I choke the son of a bitch with everything I have.
“What did you do?” I yell, shaking him. “What did you do to my father?”
His words to Keely spin around my head, a red haze of anger.
I took out the Vaughn fucker. He was a threat, and so I put him away.
All this time, I thought my father chose the coward’s way out. I blamed him for leaving us. I hated him for everything.
All this time, I was wrong.
“You killed him!” I pull back my fist and slam it into Ridley’s face. It smashes against his bone with a satisfying crack. “I’m going to make you fucking pay!”
I throw him down against the ground. Keely screams, but all I hear is the roar of blood pounding in my skull. I kick him hard in the gut, then drag his head up to meet my fists again.
Ridley is no match for my fury. He can’t even put his hands up before I’m whaling on him again. I rain down angry blows into his face and torso, hitting him with twenty years of anger and pain. Bones break, blood pours from a gash on his face, teeth fly out. I don’t stop.
“I’ll kill you,” I vow, closing my hands around his throat. I squeeze hard, crushing his windpipe, making his eyes bug out in fear. “I’ll fucking kill you!”
“Vaughn!” Keely is screaming behind me. “Vaughn, please stop!”
I squeeze harder, watching him gasp for his last breaths. That’s right, bastard. See how you like it now. I won’t let you go quickly, like my father: one shot and his brains painted over the back of the garage. No, you’ll die slowly, struggling for every minute.
I want to make it hurt.
“Vaughn!” Hands close around my body, trying to drag me back. Keely pulls at me, begging. “Please, let him go. Don’t do this!”
“You heard him,” I pant, hanging on. “You know what he did.”
“And you’ll be just like him!” Keely is sobbing now. She goes on her knees beside me, forcing me to look at her. Her eyes are filled with tears, begging me. “Vaughn, you have to let him go. I can’t lose you too. I can’t watch you throw your life away like this!”
“But my father...” I’m dizzy, clinging to the only thing I know for sure. Vengeance, hot in my veins. Demanding justice for all Ridley’s crimes.
“Your father would want you to move on,” Keely pleads. “Not spend the rest of your life rotting in jail for murdering a man who doesn’t deserve the time of day. Vaughn, listen to me. I love you!” she cries, “Please, don’t leave me!”
Her words cut through the haze of fury. I look down at Ridley, thrashing weakly on the ground. “But I can’t just let him go.”
“You won’t.” Keely insists. “We’ve got him now, the confession. He’ll go back to prison, just like he should have all along. But if you do this, then you lose everything. We both will.”
I stare at her. She’s holding out her hands, trying to pull me away. To save me from making the worst mistake of my life.
Because it would be. Fuck. If I do this, he still wins. He still controls everything. He’s still calling the shots.
I release Ridley. He falls down with a wheeze, motionless and bleeding.
“I want to kill him,” I growl, shaking. “I want him dead.”
“I know, baby.” Keely pulls me into her arms, holding me tight. “I know you do.”
I feel a rush of emotion, breaking me wide open. All the bitterness, all the anger, it finally falls away. Everything that’s made me numb all these years.
“I love you too,” I tell Keely harshly. I grip her body to me, so fucking thankful that she’s here. She’s safe. “I swear I’ll never let anyone touch you again.”
“It’s OK,” she whispers, shaking in my arms. “Everything’s going to be OK.”