Page 101 of Gray Area

“People’s imagination causes more damage than bullets can sometimes,” he tells me.

“Let’s go,” Axel announces, and turns on his heels.

We leave the empty hospital wing that Slade was able to have Kent put in for our visit. The wing is now named after Marielle Falco and will be a cancer center thanks to a ginormous donation from Falco Enterprises. We exit out a back door to a waiting motorcade of black Suburbans.

“Vivian, you take this one back to your house.”

I take the gun Axel had given me, which is actually loaded, and point it under Slade’s chin. “I’m going, Slade.” I used to be terrified of guns, the thought of touching them abhorrent to me. But when I went to school, I had decided to take a gun safety course to try and face my fear, a challenge we had been assigned in one of my classes. I had actually fallen in love with shooting and the feeling of being able to protect myself. I now know how to handle all manner of weapons, and my aim is wicked good when I go to the range.

I stare Slade down with the gun to his chin and am proud of the control I have with the weapon, and the knowledge that I am able to handle the powerful thing in my hand conveys my point to him. Slade gives a small nod, and I pull the gun away.

Axel looks over at me. “I like you,” he says to me. I give a small laugh, remembering the first time I met the mostly silent brother and he had told me the same thing. Then I follow them to the first SUV and climb inside.

I’m going to get my life back.

Chapter 62

DECLAN

The suited asshole in front of me revealing his lineage gives me enough energy to lift my head. I sneer at him.

“Go ahead, bark at me like the fucking dog you are,” he taunts. “You’d still be fucking hustling the streets if you hadn’t fucking stolen everything from my father. These roles would be reversed,” he says, swinging his finger between us.

“Where is Vivian?” I demand. I’ve had enough of this game and I’ve seen enough. I need to ensure she’s safe before I do anything else. If they kill me, there is nothing I can do to save her.

He looks at me perplexed and then dissolves into a fit of laughter, shaking his head. “She isn’t here, you stupid fuck. I told you I used her to get you here,” he says like that is obvious. He shakes his head and strokes his chin. “My father told me she wasthe piece to getting you, but I didn’t believe it, not until I figured out who she is and saw you with her the other night. What a pussy-whipped dolt.”

“Where is she?”

He shrugs his shoulders and irritation covers his face. “I have no idea. My idiot brother probably used his ass-kicked face to try and get sympathy from her and win her over,” he says, rolling his eyes.

“Brother?”

“Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that? My brother, August—well, he goes by Kent now, his middle name. I was Edrick, but I go by Heath, my middle name. See, weallhad to change our names after you destroyed my family. Me, my brother, my mother. My father didn’t because you killed him.”

“Your piece of shit father killed himself like the fucking coward he was,” I tell him hotly.

I expected the hit before he swung, so I’m able to keep my head still against his fist. It hurts like crazy, but it hurts him too, and I smile at him as he shakes out his hand. When he pulls out his gun and shoots my thigh in anger, I know he’s starting to unravel. This simpleton thought chaining me up to a wall and smacking me around would break me. Well, he thought wrong, and I have a front-row seat to the fact that he is realizing it. On top of that, this stupid fuck showed his cards. It just further proves to me he’s an amateur, a wannabe who doesn’t know what he is doing and hasn’t thought far enough ahead to realize he’s going to lose it all. Just like his stupid father.

And the best part? He doesn’t have Vivian.

That could have been another ace up his sleeve he could have held over me, but again, he showed his hand. She isn’t here or in danger of any harm from him. My brothers will take care of her. They will figure this stupidity out and make sure she is okay. They will take care of Kent and whatever lies he is spewing. Shewill be okay, she will be safe, and she will have the life she wants and deserves.

And so if I die here taking this asshole out, I’m okay with that. Because they are all safe.

“If you’re going to shoot me every time I tell the truth, you’re going to run out of bullets,” I say, letting the pain throb in my face and leg, sucking the adrenaline from it, letting my agony feed my madness until all I have is tunnel vision at destroying the threat in front of me. “Your father stole money from people, he feigned need or interest in people weaker than him. Then he put their money in big-name projects and never repaid his debts, robbing innocent people. He was a bully, a liar, and a cheat.”

“If you keep talking, I’m going to kill you,” Heath sneers, glowering at me, getting angered by what I am saying. Now I have him, and I’m not going to stop taunting him, because that buys time by distracting him.

“Go ahead,” I say. “Do it. You won’t make it until tomorrow morning.”

He looks at me like it’s a joke. “What? Your brothers? Please,” he says, making a dismissive noise. “I’ll be taking them out too.”

“Yeah? With those fools?” I ask him, angling my head to the way his henchmen had gone out. My voice is imbedded with humor.

“Shut your fucking mouth, Falco!” he shouts, pointing his gun at me, and I give him a smirk. There is a fine tremor in the Glock he’s got pointed at me. He’s ready to crack. He’s slowly tallying up that he is in way over his head. That he took on too much too soon. He was probably banking on his rage to be enough, but he is realizing now he doesn’t have the experience or knowledge to back it up.

“You have a bunch of muscleheads who couldn’t even take me on, chained to a fucking wall. And you, well, you are ready to just put holes in me, not even a fair fight. Just as much of a pussyas your father,” I bait him. It seems cliché and lame, but usually when a man starts becoming aware that his plan he thought was perfect is falling apart, he becomes confused and conflicted. His ego takes a hit and he becomes desperate to still pull it all off. It makes him malleable to influences around him, so he’ll try to pivot and fix his plan. And he’ll overcorrect.

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