Beth stands in front of me. She fucking stands in front of me, taking my breath away.

“Beth, sweetheart? You’re here? How… How is that possible? How are you here?” I want to approach her, but I cannot. I’m frozen in place, afraid to scare her off. She’s wearing a white dress, much like the one she was wearing when I first met her. Her blonde hair is brushed until it shines and those gray eyes are beaming at me.

“I’m here, Skull. I had to see you.”

“How is this possible?” I ask again. She doesn’t answer, but that’s okay. She walks over to me and wraps her arms around my body. I can’t believe how good she feels, how right she feels in my arms.

“Mi cielo. I love you. Oh, God, baby, I never thought I’d see you again.” I kiss the side of her face, wrapping my hands in her beautiful hair. For the first time in days, my heart feels as if it’s beating again.

“I loved you, Skull. I did. Why did you do this?”

“What? No, querida. I didn’t mean it. I tried to stop it. I did. I would never hurt you. How did you survive? Did the blast throw you into the water? I searched all day trying to find you. I could only find pieces of your clothes. What happened?”

“But you did hurt me,” she says, pulling away from me suddenly. “You murdered me, Skull. Why? I loved you so much.”

The white of her dress slowly has deep crimson red leaking from it.

“What? No, I didn’t. What’s happening? Beth? Sweetheart!” I look up into her eyes, only to find her face covered in blood.

“Why did you kill me, Skull? Why? I loved you!” she cries, backing away from me.

“No! Beth! Don’t leave me! I can fix this! Don’t go!”

“I loved you, Skull.”

“Beth!” I scream.

“Boss? Wake up man! Wake up!”

My body jerks. When I open my eyes and sit up in the bed, I’m still screaming her name. Torch stands over me appearing worried, but for a minute it’s not his face I see at all. It’s Beth’s.

I reach over, grab the opened bottle of scotch on my bedside table, then take a large gulp and hope the alcohol burns out my insides.

“What are you doing here?” I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “Fuck, what am I doing here?” I ask when I realize where I’m at.

“Little early for alcohol, boss.”

“Fuck you. I asked why I’m here.” I try to get my legs to cooperate. I want to go back to the dock, back to the last place my Beth was. That’s where I need to be. I can’t leave there. “She might show up,” I whisper without realizing I’m saying that out loud.

“She’s not going to show up, boss. No one could survive that blast.”

I ignore him, he doesn’t understand. He couldn’t.

“Ese, Matthew wants to meet today. You need to get your ass out of this bed, shower, and get your ass in gear.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I retort. “Shouldn’t you be back in Tennessee?”

“I’m here to kick your ass in gear. We’re going to meet with Matthew and see what the fucker has to say, and you’re going if I have to kick your ass all the way.”

“What the fuck for?”

“He and Colin want to bring Redmond down, and you’re going to help the motherfuckers.”

“Why the hell would I meet with them? Fuck them, and fuck you too. Get out and leave me alone.”

Diesel pulls me off the bed, letting me fall to the floor.

“I never pictured you as a chump, ese. I thought you were made with more metal than that.”

“Fuck you! You don’t know shit.”

“I know your Beth deserves vengeance, not a sad-ass fucker who smells like shit.”

“How the fuck do I get vengeance? I’m the bastard who killed her!”

“You start by dragging your ass into the shower. Then, you gather up your sorry balls and go to the fucking meeting and work on ending that son of a bitch Redmond.”

I stare from the floor up at Diesel. I’m about to tell him to go fuck himself yet again when he says something that stops me. He kneels down to get a closer look at me.

“Your woman died,” he says. “I get that, motherfucker. But you have a chance to kill the man who kidnapped your woman, who is responsible for Beast losing his daughter… You have a chance to take his fucking blood. Your woman deserves that. Beast fucking deserves that.”

I close my eyes. Diesel doesn’t understand. The one person who needs to die for Beth… is me.