CHAPTER 60
JACKIE
Red and orange flames licked the walls around me. I found a blanket in a hall closet and wrapped it over my head, running down the flame engulfed hallways and staircases looking for Fury.
Coughing and blinded by smoke, it became more difficult to breath with every step. I rounded a corner and saw Bodhi at the end of the hallway stumbling towards me.
Stepping in front of him, I lifted the blanket from my head and stared him down.
“What the hell are you doing here, you bitch?”
“I came for answers, Bodhi,” I said, my voice rising over the roar of the flames.
“Answers?” he said, snarling. “You think I owe you answers?”
“Yes, I do,” I said, watching the flames grow behind him. “And if what you said earlier is true, then you owe me a lot more than that.”
“Why would I lie?” he cried. “I owe you nothing.”
“So, it’s true?” I shouted, my heart breaking. “You raped my mother? You’re really my father?”
“Yes, goddammit,” he yelled. “But none of that matters now! It’s all over! I’m not about to let anyone bring me down. I call the shots! I say when it’s all over. Not you! Not Will! Not the fucking FBI! Nobody! If I’m going to die, then it’s going to be at my own hand!”
He raised his arm and that’s when I saw the gun he was holding. The flames were right behind him now, the blaze once hugging the walls of the hallway now eating at the carpet, meeting in the middle behind him and forming one huge sea of hungry flames.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” I said, shaking my head.
I lurched forward quickly and pushed him backwards, hard.
He stumbled, his limbs flailing, the gun falling from his fingers as he reached down to break his fall.
He landed in a pile of flames, the fire licking at his tux, the fabric quickly catching.
He cried out in pain, screeching like a dying animal, the flames licking at his face, his signature red hair melting away.
After a few moments, he fell silent, wiggling around helplessly on the floor, consciousness fading from his charred, evil soul.
With a slow, serene smile, I watched as the fire engulfed his body right in front of me.
The immense heat, the roaring sound of the flames whooshing around me like a tornado, the smell of burning flesh and hair…
I drank it all in like the sweetest cup of revenge.
Revenge for my family, revenge for me, revenge for his daughter…
I watched him burn until the flames grew closer to me, the heat threatening to take me with him, but still I watched, frozen in place, unable to walk away. I didn’t care if I went with him.
I would have gladly paid that price.
Given my life to witness his demise. Given up my future to ensure that his torturous reign didn’t continue another day.
It was worth that to me.
To know he was gone, completely gone.
The flames grew closer, closing in on me, surrounding me now in their violent dance.
I closed my eyes, raising my arms over my head, submitting to the heat, to the flames…to death.
But fate had a different ending in store for me.
Life wasn’t done with me yet, even if I was ready, even if I was practically begging the flames to consume me.
Fury’s hulking frame burst through the flames behind me, his thick, strong arms snaked around my waist, pulling me back from the orange flames licking at my feet. Dazed, I allowed him to throw me over his shoulder and carry me from the burning house and out onto the lawn as firefighters ran in after us.
Gently, he laid me back onto the grass, his dark, frantic eyes searching mine.
“Jackie! Jackie, are you okay?” he cried.
I nodded slowly, my eyes glued to the destruction that continued to rise in front of me.
The destruction of all the pain Green had ever caused.
The destruction of all he might ever cause again.
The destruction of years of lies.
The destruction of a lifetime of secrets…
In one fiery night, it was all gone, it was all over.
He was gone.
A firefighter burst out of the door, holding Marilyn Green’s limp body in his arms.
“She’s dead,” he announced, placing her on the ground and running back in. My eyes snapped back to the burning house and slowly, I shook my head in shock.
“He can’t hurt you anymore, babe,” Fury said, holding me tight.
“He can’t hurt anyone ever again,” I whispered.
“I love you, Jackie,” he whispered in my ear, his words filled with passionate, frantic desperation. I turned to him and kissed him hard, my arms wrapping around him.
“I’m never going to let anyone hurt you ever again, babe, I promise,” he said, pulling away and staring into my eyes.
He pulled me into his strong arms just as the house exploded behind us. His huge body landed on top of mine, shielding me from flying, flaming debris. I looked up at him, the entire weight of the world lifting from my shoulders as I gazed up at this beautiful, strong man.
“I love you, too, Fury,” I whispered, nodding, tears flowing down my cheeks. “I love you, too…”