The Savage One: A Mafia Romance (The Hale Mafia Book 3)

by BL Mute

  I move my eyes up and look at him as he pushes off his car. “Anything.”

  “I need to make sure Cameron isn’t in touch with anyone else. He swore you’d help him, but I know that’s not true. I just want to make sure there isn’t anyone else involved. I don’t want to deal with this shit anymore.”

  He nods and juts his chin toward Lucas stuffing Cameron in my trunk. “I’ll figure it out. Where are you taking him?”

  I debate on telling him because the less he knows the better, but what’s the point. He’s already so involved. “Malloy Bridge.”

  He nods again. “Okay. Be smart.”

  “I will.” I give him one last glance before walking to my car.

  As I slide into the driver’s seat, bangs ring out from the trunk. I take a second and grip the steering wheel. I’ve waited for this moment for so long, and now that it’s here, I’m almost nervous.

  “Hey.” Lucas grips my leg over the console. “It’s going to be fine. Let’s get this over with.”

  I give him a weak nod, then push in the clutch and start the car.

  I slow on one side of the bridge, then put the car in park. The sun is dipping below the clouds, and there is no one in sight. I take one last deep breath and release it as I step out of the car. I waste no time going to my trunk. Every ounce of nervousness melts away when I open it. I see Cameron lying there jerking around, and I should feel bad. I should feel something. Maybe remorse or pity, but I don’t. I feel almost relaxed.

  “Let’s go.” I grab one arm and start pulling him out before Lucas steps in and grabs him under both arms and stands him up.

  I go back to the driver’s-side door and open it, then reach under the seat for my trusty Glock. I haven’t used it since Teddy got me my Kimber, but I feel it’s only right I have this one tonight. I close the door and point my gun in the direction of the bridge. “Come on.” Lucas pushes Cameron and makes him walk.

  We keep going until we hit the center. There is a short barricade that reaches my hip, but I urge Cameron to climb over it. “Now, Cameron. Get on the other side.”

  He shakes his head as the water below us crashes along the shore and against the pillars. “Do you think your dad would be proud?” he laughs.

  I point my gun at his head. “Because I’m getting rid of scum like you, I know he would be. The world will be a better place without you.”

  When I pull the hammer back, he finally starts edging over the side. “You’re getting rid of one monster just to birth another. Oh, the irony.”

  “Fuck you.” When he’s finally over the side and leaning back wobbling, I step closer. “My child will be better than all of this.”

  His eyes turn to me. “No. Unless you get out of here, it will grow up surrounded by bloodshed and death. It doesn’t even have a chance before its life begins.”

  “If this is a way to try and get to me, it isn’t working. You’ll have to try harder,” I snap.

  “Harder?” He laughs. “I don’t have to because after tonight, I may be gone, but I’ll still haunt your dreams. Every time you think of Blake or Teddy, my face will be right there too. I’m not leaving you anytime soon, Charlotte.”

  I raise my knee, then kick out my foot. One push is all it takes before he’s falling down below us. No screams, no tears, nothing. He just falls with a loud slap on the water, and I wait for the impact. The terrible thoughts and dread. The things I felt losing Teddy and my dad, but it doesn’t come.

  I don’t feel sad. I don’t feel sorry. I feel… complete. And that’s dangerous.

  I gave myself so much flak for loving Teddy because he was a murderer, but here I am, turning into the exact thing. And suddenly, I understand.

  Most say the thirst for revenge will never go away. That no matter how much you fight, the need to do more will always be there. But not for me. I feel more content that I have since I was a kid. Every last memory of Cameron starts to wash away with the tide. He’s gone and I can finally live. And maybe that’s how Teddy felt every time he killed someone who got in his way.

  I let my head fall back and close my eyes. The tension I’ve held melts away and gives way to complete peace.

  For the first time in days, small flutters tickle my stomach. I place my hand over my belly and smile as the cold air whips my hair around me. “It’s over. It’s finally over,” I whisper as a tear slips from my eye, but it isn’t from sadness. It’s from complete serenity.

  “Flower?”

  I turn and face Lucas. “It’s over, Lucas.”

  He nods and wraps his arms around himself. “It is.”

  He steps closer and drapes an arm around me before leading me back to the car. Instead of getting into the passenger seat, he helps me into it instead, then slips into the driver’s seat. The first few miles we drive in silence, and it doesn’t bother me. Thoughts of what-ifs and things that have happened don’t eat at me. I’m able to look out the window and actually enjoy what little scenery is there.

  “Are you okay, Charlie?”

  I turn and look at him with a soft smile. “I’m good.”

  Confusion floats in his eyes as he cuts them back to the road in front of us. “This is the first time you’ve killed someone.”

  “I know. I’m okay, Lucas,” I reassure him.

  “Your calmness is scary if I’m being honest. After Simon, you flipped. This is bigger. This is different. You shouldn’t be so calm.” His voice is soft as he speaks.

  Maybe he’s right. I should feel something, but for once the numbness around me isn’t problematic. It comforting and soothing. “I don’t think you realize how happy it makes me to end all of this. He can’t take anyone else from me.”

  Like something clicks inside his head, he nods and grabs my hand over the console. “You’re right.”

  I squeeze his hand and look back out the window. It’s finally over, and maybe this is me finally letting go.

  We pull back into the drive, and everything I was feeling disappears. The gate is open, and Teddy’s Challenger sits parked by the steps. I’m assuming Julius is here, but that doesn’t explain why the gate is wide open. Lucas slows as we pass the guard shack. I lean over and look with him to see the guard from earlier lying with a single gunshot to the head. My heart sinks. Everything was supposed to be over now. This shouldn’t be happening.

  “Stay in the car,” he says as we creep further in and park.

  He steps out and walks up the steps slowly, surveying the surroundings. The sun is completely gone now, which gives no light to really see. The trees sway lightly in the wind, but nothing out of the ordinary.

  Lucas reaches for the door, but before he can open it, a shadow appears from by the fountain in the yard. I want to scream and tell him, but I don’t want to scare whoever it is. With the shadow getting closer and closer to him from behind, I open my door quietly and step out. I sprint up behind him and grab him around the neck. “Who are you!” I yell, grabbing Lucas’s attention.

  He turns around quickly and hurries back down the steps. “I should have known you’d be a problem,” he growls.

  When he’s only a few steps from us, the man throws his elbow back and connects with my stomach. A scream rips from my mouth as I drop my hands and wrap them around myself. I look to Lucas and beg him with my eyes to make it all go away. Dropping to my knees, I try and catch my breath, but it leaves me again with the events that start to unfold in front of me.

  Lucas’s eyes grow wide before they turn dark and disbelief and determination covers his features. In one quick motion, he pulls the brass knuckles from his pocket and slips them on. The man raises a gun, but he never gets a chance to use it. Just as he looks up, Lucas drives into his face. His head flies back as his arm shoots in front of him and a single shot is fired into the window. The silencer on the end is enough to ensure no one will hear, but the glass shattering does the opposite.

  Carl, Julius, and Cat all run out the front door and down the steps. When Julius sees the scene in fr
ont of him, he turns to Carl. “Take her back inside.”

  Carl nods and grabs Cat by the shoulders, then turns to go back inside. Julius stands silently looking down on Lucas beating the man on the lawn. Over and over, his fist slams into him and doesn’t stop.

  Blood splatters onto Lucas’s face every time his fist comes back, but it doesn’t stop him. Every blow is directed in a new area of the body, mangling the guy’s appearance. His once sandy hair is now red and matted to what’s left of his head. Bones crunch under Lucas’s fist, but no one stops him.

  Pain pulsates in my stomach and core, but I can’t bring myself to stand. My eyes stay locked onto Lucas covered in blood, still steadily pounding into whoever this man is. He’s a beautiful disaster being sent over the edge.

  Finally, when the man doesn’t resemble the person who grabbed me at all, Julius steps forward and grabs Lucas by the shoulder. “It’s done, brother.”

  “No!” he roars, continuing his assault.

  Julius grabs his waist and pulls him away as he continues to swing. “He hit her!” he yells. “He hurt her!”

  Julius finally get him upright and places himself between Lucas and the man, who isn’t much of a man anymore. “Lucas.” He grabs his face and tries to turn it toward him, but it doesn’t work. His eyes stay zeroed in on the guy as blood drips from his still-balled fists and face, running down his chest. “He’s done, Lucas,” Julius tries.

  I take another look at his body lying in front of me and immediately feel sick. His head isn’t round. Instead, it’s smashed in and deformed in ways I can’t even fathom. One of his eyes hangs out of its socket, and his skin slips off him like water on an oily surface.

  “I’m okay,” I say, finally standing and moving my eyes to Lucas. But it’s a lie. Something isn’t right, and I can feel it. “Look at me, Lucas. I’m okay.” I step closer and his eyes finally switch to me.

  The horror I saw before doesn’t compare to what I’m seeing now. He unravels his fingers, letting the brass knuckles clatter to the ground with pieces of flesh embedded in them. “You’re not okay.” His voice has a new pain to it.

  I hold up my hand and place it on his bloody cheek. “No, I am. I’m okay.”

  His eyebrows pull together as his face contorts with agony and points down. “Julius, call Dr. Kelly.” Julius doesn’t say a word and does what he does best—he stays silent and hurries back inside.

  I look down to where his attention is directed and see the blood seeping through my pants. I reach between my legs and feel, then bring it to my face to make sure what I’m seeing is real. My fingertips are drenched in blood. “I’m not okay,” I whisper.

  Lucas steps forward and grabs me, pulling me into his bloodstained body. “You need to sit down.”

  He ushers me inside and through the hall until we reach Teddy’s room. He pushes open the door, then walks me to the bed. Gently, he helps ease me down onto the soft mattress and white sheets. He props pillows behind me, then walks into the bathroom. When he comes back, he has a stack of white towels in his hands, but they’re already covered in blood.

  “Fuck.” He drops them and goes back to the door. “Carl! Towels!”

  He closes the door, then walks back to me. His hands never stop moving. They twitch by his sides as he paces in a small circle in front of me, then push into his hair. I want to try and comfort him the same way he does me, but I can’t. I don’t know if things will be okay.

  The door opens again and Carl steps in. He comes straight to my side and starts unfolding towels. “Put these between your legs so we can monitor the bleeding in some way before Peter gets here. And you”—he turns to Lucas—“go wash that man off of you.”

  Lucas looks hesitant, but he ultimately obeys Carl’s order and walks into the bathroom. He strips out of his clothes and leaves them in a pile on the marble floor as he gets into the shower.

  “Who was he, Carl?” I ask, doing my best not to cry. It isn’t that I’m sad for the guy because I’m not. He jeopardized my child’s life, so he deserved what he got. I’m just worried what all of this means for Hale.

  Carl sits on the edge of the bed and moves the towel back a bit to look between my legs. Normally I would be embarrassed or shocked, but I’m clothed. “Emil’s new right hand. I assumed he would be handled with Emil, but I guess not. No sense in dwelling on it now though. What’s done is done.”

  I nod.

  “The bleeding looks to be slowing too. Try and keep your breathing steady. I know this is scary, but everything will be okay.” His withered hand reaches for mine and squeezes my fingers.

  “What if he doesn’t make it?” I finally voice the only concern I’ve had in the last hour or however long it’s been.

  “Don’t think about that, Charlotte.” He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. I know he’s worried too.

  The door opens again, but this time Dr. Kelly steps in, wheeling a machine behind him with his leather bag over his shoulder. He stays silent as Carl walks out, and Lucas steps out of the shower. When he’s finally next to me, he stops and bring the machine to the front of him. “What’s going on, Charlie?”

  “I was hit in the stomach. I don’t feel any pain now, but I’m bleeding.” My shock-like state finally gives way, and the tears start to flow. “Can you tell me if the baby is okay?”

  He gives me a firm nod as Lucas exits the bathroom and hovers over him wrapped in a towel.

  He lifts the towel and glances between my legs, looking at the blood on my pants no doubt. “I’m going to need you to remove your pants.”

  I nod and stand from the bed slowly as he turns his back to me. Lucas lets me use him as support as I pull them down, then slip one leg out. Blood stains my thighs, making the most terrible thoughts run rabid in my mind. A cry claws its way from my throat and out my mouth as Lucas grabs the other leg of my pants as I step out.

  “Don’t cry, baby. We will fix this.” The shakiness in his voice makes me question if he even believes his own words.

  Turning back to the bed, the blood on the sheet makes me queasy. It isn’t a lot, but it’s enough to make me worry. I saw the blood on my pants, but I didn’t think there was enough to seep through and stain the bed this badly. Dr. Kelly turns around, and like he can read my thoughts, he lays a folded towel over the stain to help ease my mind.

  I settle back in and wait for his instruction. “Go ahead and put the bottoms of your feet together and let your knees fall open.”

  I do as I’m told and stare at the ceiling as he inspects my most vulnerable part. I didn’t even want a baby, at least I didn’t think so, but the thought of losing him, or her, breaks my heart. Just when I’m finally making headway with losing Teddy and letting myself feel—really getting myself back—this happens. My heart can’t take losing another person I love even if that person barely exists at this point.

  “Okay, you aren’t actively bleeding right now, so I’m not going to check you. I’m going to perform a normal sonogram and make sure we can detect a heartbeat and see if there is any visible damage to the fetus.”

  I nod as he drapes a towel over my lower half and raises my shirt. He squirts cold liquid on the lowest point of my stomach, then fires up the machine. At first, I see nothing but flashes of black-and-white blobs. Nothing that makes any sense to my untrained eyes. He flips another switch, and static mixed with whooshing sounds out around us.

  Finally, he turns the handheld piece, and a perfect silhouette of a baby takes up the middle of the screen. It’s still which make me worry, but after another turn, a fast-paced heartbeat starts to sing.

  More tears well in my eyes as my body shakes with relief. “It’s okay,” I cry.

  Letting out a breath he seemed to be holding, Dr. Kelly nods. “From what I can see, it’s perfect. Your placenta, on the other hand, is not, and I think that’s what’s causing the bleeding.”

  “What’s wrong with it?” Lucas finally breaks his silence. “And what can we do to fix it?”


  “It’s placenta previa. Since the bleeding had stopped, it shouldn’t be too much of a concern. I’ll give you a shot to help speed up the develop the baby’s lungs just in case, and recommend bed rest and nothing in the vagina until after delivery. I’ll be sure and let Dr. Davis know so he can monitor you more closely.”

  I nod as he wipes the gel off my stomach and hits another button on the machine. “And no fighting, Charlie. You need to be really careful.”

  Before I can speak, Lucas does. “She won’t be doing anything.” He cuts his eyes to me. “I tried to tell her to wait in the car.”

  Dr. Kelly shakes his head. “You need to listen to him from now on. Next time this happens, you might not be so lucky.” Small black-and-white pictures print from a slot on the machine, showing me the little human inside of me.

  I nod again and lower my head, completely ashamed. The thought of losing the baby almost killed me, but what I have I done to prevent it? I’m still trying to stand my ground, hold my place as queen, all while putting my child’s life on the back burner. How fucking selfish.

  “I’ll stay on bed rest” is all I manage to get out without chastising myself.

  Dr. Kelly nods, then pulls a syringe from his bag. “Good.” After he sticks it into my hip and injects the medicine, he removes it and puts the cap back on, then places it back in his back. “The medicine shouldn’t affect you in anyway, but I’m only a phone call away.”

  “Thanks, Doc,” Lucas mumbles as Dr. Kelly walks out, dragging the machine behind him.

  When the door closes, his eyes shoot to mine. The hardness melts away when it’s just us, and the sweet, worried expression comes back. “That scared the fuck out of me,” he sighs.

  “Me too,” I admit, trying to bottle all the wayward emotions back up.

  He rubs his temples, then walks over to me and extends his hand. “Come on.”

  I grab his hand and stand, letting him lead me into the bathroom. He turns the shower on and lets the water get warm, filling the room with steam. He pulls my shirt over my head slowly, then throws it to the floor with his clothes.