CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

TYSON

I look over at Lynne. She’s still asleep. Peacefully. The turmoil, excitement, and aggravation from yesterday’s events weigh on my mind. I haven’t slept at all. I’m not concerned about what’s going to go down a few hours from now. Lynne can handle herself. She has it locked down. Her head is in the right place. It’s with those kids and the unconditional love she has for them that makes her a powerful force to deal with.

I have no choice than to allow the first part of today to happen without being in that room with her. It’s the only way. It’s the right way. The way I’ll be able to walk out of the Wilshire Federal Building proud to be a cop. Even though every nerve in my body is strung so tight it’s impossible not to see me bleed, it’s the best way to get our revenge. To bunker down and retaliate to assure her family stays out of her life forever. I’m a better man for it, and I thank every gorgeous hair on her head that she understood when I told her last night.

I reach over and touch her hair, my fingers gliding down the silky strands. She stirs. Her eyes start fluttering. I smirk. Can’t help it. I wore her out last night. My cock is ready to go again. There isn’t any feeling better than sinking inside of the woman you love. To move with her. To pleasure her in a way no one else can. It’s a craving that never goes away. An itch that never fades.

Her eyes flick open, and it’s right there in the early morning light that reflects all the love she has for me that shows me I’m doing the right thing by her.

I have to protect her, the boys, and my badge.

***

“Ten minutes, Corelli.” I turn from the closed door behind which Lynne and Matthew are now with her mother and look into the sneaky, devilish eyes of Agent Rhodes, who I’ve worked with as many times as I’ve worked with Dietrich. The two of them are partners in this massive world of organized crime we all deal with on the daily.

As a narcotics officer, I’ve always enjoyed stepping through this very same door. To say good-bye to the assholes of the world. To completely turn the case over to the FBI before returning to the streets. In a sense, today is no different. Except, after all Lynne and I have been through, it is. I can’t touch the son of a bitch like I want to. I can’t beat his head into the ground. Cut out his tongue and shove it down his throat so he can eat every hurtful word he has said to Lynne. To me and everyone else. I can’t even pull strings to give Matthew his chance at revenge. Not with Richard anyway.

However, I can make sure I haunt him. Install in the center of his skull the words that will drag him to hell and leave him burning with nowhere to go.

“Let’s get this done,” I emphasize, returning with an all-knowing gaze of my own. The need to rush back to Lynne as quickly as I can overrides the desire I have to slice this motherfucker up as I turn the knob and step inside. He may have taken away years from us, but after my ten minutes, he won’t be stealing any more.

“What the hell is he doing here, and where are my lawyers? They should have been here by now. You’re making this easier for me to walk with each passing second, you dumbass.” I shrug, cross my arms over my chest, and hold his heated gaze. Every muscle in my arms is screaming to wipe that smirk off his face.

“No lawyer. Well, shit, this makes my case all the fucking better for me and a hell of a lot worse for you. You’re royally fucked. I did see your protégés being escorted into a room. They’ll be here shortly. Which gives us plenty of time to talk.” I’m going insane standing here. A crazed animal who finally has his target cornered. Fuck. I can smell him pissing himself from here.

“Remind me to cooperate with you guys more often, Agent. I’d appreciate if you’d give me a few minutes alone. This is personal.” I’ve got years’ worth of shit rolling around in my head, too much of it to care whether they forgot to mention he hasn’t seen a lawyer yet or if he walked through that door right now. My guess is, there isn’t anyone willing to touch him, not with the news of his cunt of a wife being arrested for the same charges he has. I swear to God I nearly tripped over myself when Dietrich showed me the file on the two of them.

They have more charges against them than any lawyer in their right mind is willing to take on. I’ll bet my balls that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t have one yet. The other being, he doesn’t have a pot to piss in. No money to pay. And in this city, money talks.

“Your intimidation won’t work on me, you piece of scum,” Richard fiercely states.

“Not here to intimidate you, asshole. I’m here to send you to prison with a bang.”

“You lay one finger on me, and you put a nail in your own coffin. Even a loser like you isn’t that stupid. Or maybe you are. Being that you fell for a bastard child. We both know that’s why you’re here. To try and make me feel sorry for her, for you. Let me guess, it’s going to go something like this. ‘You never showed her any love, you pissed all over her childhood. What did she ever do to you?’ She was fucking born, that’s what she did to me. Let me make this visit easy on you, you fucking asshole. Do you honest to God think I didn’t know she wasn’t mine? Hell, I knew the minute that cunt of a wife brought her home from the hospital she wasn’t.” He stops talking, and my head is ready to explode. My stomach twists from the hate spewing out of his mouth. But he’s not done. I can see the venom leaking from his brain and shooting straight to his mouth.

“For eighteen long years, I waited for the opportunity to crush that bitch. I prayed to the devil to give me something, anything, to knock her off her holier-than-thou pedestal. The scared little girl who thought she was too good for us. And then you came along. Turned her into a bigger bitch. Christ, I had to beg her mother to give Lynne the wedding she wanted so I could get her out of my house, being that the devil was taking his sweet time to answer. Then she got sick and every part of me wanted her to die. I could have let her. Believe me, I wanted to. Her mother went behind my back and sent her away, and for the most part, she stayed gone. Then all of a sudden, she came back for you and for those fucking kids.” Hot-blooded fury floods my vision in the same way it did when I stared into the eyes of the enemy at war, knowing that if I didn’t kill them first, they would slice my throat and move on to the next.

My entire body pulsates with unleashed rage.

“You are one sick fuck. Just like you, I’ve prayed for the day to come when I could watch you burn in hell. To sit back and observe you swallow your own shit. I could break your neck right now, but it won’t be enough of a payback for me. Do you know what my vengeance is? The biggest settling of the scores? It’s for me to live freely, motherfucker. For me to raise two boys with Lynne without her having to worry about you or her mother showing up and pretending to care. Lynne never loved you, either, asshole. Her hate for the both of you goes bone deep. The love she has for me, for those kids, and for Matthew is what makes her far from the woman you think she is.” He tilts his head back and laughs. Cold, dark eyes return to fuel my feet forward. I lunge. Zero fucks are given about a book, because I’m going to fuck him up in a way that every time he moves, he’s going to know what pain feels like. He’s going to pray to his devil that whoever his lawyer ends up being finds a way for him to live in solitary confinement.

My fingers wrap around his throat and squeeze.

“Come on, you pussy. Do it. Hit me. Bruise me and make this easier for me. I know the law, and you’re violating every one of my rights just by being here. When I get out of here, I’ll get my boys. I’ll sell them and laugh my ass off when she finally breaks.”

“You don’t have a clue who you’re dealing with, do you? What was that you said about intimidation? You listen up, Richard. This isn’t a threat, you son on a bitch. This is a promise. Your rights to those boys were terminated the day they were born. Your rights to anything have been stolen from you. Ripped from under your Goddamn feet. You fucked up, man. Fucked up big by giving Lori Lewis those drugs she took to kill herself. You voluntarily killed her. You knew she couldn’t take whatever you had hanging over her anymore. See, I may be a loser. A lowlife piece of scum, but I know the law, too. Better than you do.” I catch sight of his brain reminiscing before he does.

“You are so full of shit. That bitch was doing drugs the day I met her. It took me drying her out in rehab just so she could have those kids. I didn’t force her to take them. She begged for them. Got down on her hands and knees and sucked my cock like she did every time she called me for more. She killed herself.” And there it is. More recollection. More knowledge that he really does know the law. He just buried himself by confirming my wild guess. And it hits him full force the second I loosen my grip. I won.

“Did you get all that, Rhodes?” I ask while still keeping my hand around his neck he just hung himself by.

“You dirty, rotten motherfucker. You won’t get away with this. There is not a chance in hell that will hold up.” I release my grip. My job here is done.

“You alright?” I place my hands gently on the sides of Lynne’s flushed face. She appears to be calm, much calmer than I am. I could have killed that bastard. Strung him up until all the blood rushed out of his cold, callous eyes and his disloyal mouth. Looking at her now, the warm expression in her eyes and the love that she has me shining like every sunrise we’re going to spend together, I’m glad I went by the oath I took years ago instead of settling this score in the way that wouldn’t have made me any better of a man than Richard is.

“Yes. I’ve never been better in my life. Let’s go home. I’m assuming my home is your home now.” She quirks a brow over those bright green eyes and that tempting mouth.

“Damn right it is.”