Authors: Mercy Cortez

Messy and Shattered (10 page)

Chapter Thirty-
One – Draco

We drove until
we were close enough to walk. Maybe I was a moron and walking to my execution, but I had to do this. Some warped part of me blamed Rahul for Erin's death, even though my actions had caused her to be buried in the ground a few miles away. No one knew where she was but me. I was bringing Aimee with me. Well, I had told her to stay with Jethro, but she wasn't listening. She clamped so close to me and it confused the hell out of me. I was so confused as to what was going on with us, but I knew that whatever it was, it wasn't important right now. Killing Rahul was all that mattered. I had lost everything on this mission. My new mission was to kill the worst man I had ever known, and this one, I would complete perfectly.

I got to the door and expected Rahul to
be waiting for me, but he wasn't. I walked in, holding Aimee’s hand in mine.

"Stay quiet. If he knows we’
re here, he’ll kill us, understand?" She simply nodded, letting nothing show - no fear, no sadness. Maybe I had beaten it all out of her, maybe she no longer had a thing to fear or maybe she just thought she didn't. I got to the dark hallway and there was Rahul, waiting for us. He stood tall and wore a tank top and jeans, so casual for him. In his hand was a meat cleaver. I grinned at my ex-boss and he greeted us.

"Ah, the happy couple.
I've been waiting, I heard you somehow killed my assassin without a gun? Impressive. You aren't alone, but soon, I won’t be either. You see, I know what you are, Agent Rupert Austin Draco." My pulse quickened, how the hell did he know? Why would he know?

"Oh
, look at that concern in your eyes. You really think I didn't know that you killed my little Erin? That I would be dumb enough to not know what and who you are? That your father killed your mother and then made you watch while he blew his own brains out? I admit..." He waved the cleaver between me and Aimee "... I didn't envision this for your ending. It will end one way I knew it would, though. I will kill you. I'll kill her too. Slowly."

He lunged forward and I shoved Aimee out the way, pushing
her against the wall. Rahul laughed. I felt the gun Jethro gave me in my waistband. I went to grab it when he lunged again and I fell back. I reached for the gun, but it was gone. Aimee was watching, petrified, and Rahul grabbed me and held me on the ground and held the cleaver to my throat. He was stronger than me and I felt the cold of the blade press harder into my throat.

"I will kill you just
the same way you killed my Ireland Erin, and maybe it will hurt you more if I let her watch you die. I saw it," he pushed the blade in deeper and I groaned "I saw her eyes sparkle when she saw you, that poor little bitch. My dear Aimee, he killed your only family, he beat you, he raped your mouth, and yet you still want to look at him? You're a fool. Don't worry, I'll let you watch him die and then I'll do what I asked Draco here to do, I'll rape you, and I know I’ll die because Dracos other agent friends will find me, but I’ll make sure that I fuck you so hard, you'll still feel it when I strangle you and your breath stops entering your lungs. Oh look, shes crying. Silly bitch." He grabbed my head and slammed it against the concrete floor, and Aimee shrieked.

"Stop
! Please don't hurt him!" Rahul laughed at her.

"You're pathetic.
He. Doesn't. Care. About. You." The knife pressed deeper, slicing into the skin on my throat.

"Tell her
your last words, Draco." My mind swarmed with words and thoughts. I looked into her tear filled eyes.

"Aimee, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry you met me, I'm sorry I... I killed your sister and I killed a part of you. I'm sorry
, but I think I love you, I think I am going to die, I think you need to run, now, get out and run away. Please. Run Aimee, fuck..." He pushed even harder and I knew it wouldn't be long.

"How touching. B
ut sweetheart, if you move a goddamn muscle, I won’t just slit his throat, I'll chop him up into little pieces and then... then I'll do the same to you"

Rahul looked into my
eyes; his own dark eyes filled with hate, and then looked back to Draco.

"I remember when we first met. Y
ou said you needed work and you were such a sad excuse for a man, so easy to manipulate. I knew, three months in, you weren't who you said you were. I liked you; I took you in and let you have any woman you wanted. But then you kissed my Dahlia, she told me. She told me just before I kicked her to death that she was pregnant, and she said it might be yours. So I beat her instead of you. Her blood is on your hands, too. You fucked her and I forgave you, I thought you were my boy. You betrayed me and I waited, waited to hurt you as bad as you hurt me"

"Rahul
, I never had sex with Dahlia, she fucking lied! You killed her because she lied. She wanted to die."

"Shut the fuck up, she was an angel. You lied every single
day. Now you die." Rahul carried on, his back against Aimee and his blade pushing so hard it drew blood. I saw a shadow of something. Aimee stood. She wasn't scared anymore.

Chapter Thirty-
Two - Aimee

The gun was so heavy in my hand.
I had never seen one up close, never held one until today. It felt so strange. I pulled back the slide and released it like I had watched Jethro do. I aimed the gun to the back of Rahuls head. My mind was a blur. I saw Draco on the ground, blood slowly dripping from his neck. His words and Rahul’s swam in my mind. I wanted Draco dead for so long, Rahul would do it. I paused, standing over Rahul, thinking of what I wanted. Draco dead. Was that what I wanted?

I gripped the gun, my breath
shook. I slowly squeezed the trigger, aiming at one of the men responsible for my sister’s death, the man who had broken me completely. I watched blood spray from his skull, but I just kept shooting until my hand shook, my thumb ached like it was bruised and I stared at the blood spilling from the murderers head. I dropped the gun to the floor and sobbed.

I had taken a life, to save another. Draco groaned as he pushed
Rahuls corpse off of him. He stumbled over to me and pulled me close.

"It's okay
, baby girl, it's okay" he rocked me gently, and stroked my hair, I stared into nothing and then he kissed my temple. I was a zombie, a shell. He scooped me into his arms and walked me down the hall to his bed and laid me down.

"Aimee, are you okay? Answer me, please
." I said nothing and pulled my legs into my body while I wretched tears, I felt an insane laugh fill my chest and out my mouth, I was laughing. Laughing and crying. Suddenly I knew what I was made of. How far I had come. Exactly what I was capable of.

I sat up and looked at D
raco, my smile proud.

"I should have killed
him, I didn't want that for you,” he said, taking my hands in his, “I didn’t want blood on these hands." I moved to him and put a finger to his mouth.

"Rupert? That's your name?"
He just nodded.

"You think you love me?" H
e nodded again.

We sat for a minute in silence when Jethro rushed through the door.

Chapter Thirty-Three - Draco

"We have to go.
Now!" He rushed us out of the building.

"What, Jethro?"

"He has a whole load of people coming and I need you two dead when they get here." Jethro made no sense as he moved the car to the front of the Shell.

"Dead?
You aren't touching her, you fucking hear me!" I raged.

"Oh calm down will you, Jesus what is she the crown jewels? I'm not going to hurt either of you, they just need to
think
you're both dead." he aimed at the petrol tank of the car and fired once, rupturing the tank, then again, the bullet striking the car and causing a spark that ignited the trickling petrol. The car went up in flames, and exploded within a few minutes, the flames spreading to the Shell. Jethro watched the dancing flames.

"I have no idea why I’
m not writing you up, why I’m not going to request your transfer and have her killed for knowing too much, but I need you to do as I say. While you were in there – apparently playing happy families – I made a few calls. You need to get out of here. They’ll think you're dead. I have my contact arranging a new identity for both of you. I’m going to say I killed Rahul after he killed you, and then set the place on fire to remove the evidence. They won’t be happy, and more women will be put in danger because of your actions, but it was either this, or I kill you both, so I chose this. Now, leave. Run, and don't come back. Oh, and Draco, take care of her. She lost everything for you."

"Jethro, I... Thank you.
I will do everything I can to protect her."

"I know you will, Dra
co. If you don't, I'll find you. I know how, and you'll wish Rahul was the scariest guy you met." He shook my hand. Aimee pulled him into a hug and whispered something in his ear to which he laughed. Aimee seemed okay, she had killed a man but she looked... free.

We ran from Jethro. We had
no idea what was next or where we would go.

Epilogue
, Part 1- The Truth Will Set You Free

Over a
year later -

Rupert watched the wind blow through
her hair. She would always be Aimee to him. He loved her so much and he would protect her with his life. She had tears falling from her eyes and a small smile on her mouth. Nicole, Nicole Gregory was her name now. He walked up to her and held her close to him.

They had managed to secure a form of a life. Aimee was finally with her form of a family and Draco believed she was happy. It wasn’t perfect but they needed one another.

"Baby girl, I think we have to go. We can come back, see Erin again next year, but you know we can’t stay here." Only Draco knew where Erin was buried and he finally brought her to her sisters resting place. She turned around and pushed her lips to his. She smiled, and he ran his thumb over her lip. He took her hand and they walked to their car.

One year ago today, her sister had been murdered by Draco's hand. He had slit her throat in order to protect her, and every year, the couple was going to come back to be with the girl’s sister at her grave.

Aimee was waiting. S
he was waiting until she was strong enough to do what she had planned to do so long ago. Deception wasn’t always easy and in the end, it was messy, and parts of her heart had been shattered, but she made a promise one night to her sister when she had sang her a song by Lana Del Rey, and even before that point. She may have loved the man who was now stroking her back and had given her a life she never dreamed possible, but it was all lies. She knew where her loyalties lied and he was already thought of as a dead man. She was waiting to be able to make him pay. She had killed one of them and she had one to go. One day she would do it and that day would come soon. He would pay for his sins. She wouldn’t rest until he did. In her head she recited a line she had once read and never forgotten ‘
…suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you'll know the debt is paid’.

She would see him in hell.

As
Bri Maya Tiwari once said, "There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken; a shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable; a sorrow beyond all grief which leads to joy, and a fragility out of whose depths emerges strength. There is a hollow space too vast for words through which we pass with each loss, out of whose darkness we are sanctioned into being."

More of Draco and Aimee to come in the third book in the series; read below for an excerpt from book two in the abduct series.

Epilogue/Prologue, Part 2 - Jethro’s Journey

"We all know that serial killers do not have enemies, they have potential victims. Serial killers lack empathy. They disassociate with feelings, control them intelligently. Psychopaths have no
conscience; they have no realm of understanding of morals and ethics. Do you know who said that, Agent Jethro?"

"Yes, me
."

"Do you stand by that?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I?"

"Your agency sent you to me because they think you killed one civilian, one
agent and one known criminal. That would make you a serial killer."

"It would, if it were true
."

"What is true, Agent Jethro?"

"I
should
have killed them."

Jethro’s
Journey (Abduct #2) - Coming Soon…

Love is a circular emotion that surrounds you like a hug.
Or a noose.

Acknowledgements

I would like to say thank you to my fantastic readers, I am new to writing stories and especially anything as dark as this. I had so much encouragement from readers wanting more information and spreading the excitement. You are all amazing and I am very grateful.

To William, you know where my paradise will always be.

To my beta/ARC readers, you are pretty damn awesome!!!

If you want to contact me search for me on Goodreads, I love hearing from you.