Key to Hell (Hell Night Series Book 4), page 29
As soon as she’s out of sight, I flip Rella around and have her on her back. Propped on an elbow, I hover over her. She smiles up at me, her eyes bright with love and tenderness. I’ll never fathom how I’m lucky enough to have her.
“I love you,” I murmur and dip down for a kiss.
Her fingers thread through my hair. “And I love you,” she says softly against my lips. Her eyes move to our surroundings. “It’s so beautiful here. I love the changes you made.”
We’re in our gazebo. It was a place that we all came to as kids, but I’ve dubbed it Rella’s and my place. Rella didn’t know it at the time, but before we started remodeling the house, I started on the gazebo. Any rotten wood has been replaced, it’s been repainted white, and the roof reshingled. Purple is Rella’s favorite color, so I had fully developed wisteria vines brought in. Thankfully, the plant took and now there’s wisteria weaving in and out of the lattice walls, surrounding the structure with beautiful flowers.
I surprised her with the remodeled gazebo a few weeks ago and she instantly fell in love. Seeing the look on her face made me fall in love with her all over again.
I have one leg nestled between hers, and I grab her knee and hike it over my hip. Her eyes flare with desire as her center meets my thigh. Since the first time we made love, I can’t get enough of her. But I’m always careful and attentive. I always worried Rella moved too fast when it came to us having sex, but maybe I’m wrong. Fear has never entered her gaze when we make love. Which is a good thing, because the thought of hurting her or her fearing the intimate act between us would decimate me.
“What are you thinking?” she asks quietly, running her fingers through my hair.
“Just how lucky I am.”
She smiles and it makes my heart pump faster. “Then we’re both lucky.”
I dip down and take her lips for another sweet and lazy kiss.
The key that unlocked the door to our horrid and painful pass was the key to my hell.
Rella is the key to heaven.
EPILOGUE
EMO
One Year Later
TROUBLE, JW, JUDGE, AND I stand on the back patio of Judge and Ellie’s house with beers in our hands, watching our families. The women giggle and converse with each other, and the children run around playing tag. Thea and Maisy are huddled together looking at something on Maisy’s phone. The difference between the Thea of a year ago and Thea today is astounding. JW said she took to therapy amazingly well. She’s like a different little girl. Happy and carefree.
I never thought I would feel true contentment, but that’s the exact feeling filling my chest right now.
“It feels good, doesn’t it?” JW asks, tipping the bottle to his lips and taking a long pull. “Knowing it’ll be over soon.”
He received a call yesterday with the location of the only remaining adult who escaped Sweet Haven, Barry Switzer. He and I are heading out tomorrow to south Florida to finish what we set out to do all those years ago. Once Barry’s been taken care of, we can finally close that chapter of our lives. We’ll still be vigilantes, or whatever the fuck you want to call it, and wipe out perpetrators if the situation warrants it, and we’ll still have our strict laws in Malus, but Sweet Haven will no longer exist for us.
“It feels damn good,” Trouble remarks, his eyes locked on Remi, who’s currently scolding Elijah for stealing a cookie from the picnic table. He walks away from his mother, his shoulders drooping and head bowed. Trouble chuckles when he spies Mae slipping him another one. Mae spoils all of our kids rotten.
I move my gaze to Rella. Just like every time I look at her, my heart beats stronger and my lungs fill with life-sustaining air. I’m so fucking honored and proud to have her as my wife.
My eyes land on her arm, where her sleeve of tattoos is nearly complete. She’s told me her need for pain doesn’t come anymore and accounts it to my love for her, her love for me, and the incredible children we have. The tattoos aren’t because she craves pain; she just likes them. Says they’re pretty. She loves that she can pick out an image and have it permanently put on her body. She plans to eventually have the other arm full as well.
As far as me, the darkness in my head isn’t as dark as it used to be. Sometimes, when I’m alone, it’ll try to creep back up, but all I have to do is think about Rella and it recedes. I’ve got too much light in my life now for it to swallow me whole.
I look to the two-year-old Rella is currently kneeling in front of as she fixes the strap on her bathing suit. Cindy is the latest edition to our family. Remi, Eden, and Ellie claim it was fate that she came to live with us because of her name, which goes perfectly with Rella. The pair has been dubbed Cindy-Rella.
Unfortunately, Cindy’s life so far hasn’t been the greatest. According to witnesses, she and her mother showed up at a park, the mother played with her for about fifteen minutes, then went back to the car and shot herself in the head. The father’s place on her birth certificate was blank. Cindy came to live with us a couple of months ago. Angelina and Joseph accepted her instantly.
The sliding glass door opens behind us and Declan, Ellie’s uncle, appears. He’s quiet for several moments as he takes in the backyard full of people.
“There’s something you all need to know,” he states quietly. The serious expression on his face has me tensing.
He turns and faces us, his thick arms crossed over his chest. His eyes move to me and Trouble.
“I heard you and Trouble came across a woman named Melody Lancaster about a year and a half ago?”
His question catches me off guard, and my hackles rise. There’s no fucking way he should know that name or that Trouble and I walked into that bedroom only minutes after she shot her father. The only people who know are Melody, Trouble, JW, Judge, and me.
“How in the fuck to do you know about that?” I growl, taking a step closer to him.
His expression remains calm, and it only pisses me off. Declan moved to Sweet Haven almost two years ago. He and Susan, Trouble’s nurse practitioner, have been dating just as long. He’s normally quiet and stays in the background for the most part. We don’t know much about him, aside from what Ellie’s told us. There’s never been a question about if he could be trusted, because he’s Ellie’s uncle. He knows about our activities here in Malus and all the other shit we do. Thankfully, he’s never shown he’s had an issue with it.
“Because she told me,” he answers calmly, further shocking me.
“Explain,” Trouble grunts.
He sighs, dropping his arms and stuffing his hands into his pockets.
“I can’t go into too much detail at the moment. I will,” he adds when I shoot him a hard look, “just not yet. There’s shit that needs to be worked out first.” When I give him a clipped nod, he continues. “Melody is a client of the security firm I co-own with a few other people. While we do provide protection to those who ask for it, we offer a service that’s much more comprehensive. A service you can’t find anywhere else in the world.”
He pauses, letting us take in what he’s said so far.
“Did it ever strike you as strange that I never had a problem with what you do here in Malus or the people you hunt down and kill?”
“No. I assumed it was because of what happened to Ellie,” Judge answers.
He shakes his head. “The Raven Group was created before she was attacked.” Declan glances to each of us. “What we offer isn’t much different than what you four do. Short description: it’s vengeance. The longer, more complication description is, we offer the means to victims to serve their own revenge.”
“Shit, didn’t expect that,” JW mutters.
Neither did I. Between Ellie’s attack twelve years ago and the shit Sierra pulled, I put his easy acceptance down as wanting perpetrators to pay to make up for what happened to his niece. We all have the potential to kill someone, but I never would have pegged Declan as someone who does it regularly. Hell, owns a fucking business that encourages it.
“There’s more to it than that—a lot more—but that’s all I can give you at the moment. I’m telling you this because we’ve run across an issue I need to speak with you four about.”
“And that is?” Judge bites out.
“Barry Switzer.”
I narrow my eyes. “What about him?” And how in the fuck does he know about him?
He blows out a breath, dropping his chin to his chest before lifting his head again. “I know you just recently uncovered his location. I need you to back off from killing him.”
Judge lets out a harsh laugh. “And why in the hell would we do that?”
Declan looks at him dead-on. “Because I’m asking you to.”
Judge grunts. “I’m glad you were there for Ellie and Maisy when I wasn’t. I’ll always owe you for that. And I like you. You’re not the asshole I originally thought. You’ve got my respect. But there’s not a chance in hell we’re letting him go. He’s the last person on our list. We want this shit over with, and it won’t be until he’s gone.”
“I never said he’d remain breathing. Look….” He glances over his shoulder to the occupants in the backyard before taking a step closer, lowering his voice “Barry… continued his activities after he left Sweet Haven. One of his victims contacted us, inquiring about our services. We want to give her the opportunity to do what she needs to do to move on. To exact her own revenge against the bastard who hurt her. The girl was twelve when he took her and raped her for two days straight. She’s twenty now and hasn’t left the house in eight years because she’s terrified he’ll find her.”
Motherfucking hell. It’s like Rella when she refused to leave Mick and Deanna’s house once she was rescued. How in the hell can we deny her? Especially if it could be paramount to her recovery.
“Damn it all,” Judge mutters. “How will we know if she follows through?”
“For one, I’m sure his death will be on the Florida local news. And we always go in directly afterwards to make sure there’s no evidence left behind.”
I glance at Trouble, his jaw twitching. After a moment, he gives Declan a tight nod, silently giving his consent.
“I’m in if the rest of you are,” JW concedes.
Judge stares off across the yard, no doubt looking at his wife and kid as he thinks over his answer. In the end, he says, “If she can’t follow through, we take back our right to end him.”
With a nod, Declan, along with the others, turns to me. Before Rella came back into my life, my answer would have been a firm no. With a fuck you thrown in there for trying to take this away from us. Revenge, death, and destruction fueled me. It was all I could see. It was all I had to live for. But now, my life is so much more than retribution and killing those who escaped Sweet Haven and the punishment they should have been given. I’ve got more than my needs to think about. I have a family now that means more to me than any vindication I’ve ever felt. Barry’s death will come; it’ll just be by someone else’s hand.
“Let her do it. Hopefully it’ll bring her some peace.”
“I’ll let you know once it’s done.”
He turns to walk away, but Judge stops him. “Why didn’t you ever offer your services to Ellie?”
His eyes turn hard, and the pulse in his temple throbs. “Because you got to him first. He was a slippery fucker I could never find.”
With that, he steps off the patio. We all watch as he stops by Ellie, kisses the top of her head, and continues to where Susan and Mae are setting the table with a shit ton of food.
“Can you believe that shit? He’s been here for almost two years, and we never had a clue he owns a business that offs people,” JW says, shaking his head.
“I always felt he was hiding something. I just never thought it would be that.” Trouble finishes off his beer and tosses it into the trash can.
“He has the potential to be a good contact. From what I’ve gathered, The Raven Group is one of the best security firms in the country. He has branches in several big cities,” Judge states thoughtfully.
I was thinking the same thing. Our revenge days are over, but there’s still plenty of victims out there who deserve retribution when the perpetrators get off scot-free. Declan may be of help in the future.
“Something to look into,” I remark, before leaving them behind and going to my wife.
Her back is to me as she watches Angelina, Cindy, and Elijah playing in the small kiddie pool. The thing has like an inch of water in it, so it’s more like they’re playing in a puddle. I slide my arms around her waist, my hands covering her stomach, and kiss the side of her neck, before resting my chin on her shoulder.
“How’s my baby doing?” I murmur in her ear, barely suppressing a groan when I feel goose bumps pop up on her flesh.
She giggles, and I feel the sound all the way in my stomach.
“Which one?”
“Both.”
She sighs and relaxes back again me. “I’m fine actually. Today’s a good day.” Her hands cover mine, just as a small bump nudges against my palm. “Miss Priss, on the other hand, has been quite active.”
I smile against her neck. Come to find out, Rella wasn’t incapable of having children after all. The scarring in her uterus was extensive and should have prevented her from conceiving, or at the very least, made it extremely difficult, but I guess someone had other plans. She’s six months pregnant, and so far, she hasn’t had any problems. Trouble is her primary doctor, but with my urging, she’s seen a specialist in San Antonio a couple of times because of the damage done to her body. We left both appointments with the reassurance that everything was good, and the doctor doesn’t foresee her having any problems during delivery.
We’ve also been to a specialist for Angelina’s ventricular septal defect. The hole has closed significantly, but not all the way. The doctors want to give her more time to see if it will close the rest of the way on its own. If it doesn’t, she may need surgery in the future.
And Joseph…. That boy follows me everywhere I go; not that I’m complaining. And when he’s not with me, he’s usually with his sisters. It’s plain to see he takes his role of big brother very seriously. I already feel sorry for any boys that may come around them when they’re older. I won’t have to scare them off; Joseph will do it for me.
“Did you ever imagine we’d have this life?” Rella asks quietly, her hands lovingly caressing mine still resting on her stomach.
“Never. But now that I have it, I’m never giving it up.”
She tips her head back, gazing at me with her beautiful green eyes. “You better not.”
Lowering my head, I gently press my lips against hers.
“You had your chance to get away from me. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me forever now.”
“Forever,” she whispers with a smile. “I like the sound of that.”
I tuck her back to my chest and we both watch the kids play. I hold her to me when she tries to pull away to help get the kids out of the pool. Joseph is already on the move, holding two towels; one for each of the girls. He helps them from the pool and drapes the small towels over their shoulders. Out the corner of my eye, I see Rella smile at the three of them.
Leaning my head closer to Rella’s neck, I breathe in deep, pulling in her peaches-and-cream scent.
For most of my life, the demons inside me ruled my life. My world was dark and gray, with no hope of ever finding the light.
The girl who used to haunt my dreams is now my salvation.
A Note from the Author
If you’ve made it this far, I can’t thank you enough for sticking with me throughout this series. There’s something I want to say about Grace, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
I normally only release books every four-to-five months, but it’s been every three, like clockwork, with the Hell Night Series. This series has consumed the last twelve months of my life. Not that I’m complaining. As hard as it was to write these books at times due to the subject matter, I’m still very glad I did.
I’ve been asked multiple times how I could come up with such material. Where my mind was at, and how I was able to stomach some of the scenes. The answer is simple. My stories are fiction. They aren’t real. And for that, I’m grateful. The mind is vast and can be… quite interesting and disturbing at times if you give it the freedom to come up with anything imaginable. Sadly, and unfortunately, what happened in Sweet Haven is imaginable. What the children endured in the Hell Night Series may have been a figment of my imagination, but those horrors do happen. Every single day. Most of us may not see it or live it or know someone who has, but those painful and revulsive acts happen. Whether it be one person committing those crimes or a group of people who have created a cult. It’s a horrible part of our world, and we must never forget.
Now on to a happier note. I know some of you may be disappointed Grace didn’t play a bigger part in Key to Hell. Grace is a wonderful person, and I adore her character, but she was never meant to have a key role in Emo’s book. His story, his life, is Rella. I didn’t want to take away from their story by inserting Grace where she didn’t belong. However, I’ll leave you a little nugget. We haven’t heard the last from Grace. While the Hell Night Series has ended, she’ll have her own story in a brand-new series that will come out next year. Keep an eye out for more information about The Raven Group!
TURN THE PAGE FOR THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS OF THE SINISTER SILHOUETTE
PROLOGUE
Luca
“LUCA….”
The willowy feminine voice comes from behind me. I slowly turn my head first, then the rest of my body and look for the source.
Blackness. Pure and absolute. That’s all I see. Except for the tiny twinkling lights. There’s a shit ton of them. It reminds me of the times I would spend the summers with my aunt and uncle out in the country. As a kid, I would always sneak out at night and lie on the roof when the sky was clear and the moon wasn’t visible. It was my favorite time of the month, because everything was so dark, except for the stars. I’d lie out there for hours and just watch them twinkle, every so often catching one that soared across the black sky.
