Page 79 of King of Ruin

And it was Onyx who showed me that sometimes, if you want something, you have totakeit.

I move forward, my steps weighted as I near him. “My name is Ezekiel Liam Kane. I am the son of Lucy Kane, and the don, Phineas Murphy. I am to tell no one of who I am or where I go on Wednesday nights. I am to wait, watch, and learn.”

A hot angry tear slides down my face, and I don’t bother wiping the evidence of my rage away. “One day, my father will call on me to do something that will set my mother andsistersfree.”

I hold open my arms as Phineas’ eyes grow impossibly wider. He scratches at his throat, drawing small beads of blood where his fingernails nic before finally vomiting. My foot comes down on the side of his head, forcing it to the left to ensure he can’t choke to death on his vomit. “I’m not quite done with you yet.”

He heaves, regurgitating everything in his stomach before finally sucking in air. When I know he’s ready, I yank the handkerchief from his breast pocket and wipe his mouth. “I am a product of your abuse. Of the childhood you stole and replaced with blood. While you take the last few breaths of your feeble existence, there is something I need you to know.”

A rush of adrenaline flushes through me as I kneel down and grip him by the collar, yanking him up toward me. I lean in and whisper in Irish, keeping my voice low enough to where only he can hear me speak in his native tongue. “After I take over, and kill the soldiers faithful to you, I’ll free every woman you have locked up, whether here, or in those clubs of yours. I’ll burn your warehouses to the ground, and rid the streets of the laced drugs you peddle to teens and single moms. And in the end, your head and heart will be fertilizer for my Queen’s rose bushes.”

My shoulders sag as I release him and listen to the violent thud of his head hitting the floor. His eyes are nearly barren now, and I know his heart is taking its last few beats.

“Now choke on the poison you created.” I turn to Oliver and the other two guards. I want the last thing he hears to be me, the new don of the Murphy family, making my first order. “Kill them all, except Sam. He belongs toher.”

When I glance back down, Phineas’ head lolls to the side, and in this small moment, I take my first breath not coated in his venom.

No longer am I his tool living under the constant pressure of his thumb. Never again will I be threatened or used, and am finally in control of my own life. My own choices.

Thisis freedom.

My body feels indescribably light as I look at Onyx. She’s standing now, rubbing her wrists as she lets her cuffs clatter to the table. “Give me another gun, Kane.”

“So you can kill me?” I smirk, an odd type of relief winding through my body. It’s as though I’ve purged myself of a toxic leech that’d been slowly sucking my life away. I feel light. Joyous, even. “I’m not so sure it’s a good idea,mo bhanríon.”

She cuts her eyes at me. “Don’t insult me. One is plenty enough for that. And stop with the facetious nickname.”

I jolt back, surprise and irritation suddenly making an appearance. “What in the hell makes you think me calling you my queen is facetious? Like you don’t control my every thought and emotion? As though I wouldn’t go to the ends of the Goddamn Earth if you ordered it?”

Onyx’s eyebrows furrow, and her eyes narrow. “Youstolehim from me.”

“He was never yours to begin with.”

Her eyes flare. “He took everything from me.”

“And he paid for it with more than just his death.” My voice is rising now, a fire beginning to brew in my gut. I don’t want to fight her on this, but I’ll defend my decision. “His legacy is mine. You are free. There is nothing killing him yourself would have done for you.”

“Mate, we have to move,” Oliver tries to interject but Onyx ignores him.

“It would have brought me peace!”

I scoff, rounding the table and pushing my gun in her chest. “Nothing will give you peace until you confront the demons in your chest. He’s dead, and I’m giving my life to make sure you never have to look over your shoulder again.”

“I haveneverhad to peer over my shoulder, Kane. Unlike yourself, I have never allowed myself to be at anyone’s beck and call, other than my own.” She snatches the gun away and turns toward the door. “When this is done, you’ll keep breathing so long as I don’t ever lay eyes on you again. Do you understand?”

A deep ache pulses behind my heart, but I won’t fight her anymore. Not right now.

I slip my phone from my pocket and dial a number I haven’t since I accepted the job of Onyx’s bodyguard.

She answers before the first ring ends.

“Ready, Z?”

“Ready.”

As planned, when the double doors open, there isn’t a sudden ambush or rapid fire. The guard outside the doors works for me, meaning any noise he heard, fell on deaf ears. He looks at all of us, one by one, before glancing at the small collection of bodies behind us.

When his gaze reaches me again, he smiles before glancing at his phone. “Lucian went out the back, he’s at the gate now. Is he free to go?”

---