Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Dad’s kneeling on the ground. His normally perfect patio is a mess. Furniture’s thrown over, and I’m guessing the other bomb went off back here. There’s a big crater in the concrete and the windows are shattered.
Cormac stands with a gun against Dad’s head. Seamus is beside them, texting something on his phone. “Took you long enough,” he mutters and glances up. “Jesus, you two look awful.”
“Not our blood,” Finn says but shrugs sheepishly. “Mostly, anyway. I thought you were bringing an ambulance?”
“I thought I was too until we saw you going inside with this asshole and his asshole son.” Seamus kicks Dad on the side. “We figured you’d need a distraction instead.”
I step away from Finn. Dad’s staring at me. The burning house reflects in his eyes. He looks old and frail, and maybe I should feel bad for him. In the end, he lost everything: his four beloved boys, his treasured wife, his home, his future, his power.
“You deserved worse,” I say to him and hold out a hand to Cormac. “Gun, please.”
Cormac doesn’t even hesitate. He hands it over and steps aside. I aim at Dad’s face.
He tilts his chin up, a smile on his lips. “You don’t have the strength in you, Caroline. You never did. Let the men handle it.”
Finn steps up behind me. He puts a hand on my arm gently, leaning his body against my back. I feel his strength radiating through me like sunshine. “Do it,” he whispers softly, bending down to kiss my neck.
“Together,” I say.
“Together,” he agrees.
Dad jerks back. His eyes go wide. “Hold on. Wait. You can’t—”
I pull the trigger. The gun bucks. Dad’s head explodes in a shower of mist. He slumps sideways and I put another bullet in his neck, just for good measure.
It’s quiet in the yard after that. Cormac takes his gun back and holsters it. Dad’s corpse looks like nothing. Just some skin and bones.
For the first time in my life, I’m alone.
My abusers are gone and they’ll never hurt me again.
Finn slips his hand through mine and holds on tight.
“We’ll clean up here,” Seamus says, nodding at the blaze. He grabs my dad by the ankles. “Well, the fire will do most of the work.”
“You two head home.” Cormac goes to help Seamus.
“Thanks, you two.”
Cormac shrugs. “It’s what real family does.”
“Although I do hate corpse duty,” Seamus grumbles.
39
FINN
The place still stinks like smoke. I suspect it always reeked like this under the surface. This wasn’t where they abused me—that was out in their vacation home and I plan on personally bulldozing the whole damn structure—but it’s still a kind of hell anyway.
I pick my way through the rubble. Some spots are still smoldering. The fire was put out a few days ago, but the department said it still isn’t safe in here. Fortunately, those sort of rules don’t quite apply to the Whelan clan, considering half the NYFD is on our payroll.
Caroline’s in a back room. It’s not her father’s office. I doubt she’ll ever go in there again after what happened a few days back. She’s kneeling over books and I have to lean over to see that they’re filled with photographs.
She’s looking at a page that’s clearly filled by beach vacation images. Young Caroline, probably eight years old at most, is grinning hugely in the sand. She’s got a black eye. Her brothers are in the background, indistinct figures.
“My mom took all these.” She flips the page. More photos of her. Dozens of them. Her brothers aren’t in a single one. “I thought it was weird, honestly. When I saw it the first time. I asked her, how come nobody else is in here? It’s just me and her. A few of Dad. But none of the boys. You know what she said?”
“Tell me.”
“She said, Caroline, one day you’ll want to remember there were some happy times too, and maybe this will help.” She smiles to herself.
“Was she right?”
“Fuck no.” She slams the book shut and throws it aside. “But it was a nice sentiment anyway.”
I help her to her feet and kiss her lightly. She leans against my shoulder in the wreckage of her family’s den. A flatscreen TV is partially melted. The wallpaper is cracked and peeling. The couch looks surprisingly untouched. I can imagine sitting on it and watching movies with Caroline late into the night.
“From what I’m told, you’re going to inherit this mess.” I nudge a blackened coffee table with my foot. “Although I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t think this place is salvageable.”
“I’m already looking forward to the day when they rip it all down.”
“That’s my girl.”
She leans against my arm. “I don’t want anything else though.”
“Not even the money?”
“Blood money. Hard pass.”
“But it’s yours now. Your father had a lot put away over the years, and I have a feeling a very good lawyer could make sure you end up with all your siblings’ stuff too. You’ll be set for life.”