Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
“How?” I whispered, the engravings blurring with my tears.
“Mrs. Moreau and I talked,” Cowboy said. “She agreed that you, their son, should have them be wherever you are.” I stared at that picture, my heart fucking swelling so big I thought it would burst free from my chest. “We exhumed their graves and brought them here, to Texas . . . to you.”
“To us,” Sia added, and my eyes closed.
My head fell forward and my hands planted in the grass beneath my fingers. Nine years. For nine years I had missed them. I’d felt the injustice that in death they weren’t together, when they’d vowed never to be apart. A vow they kept until the choice was taken from their hands.
And then Cowboy and Sia, the people I loved most in the entire world, brought them to me, to sleep side by side for eternity.
Finally together, at last. No more hatred. No more pain . . . simply peace, and each other. My throat was so clogged, I didn’t think I’d be able to speak. But I managed to whisper, “Thank you.” And I knew, although it was real quiet, that they heard it.
Sia dropped beside me first. I pulled her into my arms. She held me right back, her tears falling on my bare shoulders. I laid my forehead on hers. “Thank you, älskling,” I murmured. I pressed my lips to hers and kissed her. Kissed her over and over again until she understood just what this meant to me.
I felt Cowboy sit beside me too. I looked at my best friend, and he nodded. “It was time,” he said. “It was time they came back to us again.” He shrugged, and then said huskily, “I miss them too, every day.” He looked away into the distance. “They were my parents too, in the end . . .”
Wrapping my hand around his neck, I pulled him in. “Merci.” I felt him rub my head. When we pulled back, Sia melted against my side. I held her close, just fucking living in the moment.
As I stared at my parents’ graves, I understood why they did it. How they survived all those years of hatred and abuse. Never losing their smiles, their love . . . never losing hope.
Because the way they loved each other deserved to be fought for, with everything they were . . . and it deserved to be victorious against those who only held hate in their hearts.
They loved and they lived for themselves, and no one else. As I felt Cowboy and Sia on either side, I knew I had that too. And if anyone couldn’t accept us, then I would fight too. Despite years of not believing it, I now knew for certain that I deserved this. I deserved my Sia and my best friend forever by my side.
So I vowed I would live for the parents who didn’t get the chance to grow old together.
And I would love.
I would be happy.
Because I finally was . . . so fucking happy.
The End
Bonus Chapter
Crow
Louisiana
“Welcome!”
I held my arms out wide as the final cunt, Jase Du Pont, walked through the door. His eyes widened, then the same instinct to run kicked into him as all those I’d killed before.
The door slammed shut before he could escape, courtesy of my brother, Thunder, standing outside. Brother had, as always, helped me in this new game of Hades’ Choice.
Du Pont’s head whipped around. I watched, my dick getting real fucking hard, as his eyes found his friends. He stumbled back, and I put my hand in my pocket and ran my fingers over my marble dice.
“What the fuck is this?” Du Pont’s piss-ant voice shook as he tried to push against the door.
I frowned, then looked over at his friends. “What do you mean?” I asked. “It’s a Klan meeting. That’s why you’re here, no?” We’d known the assholes would never have missed a good old Klan meeting. Piece of fucking cake to get them here.
It was fucking disappointing just how easy it was.
Du Pont stayed silent, his eyes darting from me to his friends. I walked to where they sat and took a white hood off one of their heads. I crouched down, studying his face real hard. My eyes narrowed. “Davide’s here, see?” Du Pont’s breathing came hard, until he moved his head and puked on the ground. I shrugged, then put the white hood back on Davide’s head. “Guess it’s hard to make him out now.”
I stood and approached Du Pont. He scrambled back against the wall. As I came closer, he froze, his eyes like a deer in headlights.
“Who the fuck’re you?” His eyes fell to my cut. “Hades Hangmen? Who the fuck are they?”
I smiled a cold fucking smile. Du Pont’s nose flared as he looked at me . . . the full length of me. I glanced down too, seeing the blood on my arms. I knew it was on my face as well. I could smell it. “You bothered by the blood?” I asked. Du Pont skirted across the wall of the old barn, trying to get away from me. I followed him, tracking him with my eyes everywhere he went. I dusted at the blood on my arm. “It belongs to your friends.” Du Pont stopped dead. I pointed my thumb to the back wall. “Davide, Pierre, Stan. Your friends, right?”