Never Give You Up. Shady Grace

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СКАЧАТЬ more at peace out there. It’s so quiet in the mountains I can actually hear myself think.”

      The weird smile on his face almost made Gabe look childish.

      “Which must be boring as hell,” Terry added with a grin.

      “Not really. I thought it would be at first, but all this—” Gabe waved the hatchet around and Adolfo shrieked beneath the duct tape, “makes me happy to live quietly for a change. You know what I mean? No more looking over my shoulder. No more doing what everyone else wants. Nice walks along the property. Outdoor sex. You should try it sometime instead of making your dick raw with your hand.”

      “Fuck off.”

      Terry knew right then Gabe was exactly where he needed to be. “God you’re pussy-whipped already, aren’t you?” He didn’t dare admit he was jealous. Before Gabe could respond he continued quickly, “I thought Dad wanted him to go to the pigs?”

      After giving Terry a deadly glare about being pussy-whipped, Gabe walked over to Adolfo with all the calm in the world and ripped the duct tape from his mouth. Adolfo squinted hard as part of his thick black mustache tore off with the tape.

      Terry cringed. God, that must’ve hurt.

      “Wanda put a stop to that after Ben. The pigs are on a diet.”

      Adolfo’s eyes widened but he made no other sound, only pursed his lips shut and glared at them.

      “Any last words, amigo?”

      Terry’s heart hammered as a sly smile curved Adolfo’s bruised and bloodied mouth. His black eyes held no remorse. He wasn’t afraid to die. “Yeah. This is only the beginning . . . amigo. You boys are stupid if you think killing me is going to be the end of this.”

      “What the hell are you talking about?” Gabe blurted.

      Adolfo smiled as he eyed Terry, completely ignoring Gabe hovering over him. “You kill me, everything you love will burn.”

      Fear gripped Terry by the enemy’s stark threat. He rushed him, grabbed his blood-soaked hair, and violently yanked his head back. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Answer me!”

      Adolfo’s evil laugh sounded hollow off the three-foot thick cement walls. He had nothing left to say and they weren’t going to waste any more time.

      Gabe separated Adolfo’s baby finger from the rest. With a perverse calm he wielded the hatchet with brute force. The weapon slammed down with a distinct thwack on the chair’s metal arm. The finger fell to the floor, blood spurted from Adolfo’s fleshy knuckle.

      His whimper of pain and pure terror made Terry’s blood pound in his ears. And just as quickly as his face contorted in horror as he looked down at his hand, Adolfo pursed his lips, lifted his chin high, and glared at Gabe then Terry. He was tough. He could probably lose his whole hand and still keep his shit together.

      Disgusted, Terry turned away. Watching a man suffer didn’t give him any satisfaction, whether the guy deserved it or not. He didn’t want to kill him. He didn’t want any of this, but he couldn’t stand back and do nothing if everything he loved would burn.

      “Colton wants his finger with the gold ring, then he’s going for a dip.” Gabe leaned down and smiled at Adolfo’s hazy eyes. Tears streamed down his high cheekbones. “You hear that, amigo? I hear the ocean is nice this time of year.” Gabe stood back and held up the bloody finger. “When your father gets this, he’ll be sure to play by the rules. No more jumping over the fence.”

      Having seen enough, Terry withdrew his favorite Beretta Neos and took aim at Adolfo’s forehead. He didn’t want to do it, but he had no choice—not when he felt threatened. As he exhaled and pulled the trigger, nothing in the world eased his turmoil more than the blood spurting from Adolfo’s mangled forehead, and his desolate eyes, frozen in sudden death as his blood sprayed the wall behind him.

      Terry didn’t want to think about Adolfo’s family getting his finger.

      With a heavy heart and more weight on his tired shoulders, he put his piece away and set the finger inside the tiny velvet box, before retreating into the elevator. “I need a fucking drink before I deliver this to Dad. How about you?”

      Gabe wiped the spatter of blood from his arm and released an annoyed growl when he realized the blood trail ran all the way up the side of his shirt. “It’s not even noon yet.” He gave Terry a “what the fuck is wrong with you” look.

      The elevator doors silently inched closer together. Terry put his hand out to stop them and said, “So? It’s close enough to lunch time for me.” He removed his hand and the doors closed before Gabe could argue with him.

      As the elevator smoothly ascended, Terry wondered if they made a huge mistake.

      Chapter 2

      Brown, soggy leaves. No vase of fresh or artificial flowers. No colorful cradle to crest the headstone. Nothing but a dismal carpet of dead leaves to grace her husband’s grave.

      Mary Billings, widow of little more than four months, absently toed some of the leaves around with the tip of her boot.

      Nestled near a tattered and lifeless tamarack, the headstone rested in the furthest northern section of Silver Creek Cemetery. In bold letters, his name, along with birth and death dates, engraved the existence of his life. Now he was just a lone monument, tucked away from all the others in this depressing place.

      That’s what you deserve.

      Maybe she was a cruel person for not missing him. Did her lack of hysteria mean she was as nasty as he had been when he was alive? Now she questioned everything in life because nothing made sense anymore. She had been devastated when the RCMP first arrived with the news of his death, but with the continuing silence came acceptance. Tom had hurt her both physically and emotionally for years. Now that he was gone, Mary had a strange sense of peace.

      Sometimes she wondered how drowning would feel. Did it hurt? Did you simply feel cold and fall asleep? Maybe that wasn’t harsh enough for Tom. Maybe he should’ve suffered more, as she suffered through their marriage.

      Look where your stupidity got you, Tom. Look where it got me.

      His sudden death had set her free. Sad to say, but she was too afraid to leave him when he was alive, and today would be her final visit to his grave. She couldn’t do it anymore. Couldn’t pay her respects to a man who did nothing but hurt her since the beginning of their toxic marriage.

      She may have loved him from the start, when she was younger and he’d put a spell on her, but it quickly turned poisonous shortly after the wedding. His control over her was as strong and unyielding as granite.

      “Goodbye, Tom.” Despite her will to be strong, her voice sounded weak, distant, as if it came from somewhere else with the wind.

      She had to be tough now. Soft people never survived out here.

      With a heavy heart, but an odd sense of relief, Mary returned to the north gate of the cemetery on the outskirts of her small town. She untied the reins attached to her big bay stallion, lifted up onto the saddle and urged Blue onto the road leading home. She needed the crisp air to fill her lungs СКАЧАТЬ