Hexed (Never After #6)

54. Venesa

FIFTY-FOUR

VENESA

It’s been a month since everything was upended in my life, and things are finally feeling like they’re settling down.

Despite Enzo’s protests, I gave Fisher a memorial service. Barely anyone showed up, and I honestly felt conflicted being there, but it was important to me because he was my best friend for years, and I refuse to let how things ended change everything he meant to me.

I didn’t ask Enzo to go. Didn’t feel right, all things considered.

There was one point where I could have sworn I saw Aria hiding in a back corner, but I brushed it off because I can’t imagine she’d show her face in town ever again.

Not after what I did to her.

Besides, her daddy was disgraced once they found him shot on his yacht. Bastien took care of the nitty-gritty, because after Uncle T died, I didn’t feel the need to keep hitting a dead fish. As long as things are taken care of, the vengeance in my soul is soothed, so I didn’t ask many questions once I knew Bastien tied his murder to Johnston Miller. Something about them falling out after years in business together and the MC retaliating in the best way they know how: with violence.

I’ll enjoy seeing that waste of space behind bars.

And if he doesn’t end up there? Well, I’m always ready to enact more revenge when necessary.

Now I’m back home—in New York City, which still feels weird to say. Enzo gave me his private plane to use, and living in the lap of luxury is nice…definitely something I could get used to. But I want a house, not a penthouse where elevators open up at will and anyone can walk inside. My trauma from that won’t ever heal.

Bastien is running Seven Seas Construction, reworking it from the ground up, and he’s putting people in place to keep the Lair running smoothly. Unfortunately, it’s just another thing that’s been tainted after everything that happened.

I wasn’t supposed to get back from Fisher’s memorial service until tomorrow, but Scotty arranged the private plane to fuel early because I wanted to surprise Enzo. So even though I’m tired and it’s late, there’s anticipation buzzing beneath my skin.

It’s been a week since I saw him. Granted, he’s been busy setting up the new power structure and accepting all the gifts and pledges of loyalty that come along with being a Mafia don. Truthfully, he’d tell me anything I wanted to know, but I don’t ask many questions. When we’re together, I like feeling light, leaving the darkness of who we are at the door and letting ourselves just be .

Being in a relationship is new for me—for both of us, actually—and communication is something we were both taught to use as a weapon instead of as a foundation for something solid.

I even suggested therapy because every day I look at him and wonder if he secretly hates me for killing his brother, but Enzo was quick to say no; apparently Mafia men and their women don’t do therapy. Something about ending up in prison and doctor/patient confidentiality not applying. But I’m working on him day by day. Maybe I’ll have Gio sit down and listen to us instead.

The elevator pings open into the foyer of the penthouse, and the silence is overwhelming, so quiet that it almost has the opposite effect, making my ears ring with a high-pitched squeal.

Enzo is nowhere in sight, but it’s late, so he’s either out at work or maybe in bed, so I take my time, heading to the kitchen to grab something to drink before making my way back to wake him up.

I’ve just opened up the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water when the goddamn elevator pings back open and Scotty rushes inside, his breathing erratic and his eyes bulging out of his head.

“What is it?” I ask, immediately on alert.

“I saw…I heard… I mean, I didn’t hear, but I saw that bitch—I mean, that wench , Aria! The doorman asked why she couldn’t speak, and I—she’s here?—”

My eyes grow wide, my hand shooting out to grip Scotty’s arm and try to focus him. “Take a deep breath, Scotty. What do you mean?”

Scotty presses a hand to his chest and follows my instruction, inhaling heavily. “Aria is somewhere in this apartment.”

I’m off and down the hall before I can stop myself, Scotty’s footsteps behind me, and I burst into the bedroom, my heart shooting into my throat when I see Aria with a knife raised high above Enzo’s body.

He’s passed out. Did she drug him?

I don’t think; I just react, running toward her and tackling her. She fights, trying to yell, but the only thing that escapes is a hoarse shout. I smirk at her, slamming her body onto the ground and straddling her.

“Cat got your tongue?” I grin and wrestle the knife from her hand, spinning it around and forcing the blade onto her neck, my fingers clammy where they’re covering hers. “Should have kept your fucking mouth shut and stayed away, you pathetic girl.”

As I press harder, her eyes widen, her mouth opening wide like she’s trying to beg for something .

But my mercy has run out.

“I’m going to enjoy this.” I smile.

Then I plunge the knife into her chest and twist, reveling in the way she silently screams. I hold it there, my weight pinning her down and my fingers slipping from her blood.

And as her life flows out, every single hurt she’s caused, all the years of pent-up animosity bleed away with it, and when she exhales her last breath, her body going lax and her eyes growing dim…I finally feel peace.

Because it’s all over.

And now Enzo and I can live happily ever after.