Montana Falls (Red Diamonds #5)

Chapter Five, Earlier On That Day…

T here was something fundamentally wrong with me. Ruined. Blackened. Shattered into a million pieces of hateful, evil monsters that controlled my every whim. It wasn’t my fault. I swear it wasn’t my fault. But since I had been young, I’d been tainted, and now that I was older, I was unable to go back.

I hated people. The world. Other monsters.

I hated anyone who got in my way from the only thing that had been keeping me going since the day Maggie saved me.

Vengeance.

My goal was why I was now in England, following my brother as he came to take his false son. It was why I had come hours before John, to the place our sister thought she was safe. Why I had stolen one of Maggie’s cars, and two of her little toys, to keep for myself and use until I was bored and disposed of them.

It was why I now hid in the attic, listening and waiting for just the right moment to get what I wanted.

It had been easy enough to come through the house connected to this one. The hole I’d made hours ago, just big enough for me to slide through, was the easiest way for me to get in and out of Shannon’s house, without her or the others any the wiser. They wouldn’t have heard the noise when they were sleeping or out. They wouldn’t notice the stench of homeowner’s downstairs, the pairs corpses still fresh enough on the living room floor that they hadn’t had time to stink too putrid just yet.

It was perfect.

Maggie didn’t need to know I was here yet. Because if she knew I was here, she would know that Widow hadn’t left of his own free will.

She would know what I had done to Delilah, and I didn’t want her to know yet. Not when she would be mad.

Delilah was innocent. Mostly. And Maggie didn’t hurt innocents so I wouldn’t hurt them either when I could help it. But I had hurt Delilah. More than likely killed her… so no, I had to be careful.

Moving my blonde braid out of the way, I lay on my front, ear pressed against the floor. It was dusty, dark and full of cobwebs, but that was fine. Too many moments of my life were spent in places like this for me to be scared anymore, not when I knew monsters were just as happy being in the light and clean. Besides, the dark and the dirty had helped me far more than anyone would ever know.

Tunnels. Holes. Hiding. That was how I had watched my Maggie, when things like cameras hadn’t been able to do the trick. Disguises, and playing pretend had done the rest, and now… now I was so close to what I wanted that it almost felt like the decades I’d been waiting had been worth it. The filth and rot and darkness had been worth it.

They had been nothing in the grand scheme of things because I was about to win.

Win the game I’d been unwillingly playing since I was a skinny little girl, and had continued now that I was still a petite older woman.

There was a commotion at the front door suddenly. A handful of goodbyes, promises, and fake politeness as Maggie and the others finally left Shannon’s home and made their way outside. To the cars that were not there anymore. At least not one of them.

The one I’d taken with my new pet spider and his pretty dead friend.

The new Montana one. The latest in a fresh line of Montana’s that I would add to my list to end.

We didn’t kill innocents. But were Montana’s ever innocent? Were they ever good?

Cass, you’re going to be found. Get out and get back to the car – before it’s too late…

Without wasting another moment, I ignored the cursed woman, carefully pulled up the attic cover, and lowered myself down to the landing floor. I didn’t weigh a lot, and the carpet also hid my footsteps, but I was still silent; there were children present. Innocent ones.

Hades and Ares, both names that I found ridiculous, were innocent and were mine to keep as safe as possible until John came for them. So unless they came to disturb me, I would leave them be. I would make sure to do what I could to keep them unaware of my games and plans and the mayhem that I caused.

You shouldn’t hurt their mother. They will be sad without her, Cass .

Ignoring the cursed woman’s voice inside my brain again, I made my way downstairs, as fast and quiet as I could. She may have been right when she said that the twins would miss their mother, but that wasn’t one of my concerns. Unfortunately for my sister, she had used up all her allotted lenience with me already and I could not spare her again.

I’d let her live her life for years, in this tiny house, in the dingy town she called home. I’d let her feel safe, and happy, and at peace… now it was my turn to feel that. My turn to get what I wanted so that I could chase the high I needed to feel a slight bit saner than I currently did.

I’d let her pretend to escape the fate she ought to have had well over a decade ago and now I wanted the fate I was owed.

And I would take it.

Take it. Take it. Take it.

Two steps into the living room, as my mind went dark and my thoughts turned more violent, a shotgun clicked. A sound I was familiar with from having spent so many years forced to live with people who cared about guns. Cleaned guns. Used guns. Worshipped them like they were anything more than a tool I had been perfectly trained to use for evil.

“Hi, Shannon.” As I glanced up, I locked eyes with my sister for the first time in a while, and though I ought to have felt something about it, I didn’t. I was empty. Cold. Bored.

I wanted her dead, and I needed it done now.

I had more important things to do.

“You think I’m that fuckin’ stupid, Cassie?” Shannon laughed softly, her dark eyes on me the same way the barrel of her gun was. “I knew you were comin’ the second my son told me Sapphire was here.”

My head cocked as I stayed where I was, calm as anything. “Who’s Sapphire?”

Shannon smiled at me. A smile full of victory and malice and whatever else she was thinking in her pretty little head. She didn’t lower her gun, nor did she answer my question. She just kept going on and on about her brilliant way of catching me in her home, and how smart she was for realizing I was there.

It was a little embarrassing, considering she didn’t notice the way her body was shaking. Or the light sheen of sweat on her brow. You would have thought a woman fond of history would know an awful lot about old-fashioned ways to murder an enemy without causing a scene or relying on too many external factors.

Ways like a few drops of poison in the dairy free milk only she drank and Maggie found disgusting because it was made of oats and oats were horrible things.

Things she always complained about.

Things Lincoln liked.

“John is here for your son.” I interrupted my sister’s monologing that hadn’t once caught my attention. “He’s about to arrive any minute now, and whilst I think there is a possibility he’ll keep Hades alive, it would be better for her if she died now. Her life won’t ever be the same again after today.”

“Ares?” Shannon frowned, her gun falling as her knees buckled a bit and I carefully edged toward her, making sure she didn’t notice that I could almost reach her if I wanted. “Why would he be here for Ares?”

“Because I lied and told John that Ares was his son.” My smile was venomous. “He would kill the girl instantly, but with the boy? I think he could last a few hours before our brother got bored with how weak you made your children.”

“But-”

“But nothing, Shannon. Your son is gone, your daughter is dead, and so are you.” I grinned harder, teeth baring. “You thought you were smart to realize I was comin’, yet you weren’t smart enough to think about how I always have a half dozen back up plans… like poison in your milk.”

Her lips parted, her eyes widened, and she went to spew some more ridiculousness that I did not care to listen to. Not when I was on a time crunch and there were far more important things to be done. Like stepping to the side, swinging my leg out, and grabbing the shotgun at the same moment that Shannon fell from the poison, finally taking a better hold of her.

“I loved you.” She hissed as she hit the sideboard, catching herself from smacking the floor at the last second. “I fucking loved you and missed you and hated everythin’ that happened to you. But that wasn’t enough, was it? You don’t care that I did nothin’ wrong because you are as sick and twisted as dad ever was for selling you to a predator.”

It wasn’t polite to hit your sister, but she deserved it. She deserved the hard slap of my hand across her cheek and the hatred hissing from my tongue, as I dropped the shotgun without thought, watching it land by her feet.

I should have noticed. I knew better than to be foolish. Careless.

She could kill you. She could shoot you right now, Cassie. Even the cursed woman knew that I had messed up, but I had no patience to listen to her either.

I was in charge. Cassie O’Malley. The real me. The first me. The worst and best one all wrapped up in a bundle of hatred and anger and vengeance.

“You fucked John’s wife.” I replied to my sister as I headed towards the kitchen, finding the keys to the backdoor. “You fucked her, and he found out. Then he killed our parents and took that revenge from me. That is enough of a reason for me to have the satisfaction of killing you, even without you mentioning that thing who called himself a father.”

I hated my father. Hated him more than anyone in the world. Even the first Montana man that broke me into a thousand pieces then set them all on fire.

My father made it start. He made it all happen.

Parents were supposed to love their children. I knew the cursed woman loved the ones she had. She loved them so much it hurt her each time she thought of them. That her tiny, pathetic heart cracked just a little when she thought of her daughter, or her sons and all the things they didn’t know about the world.

All the monsters that could take them.

She loved her children, and I knew what that was like. So even now, years after he was buried in the filthy ground, I could not understand why my father didn’t love me.

“That’s it?” Shannon coughed. “I loved a woman, and she loved me. That’s what you have a problem with?” Shannon spluttered harder. “You’re in love with a woman, too. I guess being a sinner runs in the family.” She laughed through her coughs even as I listened to the sounds of her body collapsing against the floor.

Keys in hand, I twisted them in the lock, enjoying the soft breeze that blew against my face when the door opened wide.

I’d spent more years in Ireland with the rest of the O’Malley clan than I cared to admit. And though I preferred a warmer climate now, there was something to be said about the familiarity of the gray and cold of the United Kingdom.

“I’m not in love with her.” I corrected Shannon, unable to help myself even if I really had to go. “I don’t want to make love to her or marry her, or anything of the sort. The only thing I want is to keep Maggie safe and with me. That’s all.”

Listen to her Cassie. She’s right. We already killed Maggie.

We killed her.

We hurt her.

We ruined her first. Already. Years and years ago.

We’ve already lost her .

“Her name is Sapphire.” She spluttered loud enough for me to hear. “You killed Maggie already. You fucking slaughtered her on her wedding day because she didn’t love you the way you loved her – she loved that man of hers and chose him, which wasn’t how your ridiculous fantasy wanted to go.”

My head shook, hands going to my ears as I blinked away all the noise. All the voices and nonsense and that stupid cursed woman who was yelling at me to listen and calm down with my temper so that I could leave.

Always calm down. Always saying no. Don’t do it. Leave it. Leave them. Run away before I was caught. Before anyone found me here and things became so much worse…

But I didn’t want to stop. Didn’t want to leave anyone.

I wanted them all dead. Dead and buried and broken, just like me. Every Montana. Every O’Malley who had been there when things had gone wrong for me.

Every single person who had ever so much as looked at me wrong…

I was going to do it. I decided then and there, as the cursed woman’s attempts at catching my attention were thwarted, and I vaguely remembered something John had said once.

‘ O’Malley’s don’t fear hell. We bring it to earth. We bring it to our enemies and light all the bastards up .’

I could do it. Easily. I could bring hell to earth and make sure that nobody I despised ever escaped again.

With a sigh, I stepped outside, ignoring Shannon’s last moments of coughing and insults as I whispered to myself more than her.

“Maggie loves me. Sapphire is a child. I don’t have any interest in a child. I’m not a monster.”

The little Sapphire girl liked bunny rabbits. Just like Lincoln. She had a large bunny teddy on her new bed in Maggie’s home and always slept with it cuddled in her arms as though it could protect her from the monsters in the dark. I’d be kind enough to bury her with her bunny teddy when I went back to Maggie’s house and sliced open Sapphire’s tiny throat soon enough and I would-

The sharp blast of a shotgun startled me out of my thoughts as I stomped through the garden, and towards the nearest fence that was short enough for me to reach the top of.

“Mum!” a girl’s voice screamed and with that single word I knew my sister had spited me once more.

She’d stolen her death from me. She’d no doubt blown her worthless brains out just so she could have the last laugh. But more fool her. I would go back inside that house, find Ares and Hades, and peel their skin off. I would take out their bones and-

You need to leave, Cass. Now. You can’t be here – there will be police and innocent people.

Misha is coming back inside. We can’t hurt Misha.

We can’t hurt Maggie.

Not again .

My hands didn’t stop shaking as I finally listened to the cursed woman’s desperate pleas and forced myself to hop the fence despite everything inside of me begging me to go into the house again. The shaking still didn’t stop as I strolled around the corner and down a little side alleyway, filled with graffiti, shattered glass and a vile stench, to where the car I’d stolen was parked. I carried on trembling as I yanked open the driver’s side door and slid behind the wheel.

The shaking stopped a little when I saw the mess I’d made. The pretty mess of blood and agony that was well deserved.

“Please.” Widow Smyth’s aggravating voice from my backseat broke through the haze of anger in my brain. “I did what you wanted. Let Delilah go; she needs help.”

Delilah Montana. Hendrix. Whatever she was called, she was pretty. Even if she had her silly purple hair now and dressed like she was always at a funeral. The trouble for her was that things never went well for pretty girls in this world. Things went badly. Wrong . Life was full of darkness and despair and those deemed desirable would have it worse.

I could have got a nice penny for her. A single sale to the right type of buyer and I would have millions in the bank and a hassle free from my life…

She was lucky I wasn’t as much of a monster as some villains in her story.

Lucky that I preferred to kill her outright and not sell her on to be slowly destroyed.

Widow glared at me as he held her in his arms, stemmed her blood flow with his shirt, and held a palm to her clammy face. She was so still. Corpse-like. Honestly, I thought she was already dead from the knife I’d shoved in her gut when she’d been stupid enough to climb out of the car and not check her surroundings. Then, to top it off, the needle filled with poison that was far slower acting than the one I’d given Shannon.

Foolish. Foolish. Foolish. Not a gangster, even if Delilah thought she had the makings of one.

She wasn’t even alive. Not really.

She was a Montana now, and we killed the Montana’s. But really, it was just a name. She had no Montana blood, and how could I slaughter her for something as silly as her name when I hadn’t killed the twins for being related to me?

Well, I could do it. It would be easy. But she was innocent. There had been nothing in her life that she’d done that was a sin except for screwing her virginity away with her older brother… adopted brother. They didn’t share any DNA. They were no more related than me and a stranger down the street. Still… it seemed wrong to me. A little off. And truth be told, had it not been to save her from a fate like the one I’d faced, I would have killed her for her sins.

For now, I could leave her. Leave her to be more useful than another thing added to my to do list today.

Widow carried on begging, his voice finally breaking through my thoughts.

“ Please. You said you’d give her the antidote if I did what you asked, and I did . Sapphire will be chasing fake leads about me all night and she won’t-”

“Who’s Sapphire?” The car started moving, and though I was in control of it, it was like I was watching it from a far.

It wasn’t me behind the wheel. It wasn’t me anywhere near anything.

It was the cursed woman. The one who kept to the rules as often as she could. The one who slid her hand into our pocket, pulling out the vial of antidote that would stop the girl from dying just yet from the poison… and another of something far more fun that she chucked to the backseat.

“Drink that and I’ll give Delilah the antidote.” The cursed woman’s voice left my mouth, but it was with words I wanted to say.

She was playing along for now because she had no other choice.

As I sighed, Widow did as we asked; he downed the vial in one sip, and we happily gave him the other. And as the cursed woman shoved our foot down on the gas, and did her best to pretend everything was fine, our new pet spider scrambled to push the glass vial of clear liquid against the girl’s mouth. To force it down her throat and pretend that he was calm and in control as he began to pass out from the drugs in his system barely a moment later.

The ones that were my own special blend. Designed to keep pet spiders under control.

“She’s still going to die without your help.” He panted. “She’s losing a lot of blood and she needs your help. It’s not too late, you can fix her-”

The world went dark. Nothing but white noise and shadows and monsters circling everywhere all at once.

As he begged for aid, Widow made the worst mistake of them all. The one that sealed his fate in death because his nasty father had clearly never managed to beat some sense into him, and I would have no choice but to do it now.

He used my name. The other name.

The cursed woman’s name.