Page 80 of Claymore
“Ella could do better than a fucking Rebel. Guess that one’s my fault. Drove her right to you.”
I grit my teeth, punching him in the jaw so hard I was sure I dislocated it. He writhed on the ground in pain, dragging his bloodied fingers across the wooden floorboards.
“This house. You. It all has to go. Now.”
I rushed over to the liquor cabinet, finding a few nice bottles, dumping the expensive rum and vodka all over Ray while he screamed. It burned the wounds on his face, his hands, his abdomen, but he didn’t move. He laid there in defeat, his eyes finally starting to shut.
“You fucking Rebel,” he blurted.
I pulled my lighter out of my pocket, heading toward the front door.
“Enjoy the show, Ray. It’s one hell of a way to go.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” he groaned.
“What someone should’ve done to you ages ago.”
I stood in the doorway, setting the continuous flame, watching it barrel in the air as it hit Ray right on the chest. The flames spread like wildfire, and his scream echoed through the air. I watched it for a moment, consuming every fucking corner of Ella’s childhood home, wiping away all of the pain that had settled between these walls.
I rushed out, shutting the door behind me just as the windows burst open, glass shattering everywhere, and the flames caused a cloud of smoke to rise up in the sky. I ran to Ella, who’d been sitting in the passenger seat of Ronnie’s truck, which now sat just opposite the house. She stared up at her old home, tears streaming down her face, and I knew this was probably the hardest thing she’d ever done.
“Ella. Ella, we need to get you out of here. The cops will show up at any minute. Someone’s going to call—”
“Is he dead?” Ella asked.
“What?”
“Ray, is he dead?”
“Yes, Ella, he is.”
I looked up at Ronnie behind the wheel and Ripper, who’d been standing a few feet away.
“We need to go,” Ripper said.
“You two head back to the clubhouse. I’ll bring Ella,” Ronnie asserted.
“Ronnie, I don’t—” I began.
“No time for arguing. Just go,” Ronnie demanded.
Ripper and I piled onto our bikes, speeding away. I glanced back once when we were halfway down the street just about to turn the corner. We were far enough away that we wouldn’t be seen. I noticed people coming out to their front lawns, wrapped in robes and pajamas while they stared up at the scene before them.
Ripper and I made it back to the clubhouse before the girls did. We peeled off our domes and shut off our engines after such a long night. Ripper looked at me, his tattooed arms laying across his body, his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“It’s finally over, isn’t it?”
“Ray may be gone, but I don’t think we can start celebrating yet. We still have his crazy girlfriend to deal with. She roped him in, took everything from him, and now she’s just gone? Nah, it doesn’t feel right.”
“We’ll find her, Claymore. Took us a damn long time but we found Ray. We dealt with him,” said Ripper.
“Did we? Ray was beaten, covered in blood, and he had two bullet holes in his abdomen. Ella didn’t do all of that. He had to have been dropped there like that. Either Fang wanted to dispose of him in a place where he’d suffer a little more, or she gave us a handout. I just can’t figure out which it is yet,” I said.
“Yeah, neither can I.”
We both turned around just as the truck pulled up, the wheels crunching against the dirt and sand while it came to a halting stop. I rushed over to the passenger side door, opening it up wide so I could help Ella out. She couldn’t move. She was completely frozen, and she didn’t so much as blink.
“Come on, Ella. Let’s get you inside.”
