The Dirty Saint (Dirty #1)

22. Chapter Twenty-Two

22

Chapter Twenty-Two

During

JOEY

I wake to the sound of screaming, a blood-curdling noise that sends shivers up and down my spine.

Ezra.

“You touch her again, and I will skin you alive with nothing but my teeth, you sad sack of horseshit,” she snaps.

Lana lets out a cry as Killian rests himself on top of her, enjoying himself like the sick fuck he is. Every bone in my body convulses.

I’ve never been much of a man who sits back on the sidelines and waits for someone else to take charge of a situation.

But right now, there is very little, if not nothing, I can do.

“And how’s that going to work?” He glances over at the chains.

“I’ll damn well figure it out.”

The room shifts into a quick silence, and my heart breaks as I watch tears coat every inch of Lana’s cheeks.

It’s fucking killing me.

“Do I seem like I’m joking,” Ezra asks. “Let me tell you something, you fucking limp-dick asshole, I will kill you. Hell, I’ve done it before. How hard is it to do again?”

That’s my girl.

“Now get the fuck off of her!” I demand.

Killian whips his head around to stare at me; all the while, Lana is sobbing underneath him. “Look at the monster trying to become the hero. Too bad it doesn’t work that way.”

I snort.

“Insult me all you want, Morago, but the last I checked, girls don’t cry when I’m fucking them.”

Killian’s nostrils flare, and I grin.

“That’s what I thought,” I say.

I am still focused on the vulgar sight in front of me when the door swings open, and Michael enters the room. “Killian, finish up. Today’s the day.”

“Please, please don’t do this,” Lana pleads. “I promise to be a good girl.”

“That’s right,” Killian kisses her neck. “And I will be a bad, bad boy.”

A look of repulsion flashes across Ezra’s face.

“Hey, keep talking, and I’ll make sure to extend the torture. And believe me,” she flashes a grin at Michael, “I know exactly what I’m doing.”

“Keep talking, and you’ll be below me next,” Killian barks.

Ignoring the two of them, I ask Michael, “What do you mean, ‘today’s the day?’ The fuck is happening?”

The prick appears pleased. “It’s the day you carry out the second task you were required to complete. Unless you forgot what that was.”

I squirm in my chains, my stomach churning. “No.”

“No, what? No, you forgot, or no, you aren’t going to do it?”

“You got what you wanted, Michael. You got your goddamn confession. Now it’s time to let everyone go.”

Michael walks over to me and grabs a piece of paper out of his pocket, which I take reluctantly. “The fuck is this?”

“It’s the contract I had you sign detailing the terms of our arrangement. Go. Take a look. Read what it says out loud.”

I already know what it says. Word for word.

It’s practically burned into my brain.

“This means nothing,” I growl.

Michael gets into my face, where I can smell his liquor-filled breath. “It means everything . Now read the damn thing.”

I clear my throat, but not before stealing a glance from Ezra. I am doing my best to hide the guilt, but I know she can see right through the act.

“I promise you that whatever we did in the past meant something to me. Everything I said to you was true. I need you to know that.”

I take in a deep breath and close my eyes.

“I, Joey Odeh, hereby declare that once a confession has been made, I am to kill Ezra Maya. And if I refuse, no money will awarded to me, and my mother’s cancer treatment will not be paid for.”

“Oh my god,” Ezra whispers.

“You’re leaving out the best part,” Michael says. “The beginning.”

“Haven’t I hurt her enough?” I yell.

I shake my head.

“I’m not gonna do it. Punish me all you want, but I refuse.”

“Well then,” Michael takes a pack of matches out of his pocket and lights one up. “You don’t leave me with much of a choice.”

He then places it on Ezra’s bare skin.

The scream that exits her throat is haunting.

“I’ll keep going,” Michael says. “If you don’t read the rest of that document.”

“Joey, please,” Ezra cries.

I want to look away. Everything in me wants to, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

“Ezra, I am so sorry.”

I start reading before I have a chance to convince myself to back out.

“I will try every tactic in the book, including sex and faking a relationship, to get her to trust me so that way when she finally does confess, she will die feeling betrayed. Just like Caleb did when she ended his life.”

“See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Tears form in the corners of Ezra’s eyes, but she overlooks them.

“So you used me?” She questions. “And you had sex with me because of a fucking contract?”

“Ezra—”

“I let you in. I told you things I’ve never told anyone and the whole time I was spilling my guts out, you knew what you were doing.”

“That was before I developed feelings for you—”

“Bullshit,” she snaps. “You don’t have feelings for me.”

“That’s not true. Ezra,” I whisper. “Please let me ex—”

“No,” she cuts me off, her voice devoid of any emotion. “I’m done.

“So kill me,” she says.. “All I ask is that you make it quick.” She shoots me a nasty look. “I don’t want my son to think I suffered.”

* * *

That night, as Lana is asleep in the corner and Ezra is doing her best not to look at me, I feel like I’m dying. That the oxygen is being sucked from my lungs every time I think she’s glancing in my direction, only to discover that she never is.

“Ezra—”

“Save it,” she snaps. “I don’t want to hear a damn word out of your mouth.”

I nod.

“I never planned on something like this happening. When I signed that contract, it was meant to be any other job I’ve had. But something—” I take a breath. “Something changed.”

Now, I’ve tortured a lot of sick fucks in my career, all the way from adulterers to pedophiles and everything in between. I justified my actions by reminding myself that they had all done horrific things, so it was only fair that they got a taste of their own medicine.

But Ezra’s different. She might have blood on her hands, but the man who she buried had just as much, if not more.

“We were a mistake,” she whispers. “Everything we did was a mistake.”

“No.”

“I was just a simple fuck,” she shrugs. “You pushed your way in and I let you and I gave you what you wanted cause I thought, stupidly enough, that I wanted it too. So good job, Joey Odeh. I hope you can give yourself a big old pat on the shoulder. In fact, why don’t you double it? One for each time you were inside me.”

Her words strike cords inside of me that I didn’t even know I had.

Hurting her will go down as my biggest regret.

“So, Michael,” Ezra cuts into my thoughts, “The fuck are you waiting for? You might as well get it over with since I’m sure as hell not going anywhere.”

“Oh, you think I’m starting with you,” Michael laughs. “Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. That would be too easy.”

Ezra scoffs.

“You see, when I kill you,” Michael walks over to Lana, running a finger along her cheekbone, “I want you to die in so much torment that death feels like heaven. No, I’m starting with her.” He points to the girl.

“That wasn’t part of the deal,” I roar. “Lana had nothing to do with this. Leave her out of this, Michael. This is between you, me, and Ezra.”

Michael grins before dipping the scalpel in a form of antiseptic and then wiping it on a sterile towel. “I think I’ll start from the bottom and work my way up from there.”

When Lana and I make eye contact, she shakes her head violently, which sends a ripple of pain through me that I can hardly stand.

“You fucking monster,” I yell.

The scorned man smirks.

The first slice has Lana screaming out in agony. Oh my god. Ezra turns her head away from the scene, but my eyes stay glued in place.

I did this.

I am to blame for this.

“I didn’t want to have to do this, Lana,” Michael rests the scalpel on her stomach. “But the two of them left me no choice.”

Ezra covers her mouth to hopefully mask her whimper.

Because even as a soldier, there are just some images you can’t withstand.

He traces his finger across Lana’s stomach, hovering above her C-section scar. “I wonder what happens if you open that up.”

Ezra yanks on her chains, screaming, her voice hoarse. “Don’t you dare!”

“Don’t let him do this to me,” Lana sobs.

“Please, Michael,” Ezra begs.

“Ez—”

“Take me instead.”

Michael removes the scalpel from Lana’s skin, turning his head in our direction. “You would really sacrifice yourself for her?”

Ezra doesn’t even hesitate.

“Yes.”

“Well,” Michael wipes away one of Lana’s tears. “Life doesn’t quite work out in our favor.”

And with that, he plunges the scalpel right into her eye, killing her instantly.

“NO!” Ezra howls, her cheeks growing wet with moisture. “NO!”

She drops down to the ground, her chains clinking together, sobs clawing through her throat.

“Fuck you!” she hisses.

“ You did this to Lana’s son, Ezra,” he proclaims. “And don’t you ever forget it.”