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Toro, Bergia
Sunday, 31 January, 2:38 a.m.
––––––––
Ragnar tilted his head to the right and left as he studied our faces. "You're supposed to kneel. Idiots."
Laughter echoed down the stone walled passages. The Walker brothers turned to me and shook their heads. I shrugged. "I don't bow. Not in front of any man, woman, statue, or the bear in the corner. Least of all in front of you. That bear deserves more respect than you do, Your Highness. Sit. Let me explain life to you. The only person who will end up on their knees is you. When I slice your back open, crack your ribs, and pull out your lungs."
"You can't touch me." Ragnar stepped forward but stopped when my SIG moved into his line of sight. "My father will have you killed for this."
"Oh, that's precious." With my left hand, I retrieved my mobile phone and showed him his family's current situation. Szymon and Ylva bound, their mouths covered with duct tape. Astrid's lifeless body remained on the couch; blood trailed from her eyes. Ironic as she had never cried for her children.
Piotr grinned when Marika moved the mobile phone in front of his face. "My only regret is not being the one to kill you." Aidan translated for me and admitted he left out a lot of swear words.
"Don't worry, they can see you as well." I pointed at the body camera mounted to my chest. "In case you missed it, your mommy is dead. I gave her the death penalty for not protecting Ylva. Remember all the times you watched your own sister being raped? You stood there and did absolutely nothing to protect your own blood. Except, her just lying there with her eyes closed woke something in you. It birthed the fantasy of the sleeping princess. The very fantasy you recreated when you murdered innocent women. Sit, Raggie, you and I are going to have ourselves a little chat. I promised your daddy that if you talk, I won't make your death painful. I lied. Whether or not you talk, it doesn't matter. You. Will. Die. And so will every person linked to grandpa's sick circle."
"They killed them. I had nothing to do with it." Ragnar moved closer to the throne.
Bullet after bullet tore into the wood; splinters flew into the air and fell to the floor. I repositioned the rifle over my shoulder. "No. You'll sit in the blood of the men who died trying to protect you."
Ragnar didn't move. Defiance got him only one thing – a bullet in the knee from my husband's SIG. Gravity and pain did the rest.
"Big, bad, evil prince, crying like the pathetic loser you are. Come on, Raggie, show some self-respect." I shook my head and marched to where he sat. Blood soaked his jeans from the ground up and from the hole in his knee. I studied his face, trying to look past the pain carved into it and the tears streaming down his cheeks. "Mommy was right. No woman will ever want you; you can't even take a bullet like a man. Pathetic."
"I didn't kill anyone," he whimpered.
I turned to Aidan. He answered with a slow blink. My fist connected with Ragnar's solar plexus. He tried to breathe but couldn't. A minute or two later, once Ragnar caught his breath, my right boot connected with his nose. The prince cried some more. I had hoped this would be more satisfying, instead of pathetic. I wiped my forehead with my free hand.
This moment – reality. Men and women who prey on the innocent are pathetic, whiny, little nothings when they're on the receiving end.
Aidan took me by the arm and steered me towards the oversized doors. "Finley?" He pressed his lips to my hair.
"Nothing he says will bring them back or undo the pain their families have to live with. The one thing that came from this is we learned about Mikolaj and his friends. Eli has found more names and added them to my list. I'm tired, Aidan. Tired of waging a war against an evil which will never seize to exist."
Aidan cupped my face in his gloved hands. "Are you going to stop fighting?"
I shook my head and brushed my lips against his. "Never."
"Do you want me to shoot him?"
"No, if I don't put a bullet between his eyes my other question will remain unanswered."
Rowan laughed. "You're still on that? I promise to tell you; just shoot the sonofabitch."
"You can't kill me! I'm the future King of Bergia."
Without looking at Ragnar, I squeezed the SIG's trigger, not caring where the bullet entered. Hollow-points don't exit. More screaming from the serial killer. Dammit.
I turned to him. My aim had been a little to the left and too low. Instead of his forehead, blood oozed from his right shoulder. "Ragnar, I had big plans for you. Unlike the ones your parents had the day you were born. I wanted to blood eagle you and make you die an excruciating death. It won't undo what you did. It won't bring back twenty-five people."
"I didn't kill anyone. Dietrich did."
Aidan addressed Ragnar in different languages, to each the serial killer responded without a hint of an accent. Even I could tell, but Aidan nodded.
Eli's voice filled my ear. "Voice recognition confirms it. He placed the other calls."
"Oh, you mean Piotr. That's his real name, by the way. You should've been more careful about the people you trusted. Including your sister. Besides, the forensic laboratory in Zurich found your semen inside the condom left in the victim's mouth. We have linked your voice to the calls placed, except the one in Abu Dhabi. Guess you needed to hurry to make it in time to have dinner with your parents, so you left it to Piotr, or as you know him, Dietrich. Grandpa's perverted friends found victims for you because you blackmailed them. Boring. Your mother couldn't have been more right about you."
Ragnar failed to get to his feet, unsteady as a newborn foal. He tried to reach for the gun at his back. Liam took it from him and bumped the barrel against Ragnar's head. "Oops," Liam said and tossed the gun out of Ragnar's reach.
I stepped behind the murderer. Aidan and Rowan grabbed his arms and kept him down. The Ka-Bar TDI made light work of slicing through his clothes. The faces of twenty smiling women stared at me, including Alicia Rideout's. "Your victim in Abu Dhabi didn't die."
I dropped to my knees and removed their faces from his back. The prince screamed and pleaded for mercy. I showed him none.
For more than a week I yearned for this moment. Now, I wanted it to be over. I stepped in front of Ragnar. "Any last words? Don't even dare spit in my face. You do not want to see me pissed off."
"I'm the crown prince of Bergia! You can't do this to me."
Time for one last monologue, I decided. "Life was given to you on a gold platter. Your grandpa was a paedophile and your mother a self-involved gold digger with a heart as pure as decomposition. Instead of being worthy of the life you were privileged enough to be born into, you consider everyone and everything yours to control, to destroy. Your little title means nothing to me. Thank you, though, for exposing Mikolaj's friends. It's the one good thing you did with your life. Your attempt to pin the murders on them is pitiful. For once in your life, man up to your actions. Of course, they'll all be dead before this day is over."
"Do you know what Mikolaj did to me?" Ragnar didn't even attempt to wipe the blood streaming from his nose. Or his tears.
"Yes. He shouldn't have exposed you to his depravity, but you asked to watch. Or are you going to tell me Ylva lied? As children we don't have control over our circumstances, but as adults we do. At thirty you're not a child, Ragnar. I have empathy for you and Ylva as children, but I have nothing but contempt and hatred for the people you are today. The choices you two made destroyed the lives of countless people." I raised my arms at my sides. "Look at all these unnecessary deaths. This is because of you."
"Mikolaj made me do terrible things for him. I hated him. Not even animals rape; it's despicable. Unnatural." Ragnar stared up at me with cold eyes.
"That's rich coming from a serial killer. Let's not forget you brought your high school girlfriends and female friends to him, knowing what Mikolaj would do to them. You invited them here. And you watched. Please spare your last breaths and don't lie to me. I see what you are. Nothing else."
Ylva told me about the steady stream of young women Ragnar had brought his beloved grandfather. No love lost between these two siblings.
I hunched down, out of his reach. "The saddest thing? You weren't even creative with the murders. Mommy read you a bedtime story every night, the only time Astrid ever spent with you and Ylva. A different story every night, but always the same six stories. I bet if I go into your bedroom, I'll find the book on the nightstand."
One last shake of my head and I came to my full length. "I'm done. Marika?"
Two siblings. Two bullets. Marika and I fired at the same time. The Stein's evil legacy over. Well, the legacy ended when Aidan performed a vasectomy on Szymon. Which he did before we left Bergia.