the red-slicked stiletto up, I make sure my husband can see it.

“Damien?”

“Yes, amore?”

I twist the blade, showing it off. “I love you.”

His icy blue eyes seem to gleam through the shadows. “I know.”

EPILOGUE

SAVANNAH

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