The Devil's Revenge (The Devil's Eyes) (32 page)
“Should I?” I ask with a heated tone.
“You can if it makes you feel better. You can even be angry with me if you want.” He watches me stand away from him, holding myself with tears dried up in the corners of my eyes. “You know, it was Braylin that first told me that you wanted to know who he was. That you were determined to seek him out the first chance you got. Even since we have been together you still bring it up. You even checked your birth records, talked to nurses, who didn’t remember you. He has broken your heart countless times and I thought it was about time that he knew that.”
“You thought it was good idea to tell him and let him tell me?” I say, pursing my lips to keep for crying.
“Yes, Kayla. You would have watched him for months, maybe years, but you would have never approached him. You think he is out of your league even as a father. The only way to get you to talk to him was for him to come to you.” Nick says so sure of himself.
I hate that about him. Too cocky for his own good.
“I hate you.” I say, watching him nod but still holding his hand out to me. “I really do.”
“It is not the first time, Princess.” He says, taking my hand and pulling me into his warm, strong arms. He lets me cry all my frustrations out on his shoulder as he soothes all of it with his touch, a whisper or the feeling of his lips against mine.
Revenge: the act of retaliating for wrongs done to you. The definition is simple. Most would say it is best to forgive and forget but there are some things you can never forget and therefore you certainly can’t forgive. My family is a piece of me. You come after them, then you will have to deal with me.
It feels good to be back, but before I can meet up with my family and take them to our secluded home away from it all, I have one thing I have to do - alone. My parents’ graves are nowhere near as nice as this one, Tanners is being prepared to be even better but this one will always remain just as important. The day they lowered her coffin into this ground, I decided I would never let anyone get close to me again. Placing the flowers near her name, I wonder about what Elijah said. “I wish I could say I don’t miss you. You were so important to me but I have moved on and I need to let you go for good. Reaching into my pocket I pull out the faded scarf mailed to me months after her death and I tie it around the vase of flowers. I had hoped that she was alive, but after I met Kayla I understood where my heart was supposed to be. I need Franky to know that, if she is alive then she should know. “I don’t know if it was you or your father that sent this scarf to me, but I think it is time that you have it back. Good-bye Franky.” One last touch of the fabric she once wrapped around my neck to keep warm and I let it go, let her go. Leaving her notice, if she is alive, I need her to know I stopped waiting for her. Somberly I walk back to the car, letting my past go and embracing what is ahead of me. Lionel opens the car door for me. “You drink Lionel?”
“Not really but I could eat if you are buying?” Lionel glances in the mirror to see if I am willing.
“Sure, I feel like celebrating. Just make sure I catch my flight tonight. I have a family vacation to get to.”
“Yes, Sir.” He smiles for the first time since I have known him.
Lionel is a good man. I miss my uncle, but I like Lionel more and more every day and even more so when he makes sure I meet up with Kayla and the boys to catch our flight - to our secret place.
Kayla runs to me as soon as she sees me coming through the door, “You made it!” She says with a kiss. “I won’t ask what last-minute business you had to take care of, I will only ask how you are feeling about things?”
Smiling wide, I look deep into my wife’s eyes, “It feels good to be alive again, Princess.”
“And so the devil lives on …” Kayla smiles back at me.
Back from our family vacation and the first person I have to deal with is the chief of police. You would have thought he would annoy me less with more responsibility on his shoulders, but Simone is determined. Even more so with his new position. He rambles on and on about the evidence and the reasons why I should help him, but he has no idea what he is getting into. No idea what Dennis Savage can do to him. Savage, if he is The Baron, is a psychopath and will destroy Simone without blinking eye. I do my best to talk him out of it, to threaten him out of it, but the man has clearly had this on his mind for a long time.
Simone’s story is a hard nightmare for him to live with. He tells me he was hiding in the attic when they came. His father was investigating some murders and Simone didn’t find out until much later that the murders were connected to The Baron. His father was warned, but just like his son he believed in justice and set out at all costs to do his job with pride. A pride he held onto even when several men broke into his house late one night and beat him to death. A disgusting, miserable way to die and his wife was forced to watch every second and his son, heard every second. Simone still remembers the voice, that cold harsh voice telling his mother, “Take this knife and push it into your heart or I will kill you the same way as your husband.” He never heard her scream, just a sharp cry out before the deadly silence. Simone was lucky enough to have access to the attic from his bedroom closet and ran there when he heard his father scream out. The men assumed he was still in his bed asleep. He left his bed in such a hurry that he left his teddy bear behind and created a child-like figure within the blankets. They shot his bed, his bear, several times in the dark and left quickly soon after. He left the house and ran to his grandmother’s and told her everything. Smartly, she claimed he was with her the whole night and made him promise to never tell anyone differently for his own protection and he has kept that promise - until now.
“I don’t care if you help me or not, I am going after Savage. He cannot hide as
The Baron
any longer. I have an entire force to take him down with now, and if you get in my way I will take you down too.” Simone walks out with a chip larger than life on his shoulder and no one is going to be able to knock it off. The only way to remove it is to remove the pain he has carried for so long.
“What was that about,” Dwayne asks me.
“Apparently, we have a new enemy …”