I was seeing red.

Terrance exited the car, buttoning his suit with an approving smile as if I wasn’t glowering at him like he was the Antichrist.

He gestured to his men who then melted into the factory, presumably to clean up the mess. Or maybe to take pictures and gawk, fuck, I didn’t know.

“Where the fuck were you?”

“Waiting to see if you had balls.”

His answer baffled me into stunned silence until it was Charlie who said something first.

“Excuse me? You’re the one who set up this fucking deal. What are you talking about?”

“I wanted to see if Damon had what it took to do what had to be done. That’s the only way he’s going to make a go out of The Underground. Sometimes…business is messy.”

I couldn’t reconcile what Terrance was saying to me. Until understanding dawned and it still took a minute to process.

“You were never coming to kill Davonte. You wanted me to do it all along. You used Charlie to push me to do your dirty work.”

Terrance chuckled and shrugged as if my theory was neither here nor there. “Point is, you proved you weren’t soft, son. Happy ending. You get The Underground and the girl. I’d say that worked out fairly well.”

Charlie shook her head, murmuring. “This was your plan?”

“Not exactly. Chantel helped convince me that you were worth testing. She seems to think highly of you and now I know why. Nothing is for free. You want something, you have to earn it…or have the balls to take it.”

This was all a fucked-up life lesson?

I couldn’t believe the shit I was hearing but I supposed Terrance was right to a certain extent. I thought his methods sucked but I couldn’t argue the end result.

“I’ll have the legal paperwork drawn up for McConnell’s and put in your name. The Underground is yours.”

“And how exactly are you going to do that?” I scoffed, my head still swimming.

He smiled. “I know people who owe me favors.”

My head felt filled with spiders. I couldn’t quite accept that I’d killed Davonte and his crew. I wasn’t a killer before that moment. But I wasn’t sorry. Maybe that’s what was messing with me the most.

Davonte had gotten what he deserved.

Terrance added, “I’ll take care of the details here. You’ve earned a shower and a hot meal.” Then he handed me a fat wad of cash. “Consider this a gift toward our new partnership.”

Partnership?

I didn’t want to take the money but just as I was about to refuse it, Charlie accepted the cash.

I guess she was thinking faster than me.

Which was a blessing.

Refusing the gift would’ve started a whole new war.

Charlie bobbed a quick thank you to Terrance and then slipped her hand into mine, saying, “You heard the man, a shower and a hot meal. Sounds good to me.”

We climbed into the truck and before I could ask, she said, “Just drive, Damon. My brain is fried and I just want to put some miles between us and what’d just happened.”

I heard the strain in her tone and I couldn’t argue that reasoning.

If we were starring in our own Quentin Tarantino movie, this was the part where we would ride off into the sunset in our bloody clothes while some vintage music played us off into the credits.

But we weren’t in a movie. Endings weren’t always pretty.

Guess that was the true life lesson of the moment and when I was no longer covered in someone else’s blood, maybe I’d give it some more thought.

Until then…fuck it.

A shower and a fucking steak sounded just about perfect.

“Amen, baby girl,” I breathed. “A-fucking-men.”