Covetous

by Natalie Bennett

  As shitty as all this was. Lou wasn't the end goal. He was just a small part of it. Call me power hungry, crazed, and an asshole, but I was going to get what I deserved.

  I didn't shoot my mother in the head for no reason, putting her out of her misery once and for all. Somone had to save her from my father’s sick method of payback and she didn’t have the spine to save herself.

  Now, it was time for me to collect my dues and move on with my life.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  I wasn't sure when he would come back, but I'd be ready this time. I couldn't let him use sex to distract me—or control me, as he so oftenly did.

  After day three, I wasn't sure if he would come back. He'd stocked the fridge and left the schedule attached to it. I wound up so bored the tasks became my only form of keeping busy.

  Watering plants, cleaning the floors, changing bed linens…it was the perfect housewife routine. I hated it.

  I'd just gotten out of the shower and slipped on my robe when I heard the front door shut. Pulling the towel from my head, I hung it on a hook and headed for the bedroom door,pausing when I crossed the threshold. He was already upstairs and coming straight for me. Without saying a word, he wrapped me in his arms and pushed me against the wall.

  After a few minutes and he still hadn't spoken, just continued to hold me, I managed to break away and put a small distance between us.

  "We need to talk." I kept my voice level; forcing a sense of calm I didn't feel.

  "And what do we need to discuss?"

  Taking a breath, I looked into his eyes. They were guarded. I'd find no answers within them.

  "This situation. I want answers.”

  "Ah, look at you. You aren't so broken after all."

  "I'll never be broken, especially over someone like you," I retorted evenly.

  He grinned like a schoolboy. "I like this. I was wondering when this side of you would resurface. You’re right, you do deserve some relief of all this. I'll make you a deal; we can go and see Lou. Then, you and I are going to have a nice long chat about our future together."

  Immediately I was suspicious. Pierce didn’t do anything at random. "You know where he is?"

  “He’s out back. Has been for two days." His head tilted to the side, and he studied me. I blinked.

  He was out back? What the hell?

  "You put him in your shed." I brushed past him and practically levitated down the stairs.

  All I could do was hope he was in better shape than Jason had been. Cutting through the sunroom, I paused and looked out the glass door. It was pitch black outside. All I could hear was the soft pitter-patter of rain. Pierce reached around me and turned the lock in the door before stepping back and watching me expectantly.

  I stared at him in disbelief. “Was the door open this entire time?”

  “No. But it has been for the past two weeks. You just never tried to open it.”

  Flustered, I asked, "You're going to let me see him?"

  "Why would I care? He's not going anywhere."

  His voice gave nothing away. I had no idea what I was about to be met with. There were no shoes on my feet, and only the silk robe covered me, but that didn't matter to me right then.

  Pushing the door open, I walked across the rain-slicked deck, down the stairs, and slowly approached the large red shed. Wet grass pushed between my toes.

  When a light flickered on, I paused to glance over my shoulder. Pierce was pointing towards the front of the house, leaning over the deck rail and talking to Tito.

  No one seemed to care we were all getting soaked. Looking away from them, I shakily lifted a hand and touched the door of the shed. The first sign something wasn't right was the fact it wasn't locked. The second was the single wooden chair and the blood staining the floorboards.

  I swallowed and whirled around, the shed door banging shut behind me. Pierce stood a few feet away, looking relaxed, letting the rain wash down on him.

  Even in the dark, in the pouring rain, he was beautiful.

  He was also cruel and ruthless—something my foolish heart kept trying to make excuses for. I was afraid to ask him what he had done. A sharp sense of déjà vu hit me, reminding me of his previous confession.

  "You said he was here… You said he wasn't going anywhere…so?"

  I gestured behind me. We looked at one another, his eyes slowly roaming over my body, looking at the way my robe clung to my skin before coming to my face.

  "He is here; I never said he was in the shed."

  "I don't want more of your bullshit riddles! Where is he?" My voice carried, drowned out by a flash of lightning.

  "You're so close you're nearly standing on him." My stomach dropped, I spun towards the treeline, eyeing the ground, and spotted it, the fresh dirt and the shovel leaning against the tree. No, no, no.

  "He probably ran out of air fifteen minutes ago. You can dig him up if you want. He might still be alive. I, on the other hand, have had enough of standing in the rain." He turned his back on me, took a step, and then paused, "If you want to run away, go ahead. You won't get far." He continued towards the deck after that, not bothering to see what I was doing. My hands began to shake, nausea bubbling in my stomach.

  I began to question if he was an actual psychopath. Maybe a sociopath. Whatever his diagnosis, he was the coldest sonofabitch I had ever met. His cruelty knew no bounds, dressed up in riddles and slowly revealed truths. Pierce made the worst of sinners look like saints.

  I stared at his retreating form seeing nothing but red. So many answers to questions that had haunted me my whole life were now buried six feet under, because of him.

  He never saw me coming.

  I never gave a warning.

  The shovel from the tree was in my hands. At the last second, he turned around, but he wasn't fast enough. He didn't make a sound when the end smacked into his head.

  I took pleasure in watching him fall for once, instead of me.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Every muscle in my body screamed in agony. My heart had yet to find its natural rhythm, but I had done it.

  I had managed to drag Pierce back into the house. Unable to find any rope to tie him up with, I’d bound his hands to a spindle on the lower banister with a bundle of panty-hose and string from his dress shoes. Now I was religiously checking his pulse to make sure he was still alive, pacing back and forth.

  Mud caked feet dragging across once shiny flooring, my robe clinging to my chilled skin.

  Without his input, I was left to figure all of this out on my own as best as I could. Seth wasn’t my father. My actual dad had just been buried in my fiances backyard after being tortured right beneath my nose.

  The words father, dad, parent. They meant shit to me. Every parental figure I ever had failed me. Seth was more to me than them and he wasn’t who he claimed to be either. I couldn’t force myself to feel sadness or loss for a total stranger.

  However, I could feel plenty of anger.

  A low laugh made me pause. I turned and looked at Pierce, finding he was now wide awake.

  “You think this is funny?”

  “I think you’re incredible and gave me one hell of a headache.” He chuckled in response.

  This wasn’t the reaction I had been anticipating. He almost looked proud of me.

  “If you want to kill me, there’s a gun taped beneath my nightstand.”

  I opened my mouth to say something but couldn’t word it the right way.

  “I don’t want to kill you, Pierce, Jesus. I want you to let my sister go and let me leave.”

  He stared at me for so long I began to grow uncomfortable. I didn’t want to tie him up like this but maybe he would actually listen to me now.

  “I could do that,” he eventually said. “I could give you a car or let you use my plane, set you up and give you access to everything like I planned to when you took my name…but I’m not going to. I’m not letting you go.”

  He was tied to a banister and st
ill spoke his piece with his usual blunt, callous demeanor.

  “I don’t understand.” I looked to the ceiling as if it had all my answers.

  “I’m not letting you go because you and I know that would be hell for both of us. I killed your father because he was going to get you killed, and for taking someone away from me. I don’t purposely do things to hurt you, Willow, but I must do things that will.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that. I heard the sincerity in his words and knew he was right. Leaving him would be walking away from the only bit of good I’d ever known. Staying would mean I condoned all the terrible things he’d done.

  “How can we—” I jumped at the sound of a gunshot from outside. Before I could ask him what was going on, two more went off and a pregnant silence ensued.

  “Shit,” I gasped, rushing towards him.

  “What are you doing? Get upstairs!” he snapped at me.

  “And leave you tied to the banister?” I frantically tried to undo the knots I’d made, panicking when I couldn’t get them back out.

  “Goddamn it, Willow. Get the fuck upstairs and grab my gun.”

  The gun.

  I took off up the steps, taking them two at a time. Something hit the front door just as I reached his bedroom doorway.

  Laughter floated up from below, making my skin crawl. Seth. Fuck.

  I ran for the nightstand, diving across the bed. Just like he said, there was a gun strapped to the bottom side of it. It pulled away with ease. Scrambling back across the mattress, I was almost out of the room when I heard a loud pop ring out.

  My stomach dropped to the floor. Keeping close to the wall, I fumbled with the safety switch and inched forward.

  Peering around the corner, I looked down to see the banister spindle where Pierce had just been tied was broken and missing, a small smudge of blood on the floor.

  Hearing voices coming from the sunroom, I slowly inched down the stairs. The front door stood wide open but there was no sign of Tito or the other guard.

  “Your father didn’t kill the bitch. I did. She was using more product than she was worth,” Seth loudly confessed.

  I almost fell over my own two feet. He’d killed my sister? Pierce said something back, but it was too low for me to hear.

  “Where’s Willow?”

  “She’s—”

  “Right here,” I responded coolly, coming around the corner with the gun held tightly in my hand.

  They both turned to look at me. I felt an instant relief when I saw Pierce wasn’t critically injured.

  “And what are you going to do with that?” Seth asked in amusement, eyeing the gun in my hand.

  “I dunno. What do you think I should do with it, dad?”

  “Oh, I see. You’re upset.—No matter my reasons. We both know I did you a favor by taking you in.”

  “And Cassie?”

  “An unfortunate casulty. Every fued has a few.”

  I glanced at Pierce to see him watching me with an unreadable expression on his face. Seth followed my gaze and scoffed.

  “You can tell him goodbye if you want but whatever you two had going on is done. You’re coming with me.”

  He pointed his gun towards Pierce and I reacted on instinct. It was him who taught me to never hesitate when your finger was on the trigger.

  There was a bang but nothing happened.

  “You gave me a gun with blanks?”

  I looked at Pierce and Seth looked at me, laughter spilling from his mouth. That was his fatal mistake, taking his eyes off the only real threat in the room.

  Pierce pulled a gun from his waistband and fired twice. Seth’s head snapped back, I flinched as blood and a chunk of brain matter hit the patio wall, and Seth’s body tumbled to the floor. I swallowed and stared at the puddle of crimson forming around his head. His eyes were still open, a smile slowly fading from his face.

  It was odd, maybe wrong, to feel a sudden peace now that he was gone. My sister’s killer. The man who had taken care of me for so long for his own hidden agenda. One I still wasn’t sure of.

  “Sir?” Tito called out, bursting through the deck door.

  “Where the hell were you ten minutes ago?” I looked from him, to Seth, and then back to Pierce. “Did you plan this?”

  “Of course, I planned this. Minus you tying me up. Poor use of restraint on your end. Fortunately, for me.”

  There were truly no words for the lengths he went to. He was always ten steps ahead of everyone else. “I can’t believe you. He was going to kill you, you idiot!”

  “Get him out of here,” he said to Tito, slowly approaching me. “You wouldn’t have let that happen.” He cupped my face and wiped away the tears I hadn’t even realized were free-falling.

  He was right; I wouldn’t have let it happen. I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed as hard as I could.

  “Why did you give me a gun with blanks?”

  “It’s not your job to kill people. It’s mine. Taking his life would only make him forever haunt yours. I refused to let that happen.”

  I peeked around his shoulder to watch Tito drag Seth’s body towards the door, but Pierce easily side-stepped to block my view.

  “You don’t need to see that. I know you care for him. When everything really sinks in I know you’ll mourn the person you thought he was. But one day, you will feel freedom and peace, leaving the past to lie where it is.”

  I couldn’t form a response to that right then. “I want a real gun,” I demanded, not anywhere near ready to discuss what had just happened, and because he got me more than I gave him credit for, he didn’t push.

  “Well, I want to discuss you hitting me with a dirty shovel.” He scooped me up like I weighed nothing and carried me back into the main part of the house. We had a lot to discuss, and I had a lot to grieve for.

  I knew we were both angry for a lot of reasons, but it wasn’t directed at each other. It would take more than a day. More than a week. Right then, I was positive our discussion would involve a painful round of fucking, but he knew it was what I needed, because he needed it too.

  EPILOUGE

  Marrying Pierce Serban had been a fantasy of mine since I was a girl.

  Who knew the reality of getting his last name meant getting kidnapped, finding out we had freak shows for families and burying a few people in our backyard.

  It was so worth it. He was worth it. If I had to do it all over again, I would, shovel to the head included.

  I inhaled a deep breath of salty sea-air and smiled to myself.

  “Your happiness is gross,” Abbi teased from the lounge beside me, poking me in the side. I laughed and slapped her hand away.

  She didn’t know everything. I’d agreed with Pierce when he said it would be best if she didn’t. We still had no idea where she came from, but it was clear she wasn’t Seth’s daughter either. I let her believe the best of him, his loss covered up by a lie. I didn’t want her to have the questions I once did.

  No matter what, she was still my sister. We were practically inseparable these days. We’d cried together, got pissed together, and eventually got drunk and hysterical about how insane the last year had been.

  I never had time to be depressed about it because Pierce was always in my face telling me to cheer the fuck up, doing anything he could to make it better.

  I looked towards the parking lot where he and Jax had gone to talk ‘business’ with a different set of Remmingtons, and found his eyes on me, like always.

  I smiled at him, and even from a distance, I knew he gave me his signature little smirk back. He was still an immoral asshole. That would never change, but now he was officially my immoral asshole.

  Her smile made up for all the secrets I kept. I found her happiness to be worth every single one.

  I didn’t deserve her, but I damn sure wasn’t giving her up. Willow had been mine since she looked at me with her pretty brown eyes in that strip club.

  Now that we were together openly, there wa
s a shift in our dynamic. One for the better. She didn’t seem to care about the whispers or the stares people gave us. She was content with me—just me. Not my money, last name, or what I truly did for a living.

  I reluctantly looked away from her to focus back on D’Angelo and Elias Remmington. These two would be my partners in building a criminal empire unlike anything before. Seth had been one more small obstacle to remove before things took a drastic turn.

  He had no idea I’d invited him over to die that night. He thought Willow would be confessing to what her father did with his property deeds and money.

  He even took it up a notch by confessing to Cassie’s murder. We both knew my father was responsible for that. He was a gullible idiot. Willow had never met her father, so how the fuck he thought she knew where he kept his property deeds and money was beyond me.

  Of course, I knew though. Her father gave everything to me and his daughter when he met with me to bless our marriage, right before I killed him.

  He deserved it.

  They all deserved it.

  I got what I wanted and I’d spend forever making sure Willow had everything she deserved. She was going to be happy with me. I would keep her naïve enough to never carry the weight of this world on her shoulders, even if that meant hiding bodies and keeping secrets until I went to my grave.

  THE REMMINGTONS

  Twsited anti-heroes.

  Forbidden love.

  Dark and sordid.

  Meet the Remmington family in the New Money Trilogy! Each book is a standalone focusing on a different couple, but all three our connected for one overall story.

  New Money Trilogy

  Dope & Dimaonds—D’Angelo R.

  Jack Of Clubs—Elias R.

  Ash to Dust—Saintiago R.

  Old Money Trilogy

  Matteo Remington

  Queen Of Diamonds

  King Of Hearts

  Ace Of Spades

  Other books

  Badlands Series

  Savages

  Deviants