Page 59 of Sweet Revenge
Despite her pallor, all I saw was red.
CHAPTER35
ELISA
On high alert, I listened to the chaos unfolding in the hallway and wanted to do something to stop Lillian from grabbing that shotgun from behind the desk and keeping it aimed at the door. I wasn’t tied to the chair, after all, but just before the door burst open, she pointed it at me and warned me I’d die first if I moved.
I knew Daemon had been wearing a protective vest in the bakery, so I prayed he had one on now—and that he wasn’t stupid enough to come through the door first. When the barrier came crashing down and Lillian pulled the trigger, I was both relieved and mortified to see Vin tumbling back into the hallway.
“What the fuck?” Lillian muttered, her eyes huge. “I thought for sure Daemon would be leading the charge to save his precious whore.”
I could see Daemon, covered in blood, standing in the doorway, his gun down at his side. In his eyes, I saw hesitation and knew that Lillian would take advantage of it. When she raised the gun to fire again, I started to stand, thinking I could ram her.
Then, I heard the dry click and knew the weapon had malfunctioned. This was Daemon’s chance to shoot his mother and end it all. Why wasn’t he pulling the trigger? For all his talk about me shooting my father, was he hesitating now?
Lillian ditched the shotgun, tossing it across the room, and scurried back to the desk as Daemon walked inside.
“Give it up, Ma. This is over.” His eyes flickered past my face, and for a moment, I saw a trace of relief in the way the tight muscles around his mouth relaxed. The constriction in my chest loosened slightly as well. He was alive—and he was here. I knew he wouldn’t let me down.
But Lillian wasn’t giving up, which was no surprise. Remarkably, she wasn’t going for another weapon. Instead, she walked back to the desk where she had that laptop as Daemon walked further into the room. The blood that covered him had to be his brother’s. Despite the commotion I’d heard outside and even downstairs, he didn’t seem to have a scratch on him, thank goodness.
“If you expect me to just roll over, you have another thing coming, Daemon. I didn’t raise you to be a pushover, and I’m not one either.” Lillian grinned at him, her bright red lips curling back into a snarl.
“You’re a fucking monster,” he growled at her, shaking his head. I saw his fingers flexing around the trigger and wondered why he didn’t just end this now.
“You’re calling me a monster?” Lillian laughed. “You can say that all you want to, but you’ve done things I’ve only dreamed about in my worst nightmares, son.”
“Don’t call me that!” He took another step toward her, and I had to wonder if maybe the hesitation had to do more with indecision than not wanting to end her. Perhaps he was having trouble deciding whether he should shoot her or wring her neck.
Behind her, the fish tank bubbled away, the occupants swimming around as if nothing was happening, though they still looked like menacing piranhas rather than goofy goldfish to me. Must be nice to be so oblivious.
“Everything I’ve ever done in my life, I’ve done because you made me this way,Mother.” Anger seethed from every word Daemon spoke as he stalked further into the room. “Not only through my DNA but by the way you molded me, manipulating my every move, making me think other people were out to get me when all along I was a puppet in your schemes.”
“Ha!” Lillian shook her head, her large diamond earrings swinging side to side. “So now it’s my fault you’re a murderer? Please, Daemon, you wouldn’t have done anything differently without my direction. You crave power like other men crave pussy.”
“You ordered the hit on Jenny, didn’t you? You psychotic bitch, why?” Spittle shot from Daemon’s mouth onto the floor, but he did nothing to wipe it from his chin as he glared at her.
“Damn right, I did. Bitch had to go.” Lillian raised her chin into the air, proud of her actions.
“Jenny was completely innocent in all of this! She’d never hurt anyone!” I could see his eyes beginning to glisten as the emotions rolled over him.
“Bullshit! That little bitch was making you weak, and I needed you at your full strength to help me take care of those bastards who were trying to control me, to ruin my plans. If I’d left her alone, you’d be a soft little pussy, not the strong soldier I needed you to be.” Lillian lingered by the table, next to that mysterious laptop, but she stood up straight, not seeming to realize that every word coming out of her mouth proved Daemon’s point that she had formed him into what she needed him to be—a killer.
Daemon swallowed hard, his demeanor changing, thoughts of the girl he’d once loved flashing before his eyes. “You didn’t have to do that. There had to be another way.”
Lillian’s laughter filled the room again. “I did it to teach a lesson, one you seem to have forgotten recently. Love makes you weak. That’s why both of my husbands are nothing but rotting corpses now.” She turned and flashed a smile in my direction, as if I would somehow be offended that she killed my father.
I narrowed my eyes but only because I didn’t want to be part of this scene. I needed her to forget that I was even here.
“You’re sick.” Daemon’s tone was one of revelation, not notification. “Psychotic.”
“All of your brothers have learned the same lesson.” Once again, Lillian’s chin jutted up in a proud show of her accomplishments. “That’s why none of you are married or even have girlfriends.” Once again she took a glimpse at me, but Daemon’s voice drew her attention away quickly.
“What kind of a mother are you? You never loved any of us!”
“I never wanted a single one of you!” Now, it was Lillian who couldn’t control her rage. She pounded her fist on the table, rattling the laptop. “You think I wanted you tiny bastards running around, ruining my fucking life?”
“Well, I guess there’s nothing more to say then, is there?” Daemon raised his gun, and I could see in his eyes, he’d said everything he wanted to and heard enough to know he just needed to end this.