Warmth floods me that I have so many men willing to fight for me. “I’m glad you did. Thank you, Tony, for putting your men on the line for this… for me.”
“If it weren’t for Dash, we wouldn’t even be here,” Tony replies.
I cuddle into Void. “I thought you were dead. I was so scared when I saw those assholes lighting up the bungalow, knowing you were inside, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“We owe Dash for that, too.” Void turns to Tony. “We owe you a debt.”
“I’ll hold you to that. For now, get your woman home. Never know if we might need her again,” Tony replies.
Home.
So much, yes.
Chapter Twenty-One
VOID
Seeing Ivy covered in blood scared the shit out of me. Knowing my father had her and was so close to carving that fucking symbol into her skin is eating at me. Having her branded in that way, I’m just not sure if I would be able to look at her in the same way. Not because she would be any different, but because every time I saw it, I would see my father. I would see myself, my old self, and I know it would haunt me. It would have ruined us, and that’s precisely what my father wanted. For me not to be able to be near Ivy, for her to be in the way of him bringing me back into the fold.
Problem is, luckily, it backfired.
Thank fuck I got there in time, and now we’re almost home.
We called ahead to tell Nycto we’re incoming. I can only imagine what Eva’s going to be like when we arrive.
I’m happy to know now my father is away from the farm, that the place won’t run without him. All his followers will leave and head back to wherever it is they came from.
After all, a cult is nothing without its leader.
Dash is behind us on his ride as we pull up to the clubhouse gates. West pulls them open, throwing his hands in the air. He hoots out some kind of hoorah as we enter, making Ivy chuckle, though I don’t miss the way her body is shuddering at the deep cold seeping into her bones.
We should’ve stopped for a blanket.
Eva and Nycto barrel toward us as we pull in. The pickup doesn’t even stop before Eva yanks open Ivy’s door pulling her out of the cage. “Hermana <sister>, I was so scared I was going to lose you.” Eva pulls Ivy into the biggest hug, and Ivy wraps herself into Eva’s embrace.
Ivy pulls back from Eva with a small laugh. “I’m fine, honestly. A little cold, but fine.”
A slow smile creeps up my face as I step out of the pickup, then walk around to greet my prez and his Ol’ Lady. Nycto raises his head to me. “You good?”
I dip my chin at my prez.
Nycto steps forward, glancing over the back of the pickup where my father’s bound and gagged in the back. His beady eyes wide in fear as he struggles about.
“What do you wanna do, Ivy. It’s your call?”
Ivy glances at me, I shrug because I don’t give a fuck what happens to the cunt.
Darkness instantly spreads over her features. An intoxicating smile appears on her face, and without saying a word, Nycto chuckles. “I’ll go prepare the mortar.”
Taking a deep breath, I pull Ivy aside. “You don’t have to be there if this is too much.”
“Are you kidding? He was going to cut into my skin and brand me. I’m laying the fucking bricks myself.”
“Only if you’re sure.”
“Stop trying to protect my virtue, Void. I’m in this. I’m part of this club. I brick bad men behind walls sealing them to their deaths. If you give me a gun, I’d probably shoot him somewhere painful too. I’m no princess. I’m not innocent, so stop making me out to be.”
I brighten at her words, they’re exactly what I need to hear. I always thought I had to preserve her, to stop her from crossing into the dark with me, but why does being in the dark have to be so bad? She has this luring light about her, but maybe it’s the fires of hell burning so fucking bright that I can see the same fire which burns inside of me.
We’re the same, it’s why we work.
Deep down, we’re both tainted, depraved souls searching to be good when all we really need is another dark soul to be bad alongside.
***
Dash had my father brought down to the bricking cell. He’s been drugged and is out of it. He’s tied up, propped up, and hooked against the bricks ready for us to do our thing. I thought Nycto would be down here with us, seeing as this whole ‘bricking people behind a wall’ is his thing, but he decided to let Ivy have this one. She will be his protégé where bricking is concerned.
That should scare me.
It should terrify me.
But honestly, all it does is electrify me because it lets me know anything this club throws Ivy’s way, she can handle.
There’s an energy in the air, a spark between the two of us that we’re doing this together. I move in, holding my father’s body back against the wall as Ivy opens the mortar bucket and stirs the contents. Her eyes light up as she picks up the trowel, lathering the first row of mortar at his feet. I don’t even need to tell her where or how far out to do it. She’s a natural.
Ivy lays the first row of bricks perfectly. I swear my cock is aching, seeing her in her element right now. Watching Ivy turn from this virtuous saint into this rebellious devil has been the highlight of my time here at this club. Hell, it’s been the highlight of my damn life.
Who knew when she stepped off that boat from Cuba, she would fall into my arms and change not only herself but me in the process?
The bricks continue to be built into a wall, entombing my father behind them. I can’t say I haven’t thought for years about this very moment. About getting my vengeance on him for all the torment he put me through when I was growing up. But with him behind bars, it was never something I thought would come to pass.
Now, with Ivy’s help, we’re doing this as a team.
Because together, we’re unbreakable.
I would walk over hot fucking coals for her. Put my life on the line time and time again.
Her eyes shift to me as I take my hand away from my father’s chest as she bricks up in front of his torso. I can’t help but feel like this has all come full circle. My father tried to make me be like him. In a way, I suppose I am, just not in the way he thought. He would bend people to his will, make them submit to him, make them do utterly indescribable shit—the man’s pure fucking evil.
I’d never make Ivy do anything she didn’t want to. She’s a free spirit and has her own mind. I couldn’t make her submit to me in that way, even if I tried. She’s far too alpha for that. But my father’s blood runs through my veins, that evilness inside him is inside me too, but I choose to use mine differently.
Ivy bricks up to his chin, the adrenaline surging through me right now pumps so hard it’s like I’m high. Ivy tries to fight back her excitement as well as she moves in to place another brick, but then she hesitates. “Shall we entomb him completely? Or leave it open, so we can watch him waste away over a few weeks?”
A slow grin slides up my face. This woman!
“Leave three bricks free, so we can watch the fucker dwindle. You’re a twisted fucker, sweet thing!”