Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Four
“Lee, we should talk about what happened,” Marella said softly.
“Blain’s dead and whoever killed him will be dead soon. There’s not much to talk about,” Lee replied. His voice was steady and the calmness with which he spoke gave Marella goosebumps.
“Charles gave the order to have Blain shot. He made me watch, Lee, and when he took me into that library and told the others he wanted an hour alone with me, I thought … I thought …”
“Shh, it’s okay. You don’t have to tell me,” Lee said but she could feel the tenseness in his shoulders.
“That’s when Kelley shot him. He killed Charles.”
Lee lifted his head as tears streaked over Marella’s cheeks. He shifted into a sitting position and wiped her tears away with this thumbs. “Shit,” he whispered.
“His eyes were so cold, Lee. He seemed to be in a daze.”
Lee cradled her against him again. “You can never say that out loud again.”
Marella nodded her head and leaned against him. “I’m sorry, Lee, I’m so sorry they found us.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“What are we going to do?” Marella asked him.
“We are not going to do anything. You need to get better and never leave me again. I will take care of this. I’ll take care of you,” Lee said.
“Lee …”
“I want it all, Marella. I want to marry you and I want a baby with you. I was an idiot and Mason losing Grace brought it all into perspective for me. That night … I wanted to tell you all of this.”
“Kelley told me,” Marella said.
“You’ll be okay, Marella. We’ll all be okay,” Lee whispered.
“Lee?”
“Yes?”
“You do realize you actually have to propose to marry me, you can’t just decide it’s going to happen,” she said and she knew he was smiling.
“I know.”
“I love you, too, Lee,” Marella said.
Lee kissed the top of her head again and tightened his arms around her. “Thank you.”
“Go talk to him, I know you want to. I need to sleep. Kelley needs to know he’ll be okay too.”
Lee waited until Marella had fallen asleep and covered her with the duvet. He felt relief, happiness, guilt and anger. Blain had been so young, innocent in all of this. He’d seen Blaire asleep in a room on his way to the top floor where Kelley’s study was.
Lee opened the study door without knocking, since he never has, and found Mason and Kelley sitting on the couches, sipping brandy from tumblers. Mason stood up and filled a third glass and handed it to him as he took a seat across from Kelley.
“You killed Charles,” Lee said.
Kelley emptied his glass and placed it on the side table next to him. “I did.”
“Fuck,” Mason muttered.
“He had his cock out, Mason, and Marella on her knees,” Kelley said angrily.
Lee closed his eyes and unclenched his fists. “Did he touch her?”
“No.”
“I didn’t mean you were wrong, Kelley,” Mason said and shifted in his seat. “But this can backfire on you.”
“I don’t care, Mason. He’s dead and effectively so are his operations,” Kelley said.
“We need to get a copy of his will,” Lee said.
“Why?” Mason frowned as he asked.
“Because the asshole might have left his fortune to The Club,” Kelley answered and Lee nodded his head.
“I’ll get started on that tomorrow morning,” Lee said and emptied his glass as well.
“You need to call David and Cecile. They’ll want to come back for the funeral, they all will,” Mason said.
“They’re going to hate me. They should hate me,” Lee said.
“No, Lee, they will hate me. I made the decisions that landed us here. I told Blaire to send that photo of Kirk to Marcus. This was payback for killing one of theirs,” Kelley said and rubbed his hands over his face.
“We all agreed,” Mason said.
“You need to tell me how you got into Charles’s house, what gun you used to shoot him with and everything else that happened since you left the docks,” Lee said.
Kelley took his time, detailing everything he did, how he entered Lewis’s house where Marella had been kept and every step he took getting in and getting out again. Mason’s jaw clenched when Kelley got to the part of Marella on her knees and Lee just nodded as he listened.
“I’m glad he’s dead but I’m sorry that you had to do it,” Mason said as he refilled their glasses yet again.
“They’ll clean the room before calling the police. They won’t ever admit to having taken Marella and they won’t want the cops to know she’d been there. They don’t know who shot Charles and that’s something we can use to our advantage for a little while … until they know Marella’s here,” Lee said.
“This has to end,” Mason said.
“It’ll only end when they’re all dead,” Lee said.
“You can’t be serious,” Mason said with shock in his eyes.
“Lee’s right. Lewis shot him, Marcus has Grace and Petey’s still enjoying the perks of being an Elite even if it’s from a wheelchair. This feud between us will never end and now that they’ve lost their trump card … it won’t end, Mase, they’ll want revenge for Charles,” Kelley said tiredly.
“Fine, fine. How the hell do you propose us killing three more people without getting caught? Do you have a plan for that? What about the fucking guilt afterwards? I won’t deny wanting Grace back, but killing Marcus? How do I justify that?”
“You justify it by remembering what that sick fuck did to Andrea, what they did to Marella seven years ago, what they did to Marley! Fuck, Mase, even Milana had been subjected to threats. Did you forget what Marella looked like when we found her naked in the street? Have you forgotten what Andrea went through? Are you seriously sitting there and asking me to justify killing them all? Fuck you, Mase,” Kelley said and walked out of the study.
