Yes, I did this. Mayor Romano’s daughter.
Not kidnapped.
Not held against her will by the Coldlake Syndicate.
Standing on her own two feet and facing the man who murdered her mother.
This secret has been hell to keep, and I feel it pouring out of me in an unstoppable tidal wave. The people at this rally know the truth. It’s spreading out across the whole of Coldlake. Everyone is going to know the truth. Everyone.
There’s nowhere to hide, Dad.
His expression flickers with an emotion I’ve never seen from him before.
Fear.
I hold his gaze for a moment longer, and then turn and walk away. I squeeze past people who are still reeling from what they’ve seen.
At the end of the row, Cassius and Salvatore close in on me from either side and we walk quickly away from the crowd. We’re the only three people in the vicinity who have their heads held high, while everyone else gapes at Dad or mutters in confusion. A few whispers of vindication reach my ears. I thought there was something they weren’t telling us about the way the mayoress was murdered. Now you know. I’ve torn the mask from your mayor and shown you the killer that he is.
I’ve done my part. It’s up to Coldlake what happens next.
As we leave the building, I make a call on my phone. A deep, deadpan voice answers. “Yes?”
“Thank you, Thane. That was perfect.”
“You’re welcome. You and the Strife men, are we square?”
I smile. “We’re square, but I hope this isn’t goodbye. I might need you in the future and you might need me. I hope we can start fresh.”
“No targets on our backs courtesy of your boyfriends?”
“No targets. We’re…friends?”
The word friend hovers awkwardly in the dead air between us. I can feel Thane’s wariness and mistrust, or maybe it’s just Thane being Thane and he doesn’t care one way or the other.
Finally, in his usual flat voice, he replies, “Cool. Later.”
I hang up with a smile.
A black 4WD Mercedes is waiting out front and Vinicius jumps out of the back seat to hold it open for me. Once we’re all settled inside, Lorenzo guns the engine and we race down the street and away.
“It’s not too late for me to go back and shoot him in the face,” Lorenzo says as he drives.
That was the first plan that was floated, but murdering my father never felt like enough. I don’t want him dead. I wanted him exposed.
I shake my head. “Thank you, Lorenzo, but this is better. Everyone in Coldlake hates him now. This is his worst nightmare.”
Let him live his nightmare, as he made me live mine.
Vinicius reaches back and squeezes my knee. “I’m proud of you, kitten.”
Cassius wraps a hand around the nape of my neck and kisses my forehead. “We all are.”
I relax back on the seat, safe with my men in a fast car on the streets of Coldlake. Streets that are mine now. Streets that are ours. Me, them, and this little one inside me.
“How did vengeance taste, baby?” Salvatore asks, his blue-green eyes bright and his handsome face radiant.
I smile at Coldlake Bridge in the distance that divides the north from the west. At the skyscrapers of the city center where Cassius lives and Salvatore works. At the waters of the lake itself. I got vengeance on my own terms, without a drop more blood spilled. For the first time in nearly two years, my heart is lighter than air.
Mom is happy. I can feel it.
I smile at each of my men in turn, admiring their handsome faces burnished by the afternoon light. I cup my belly with my hands, feeling the strong kick of the little one within.
“Vengeance is sweet. But being here with you all is even sweeter.”
Epilogue
Chiara
I run my fingers across the white daisy petals and smile. Daisies are such sunny flowers. Mom always loved them, but because they looked cheap and common, she wasn’t allowed to grow them in our garden.
I get slowly to my feet, one foot and then the other, and then, it seems, I have to haul my huge belly up last of all. There’s a sea of daisies in the garden, as well as dahlias, poppies, and chrysanthemums. It’s slow work, gardening while you’re eight-and-half months pregnant, but since the day of Dad’s rally, I’ve needed soothing work. Gentle work. A place for my mind to wander over the memories, good and bad, like a bee wanders over a flower bush.
Within a week of the rally, Dad was charged with Mom’s murder and as an accessory to the sisters’ murders and was refused bail. He’s currently sitting in jail awaiting his trial. I have no doubt he’ll plead not guilty, and he might be acquitted of Mom’s murder seeing as the only witnesses are four mafia men and their girlfriend. I’ve given my statement to the police about the night of my seventeenth birthday, and my men have, too. I’ll give my evidence in court when the time comes and I’ll hold my head up high when I do. I have no reason to be ashamed.
Lorenzo told me an interesting thing a few days ago. One of Zagreus’ bounty hunters watched police divers in the canal by Bleaker Street. They were there for an hour, pulling out slimy shopping trolleys and muddy sneakers, before finding what they seemed to be looking for. A knife. Lorenzo’s knife that he threw into the water the night he first kissed me, and the one Dad used to murder Mom. Lorenzo told the police about it when he was interviewed. Maybe it will help in the case and maybe it won’t, but it lightens my heart to know that people are talking about Mom at last and investigating her murder.
For the sisters’ murders, I’m more hopeful. Thane tells me there’s interesting electronic forensic evidence to corroborate what Dad admitted in the basement at Strife. Evidence that shows Dad knew about many of De Luca’s murders before he committed them and incited him to kill the syndicate’s sisters. It was a perfect arrangement for them. De Luca could sate his bloodlust and Dad could punish the men who were keeping him from wielding ultimate power in Coldlake. De Luca was frightening, but Dad’s cruelty and pettiness leaves a sick taste in my mouth.
Ophelia, Amalia, Evelina, and Sienna will get their day in court. Everyone in Coldlake and beyond will hear how Dad was complicit in their murders, and the murders of many other women.
My men have mixed feelings about this. It’s not the kind of justice they normally take comfort in, and they still don’t trust Coldlake’s officials. The story is too big and too scandalous to be swept under the rug. Secrets were what allowed Dad to get away with murder. Secrets and power, and now he has neither to hide behind. All of his influential friends melted away once the story hit the news and, it turns out, Dad wasn’t as solvent as he pretended to be. He had to sell the house to cover his legal expenses.