Happy Forever After Darkness: Bonus Epilogues

by Clarissa Wild

  I kiss her back, but then the reporter on television talks about Angel’s father and I’m distracted. “Move,” I say, and Vanessa quickly lies down on her belly, watching the news with me.

  Slowly, her jaw drops as she watches the news. “Hey, why do I recognize that face …”

  “It’s Joseph DeLuca.” They just showed his face on the news. “Angel’s father.”

  “They got him?”

  “Not yet, but they’ve searched his home. The feds are all over it.”

  “Shit …” she mumbles.

  “Tell me about it.”

  The reporter tells us he’s behind bars.

  “Fuck,” I say.

  “Fuck?” Vanessa repeats. “Isn’t this a good thing? You hate them.”

  “Yeah, no …” I shake my head. “If he’s behind bars, nothing is stopping him from snitching on all of us. If they seized his house and took possession of his bank accounts, it’s all he has left. Reducing his sentence … by ratting us all out.” I squeeze the remote control so hard it almost breaks.

  “And fuck, if they find Angel … we’re going to get caught too.”

  Luckily, Vanessa pulls it out of my hand just in time and throws it aside on the bed. “He won’t. If the company you worked for is as bad as you told me, he’d piss his pants before he’d talk shit about any of you. I mean … there must be hundreds of assassins and drug dealers there, right? I bet at least one of them will manage to sneak into jail and kill him before he even speaks one word.”

  I nod and sigh, trying to believe what she’s saying, but it just doesn’t feel right. “I don’t know, princess.”

  She rolls around beside me and scoots closer, pushing herself into my arms. “Well, if they don’t … we could always kill him instead.”

  A wicked grin spreads on my lips as I watch her devious little face. My little fucking princess. Such a vicious girl. “Maybe.” I lean in to kiss her, her soft, smooth lips making me horny as fuck.

  “You know …” she mumbles, as our lips unlatch. “I do kind of miss having a place of my own.”

  “What do you mean?” I whisper, pressing a kiss just below her ear.

  “A house. The business of having a household. Taking care of things. You know. Life.” She turns to her side, her boobs rolling so perfectly, I just want to squeeze the shit out of them.

  “Don’t you miss it?”

  I shrug.

  “I do,” she says. “We’re nowhere now, and that sucks. Like, we move from motel to motel, never staying long enough to get to know the town. The people.”

  “You miss people?” I laugh. “That’s funny.”

  “No, I’m serious. What about it? Should we just settle somewhere?” She leans up on her elbow. “C’mon. Let’s go somewhere. What about Hollywood? Or Las Vegas?”

  I snort and pin her down on the bed, so I can finally have my way with her. “Yeah … keep dreaming, princess. For now … let’s christen our motel bedroom.”

  Chapter 9

  Ultimate Sin

  Daniel

  Reading the backside of the box to see if I need to add anything else, I stir the pot of soup on the stove. I’ve done it before, but I still need to get used to adding all the ingredients the right way, and the amount of work it takes to cook. It never seems to get easier, but I know I can’t be great at everything I try. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t have tried to make pumpkin soup. Guess I’m never afraid or too chicken to try something out. I love learning, and I love the freedom that comes with it. If I fail, so be it. It’s part of the process.

  I hum a little as I add some salt to the soup and taste it.

  My tongue hits the spoon, and I flinch from the heat.

  As I turn my head, I suddenly spot a man standing in front of our window, peering inside.

  I scream and drop the spoon into the soup. Immediately, I open the left-hand drawer and pull out a knife. Then I open the door to the yard.

  “What are you doing? Who are you?” I yell, showing him the knife.

  He holds up his hand and steps closer. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just wondering if a girl named Ava lives here.”

  “And you think snooping through my window will make me tell you?”

  “No … sorry, I was just …” He scratches the back of his head. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “Damn right,” I say. “What do you want?”

  “My name is Viktor,” he says, holding out his hand.

  I just stare at him without moving an inch.

  “Okay … Well … I’m a friend of Marcus, if that helps.”

  A friend of Marcus.

  I frown, lowering the knife. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “You know him, right? I was at his house in the woods the other day. The cabin with the fancy equipment, up in the mountains.”

  “What about it?”

  “So you know him … good,” Viktor mumbles.

  Guess I blew my cover.

  “The whole place was in shambles. Blood everywhere. What happened?”

  “You tell me,” I retort, still clutching the knife. I’m not about to tell him, a stranger, our life story.

  He swallows. “Look, I’m not your enemy, okay? I used to work with Marcus. I just wanna know what happened to him, but he wasn’t at the cabin, and the whole place is a mess. All I found was a paper with a house on it and Ava’s name.”

  “Huh … interesting,” I say, nodding, wondering how we could’ve missed that particular paper. Then again, we were in a rush to get out of there, and we only brought a box or two of his stuff. Maybe Marcus kept a spare copy somewhere. Not that it matters. It’s too late now. Viktor is on my doorstep, and I wonder what’s going to happen next.

  “Did you see or find anything else?” I ask, trying to find out more.

  “No; I heard a noise, so I just ran. I don’t wanna get caught.”

  I frown. “Caught by who?”

  “I don’t know. The feds?”

  My eyes widen. “What, you think the feds found the cabin already?”

  “What do you mean already?” Viktor narrows his eyes. He steps forward and grabs my door. “If you know anything, you gotta tell me.”

  “Let go of my door,” I growl, but he’s not giving in.

  “No; there’s more at stake here than your need for privacy. What did you take from his home? Is there anything that has information on it about the companies?”

  My nostrils flare, and I can tell from the way he glares at me that he’s not going to leave anytime soon. Judging by the size of his muscles, I’m no match for him. I don’t want to call the cops either because that could get us in trouble if he’s really part of the same company we just ratted out to the cops. Maybe I should just give him what he wants.

  “Who is that?” I hear Ava’s voice in the background and his eyes focus on the house instead of me. Dammit.

  “Don’t you try a thing, buddy,” I say.

  “Is that Ava?” he asks.

  “Daniel?” Ava says as she approaches us cautiously. Her eyes skitter around as she inspects the beast of a man standing in our doorway. “Who are you?”

  “Viktor, friend of Marcus.” Just his name makes her lips part and her muscles tense. “Do you know what happened to him?”

  She slams her lips shut and grabs the door frame, and I can tell that she’s having a difficult time. “He’s gone.”

  “What do you mean ‘gone’?” Viktor repeats.

  “Gone, as in gone … forever.” She sighs.

  Viktor’s eyes soften and then he sighs out loud too, shaking his head. “Fuck.”

  “Did you know him well?” she asks.

  “Just a little …” he mutters. “I’m just … wondering if he gave you anything important, like information.”

  She frowns. “Well …”

  “So he did?” Viktor takes another step forward.

  “He did,” Ava says, standing her ground. “But he told me ex
plicitly I could do with it what I wanted. It was my choice. So I took it to the police.”

  His eyes widen. “You did what?” he growls.

  “Get back!” I lift the knife again and hold it up against him. “I’m not afraid to use this.”

  “Show me the papers,” he says. Looking at Ava only, he’s practically ignoring me. “Please … I need to know if my name is on there.”

  She mulls it over for a sec, her face scrunching up, and then she nods slowly. “All right. I’ll get the copy we made.”

  She runs up the stairs and comes back with a stack of papers that we copied before we gave the originals to the police. That way we’d always have a physical acknowledgment of what we’d done. A tangible memory.

  “Here …” She holds them out to him.

  “Wait,” I say. “Are you sure you want to give those up?”

  “I don’t care,” she says. “I don’t want to be reminded of any of it.”

  “Thanks,” Viktor says as he snatches it away before I can protest any further.

  He quickly reads over the notes, sifting through the papers, probably searching for his name. “Shit … this means they’ll probably come after me too if these papers explain literally everything about the company.”

  “You?” Ava mumbles.

  “He used to be a part of one of the companies Marcus was the leader of,” I hiss. “Or so he says.”

  “I was because I had to, but I hate them. They fucking ruined my life, and now that I’m finally free of the burden of the company, this happens. Marcus is gone. The entire scheme exposed to the feds. Before you know it, the whole world will know what we did.”

  His face turns dark, and he slowly shakes his head. “What have you done?”

  Ava sucks on her lips and takes a step back, clutching her chest. “I …”

  I can tell from the way she looks at him that she feels guilty again.

  “I’m sorry,” she says.

  “Don’t,” I say. “Don’t apologize for doing the right thing.”

  “But they were friends,” she says.

  “You don’t know that. He could be lying.”

  “I’m not lying,” Viktor growls. “He was the only one who was doing the right thing, and I… I …” He slaps his forehead. “Fuck. I fucked up badly.”

  “Maybe not all of them were bad …” Ava murmurs gazing at the floor.

  I grab her chin and make her look at me. “Don’t think about it. What’s done is done. You did what you needed to do.”

  “But … Maybe it wasn’t right if I didn’t talk to everyone involved.”

  “You mean like me,” Viktor says. “Because I don’t want to go to jail.”

  “I’m sorry,” she repeats like it’ll help.

  “Look, just take the papers and go,” I say, trying to stop this from happening. “Just leave.”

  “But …” Viktor sighs. “Sorry; I just didn’t think I would find out like this. I’m sorry for intruding in your lives,” Viktor says. “I never want to have to deal with the company again.”

  “Me neither …” Ava says. “I don’t want to hear about it. I don’t want to see any of them. I don’t want to know it even existed in the first place.”

  His eyes narrow. “You were one of the …”

  She nods. He doesn’t even have to finish his sentence for all of us to know what he means.

  “I’m sorry,” he says, and then he turns around, clutching the papers.

  “Take care of yourself, okay?” Ava says. “Marcus would’ve wanted it.”

  Viktor nods, before turning around and running out onto the street and disappearing.

  I wonder if we’ll ever see or hear from him again. Or if this was the last time before his face will appear on the news.

  Only time will tell.

  Chapter 10

  Twenty-One

  Angel

  As I fold the laundry, I turn up the volume on my laptop, so the video on the website I’m looking at is louder. The news is talking about my home being raided. The idea that they’re sifting through my stuff as we speak puts me on edge, but I can’t not listen to the broadcast either. I have to know what they’re doing; I gotta be one step ahead. Because if I’m not, then I’ll never see them coming.

  I almost had a heart attack when I first saw my dad’s face on national television.

  Luckily for me, Sky was there to hold me down so I wouldn’t storm out and go do something stupid. She reassured me, just by being near me, that it was going to be okay.

  But now that I keep seeing it over and over again on the online videos and television, I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen to us. Should we move? Should we disappear?

  I look at Lily’s clothes lying on the table in front of me, and as I close my eyes, I play out an imaginary conversation with her, even though she’s upstairs.

  “Daddy loves you,” I murmur to myself. “And I’ll protect you from them, I promise.”

  I know that once they find my info, it’s only a matter of time before the feds will come knocking on my door. And then they’ll take my little girl away from me. I can’t let that happen. I’d rather die than see my girl end up in the system like all those other poor kids who didn’t have their parents or a place to call home.

  “You’re watching that again?” Sky says as she comes down the stairs.

  I open my eyes and put the laundry away. “Yeah …”

  It’s quiet for some time, probably because we both don’t know how to react to the news.

  “Do you think we should do it?” Sky mumbles after a while as she sits down on the chair behind the laptop.

  “Hmm …” I murmur, not wanting to say yes or no, even though I know damn well what the answer should be.

  “I can’t believe your dad’s whole operation got busted,” she says.

  “Well, I guess we had it coming,” I reply.

  The news reporter suddenly starts talking about a guy named Marcus, and I immediately turn my head to listen in. “Hey, turn it up,” I ask Sky, after which she smashes her fingers on the keyboard.

  “I know that guy,” I mumble, frowning to pull out my memories.

  “Who is it?”

  “Marcus … Marcus something. I saw him at my dad’s restaurant. He came to talk with him, no idea about what. Must’ve been business. I know my dad was in some kind of scheme along with other men, something bigger than just his company.”

  “Huh … Marcus Knight,” she says, repeating the news.

  “Yeah. They got him too?”

  She nods at me, and I bite my lip from the realization that they’re probably on to all of us.

  “They’re going to come down on us like rain.”

  Sky closes the laptop.

  “Hey … I was watching that,” I say.

  “I know, but it’s not good for you.” She scoots back her chair and goes to the kitchen to make some coffee. “It’s only making you anxious.”

  “We should be. They already showed my dad’s face. I can’t go out of the house anymore.”

  She turns around and leans against the kitchen counter. “We’ll figure something out.”

  “Will we?” I look her dead in the eye. “I think it’s time, Sky …”

  She sighs and looks away. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Then she walks off and goes back upstairs.

  I know why she’s avoiding it. We both are. Of course, it’s hard facing the truth … The truth where our little girl isn’t safe, and we have to run.

  I put the laundry in a basket and sit down on the couch then turn on the television. I just can’t stop watching, even if it’s the local news.

  However, the moment the news reporter opens her mouth, my jaw drops.

  “Breaking news. There was an attack on the police station. Several officers have been injured and hospitalized. Shots were fired, and some type of gas was used. So far no deaths have been reported. Everyone is requested to stay away from the area as the investigation is
ongoing.”

  “Holy fucking shit …” I mutter at the television.

  When Sky comes running down, she immediately yells, “Oh my god, did I just really hear that?”

  “Shhh …” I turn up the volume.

  “Possibly ten injured. Shortly before the attack, witnesses say they spotted a man with a briefcase walking into the building, but he was never seen leaving the premise. However, several police officers have left statements saying the suspect did not make any attempt to kill but did manage to break into the vault where crime evidence was kept under lock. Specifics of what was stolen are not yet known, but there are indications that magnets were used to wipe the computers of all information, rendering the current network useless. Our sources say it’s rather unusual, as so far only the files for the DeLuca and Knight cases have been reported missing.”

  “Jesus Christ …” Sky mumbles. “Do you think …?”

  I nod slowly. “Maybe.”

  “Could they?” She narrows her eyes.

  My lips slowly curve into a smile. “If they really wanted to …”

  “It’s not some insider job? You know, a bad cop?” she mutters.

  “Doesn’t look like it. Seems more likely that it was one of ours.” I smile as I look at her. “But I know one thing for sure. We’ve got a guardian angel looking out for our family, and it isn’t me.”

  Chapter 11

  Stalker

  Vanessa

  “I’m in love with it!” I say as I smile and walk around the house.

  “That’s great,” the real estate lady says. She jingles something in her hand, and I turn around. “I just need your signature before I can give you these.” I look at the keys begging me to take them from her hand.

  Phoenix grabs the papers from her hand and says, “Got a pen?”

  She clears her throat and pulls one out of her pocket. “Sure. There you go.”

  He snatches it from her and leans against the wall as he pens down our names.

  Jessica and Jake Smith.

  Of course, those are not our real names, but she doesn’t need to know that.