“No, wait,” I said, panicked as my head wheeled left and right. “What if my mom’s here? What if…” I drew in ragged breaths, turning to Niall and he cupped my cheek as he saw me descending into a flim-flam. “I don’t think I want her to see you. She doesn’t deserve to see you.” I covered his face with my hands, but Niall knocked them away, clutching me against him as the crowd swelled around us.
“Tell me what you want, Brooklyn,” he spoke in my ear, and I knew he was offering me anything. Truly anything. “Tell me what you need.”
I looked over my shoulder at Esteban and my nose wrinkled as he drew a woman with black hair under his arm who had a giggle about her that stirred up memories from the distant past. There she was, the woman who’d birthed me and eventually abandoned me. And I was surprised how little I felt towards her after all these years.
“That’s her,” I exhaled.
“Are you alright?” Niall asked in a low tone.
“Yeah, I actually feel…nothing towards her,” I said, then my eyes narrowed on the man beside her.
Esteban swept a hand through his black hair, chortling loudly as Bad Romance by Lady Gaga started playing through the speakers around the fountain. He was a skinny guy and super tall, he kinda reminded me of a lamppost with a face. I might have been done with my mother in all the allys – physic-ally, emotionally, ment-ally – but me and Esteban had some unfinished business.
The fountain show was starting, but I couldn’t even get my happies back in place because now they were being eaten alive by my angries like Pacman chomping down ghosts.
All I could think of was how Esteban had eaten my final box of Pops which my dad had bought for me, how he’d smirked like it was all just some big joke. He’d never liked me. He’d called me odd, told my mom I was ‘too much like my dad’. Well at least I wasn’t ‘too much like a boring lamppost man.’
“Spider,” Niall’s deep, accented voice drew me back from the past and my eyes snapped up to his as the killer in me perked up her head.
“You said I could point you at anyone, right? And you wouldn’t question it,” I whispered and Niall nodded, his throat bobbing and a black cloud descending over his gaze.
“I did,” he said roughly.
“Even if it’s stupid and reckless and, well-”
“Yes, Spider,” Niall said. “Even if it’s all those things and more. If you need someone to die tonight, then die they will.”
My breaths came raggedly as the thrill of a murder swam through my blood and I gripped Niall’s chainmail in my fists just as the first huge sprays of water shot into the air from the fountain with a sound like a cannon going off.
I didn’t look at it though, I looked at my Niall, clinging to him as I saw the entire thing reflected in his gaze instead. I remembered that murdering was for the ones who deserved it, and it was too beautiful a thing to gift to Esteban. No…he deserved something that fitted his Pops crime instead.
“He can live,” I decided. “But I wanna punish him.”
“Alright, a punishment it is.” He grinned slowly, the smile spreading like a line of fire up his cheeks and I knew he’d gone to the darkest place that lived within him. He whirled me around, tugging me back against his chest and taking hold of my chin as he made me look at the jets of water spraying fifty feet into the air. I felt his heart drumming at my back and a quake ran deep into my body as he leaned down to speak in my ear.
“Enjoy the show, love. We’ll have to bide our time on this one while I work out a plan.”
“What about our ten ladybirds?” I asked.
“It’ll take as long as it takes. You’ve chosen a mark and I’ve made my vow to ya as clear as anything. Now follow my lead and I promise to deliver ya his punishment before the night is out.”
The power I held in a single pointed finger made me realise the magnitude of what I’d taken on in marrying Niall O’Brien. He was a hound of death and I was his master. I only needed to give the command and he’d bring me a soul and lay it at my feet. He would just as easily have agreed to kill Esteban as he had to punish him, and the idea made my stomach flutter.
I watched the huge sprays of water, the lights in the pool igniting the tall streams as they shot towards the sky. I swayed to the music and Niall rested his hands on my hips, swaying with me and creating a cage with his elbows so no one got to close to us.
The fountain show ended with an enormous bang as a huge jet of water was propelled upwards and I gasped as I watched it reach its peak then come crashing back down into the pool just as the song ended.
I clapped excitedly, bouncing up and down and Niall nudged me along in the direction Esteban took with my mom. I’d cut the cord which had once tied me to her a long time ago, snipped it right in two and never thought of her since, just like she’d never thought of me when she’d flounced away with Esteban. So we were done as far as I was concerned.
Niall prowled along at my side as Esteban turned towards an impressive hotel called the Bellagio and I hopped and skipped after him as excitement thundered in my chest.
“I want him shamed,” I hissed. “Embarrassed and cringing while the whole world looks.”
“I can do that,” Niall purred.
We walked through the entranceway and I gazed around at the beautiful place in wonder as we followed Esteban through expansive corridors before arriving in a vast casino and sitting at a blackjack table with my mother.
Niall steered me past them to a kiosk, taking out his wallet and slapping down a wedge of cash under the cashier’s nose. “Change them up for some pretty chips, please lass. I like the hundreds and the fifties.”
“Yes, sir,” she said, taking the money and replacing it with some shiny betting chips which had the hotel name on them.
Niall nodded to her in thanks, scooping them all into his pockets and I snagged one to hold onto, admiring it in the light as he slid his arm around my shoulders and led me back towards Esteban and my mom, circling far enough away from them that they didn’t catch sight of me.
“Outa interest, what did the fella do to ya?” Niall purred to me.
“He ate the last box of Pops my dad bought me even though he knew what they meant to me,” I answered, looking up at him with a fierceness in my soul. “And he was always a dickmunch.”
“Hm,” Niall grunted, anger crossing his features. “A Pops thief, eh? And a cunt to boot. Well then, we’ll teach him what happens to my wife’s enemies.”
“I hope my dad is watching.” I looked down at the floor, giving him a little wave. “Love you, Daddy.”
“What’s he in hell for?” Niall asked, following my gaze to the floor.
“Um…hookers, booze, cursing, breaking our neighbour’s nose with the blunt end of a pitchfork and hating everyone in the world except me.” I looked up at Niall and he knocked his knuckles against my cheek, a frown drawing his brow low before he looked down at the floor again. “Right then, this one’s for you, old man. I’ll be meetin’ ya one day when I get down there, and we’ll be the best of pals. I’ll take care of yer flesh and blood, don’t you worry about that. And I gotta tip my hat to ya for making the most perfect creature in this world.” He snatched a cap from a man’s head, flipping it onto his own and tipping it to my dad.
“Hey,” the man snapped, wheeling towards him and Niall pressed his shoulders back and stared him in the eye. The man immediately backed down as he took in the cut of my husband, waving his hand in apology and hurrying away without another word.
Niall twisted the cap around so it was on backwards and I glanced down at his knight’s costume, the way his chest was filling it out and the ink which was crawling up his neck. He looked like so many contradictions bundled into one and I freaking loved it.