My mom closed her eyes. Giving out weak plea deals was an everyday occurrence for her.
“Two years,” he repeated. “Does that sound right for someone you know is responsible for thousands of rapes, hundreds of deaths? Yet you put him back on the street like it was nothing. Justifying your failures with sound bites like, ‘Sometimes justice is constrained by the law.’ All while you and King Jack sat on your thrones, accusing me of corruption.”
Silence.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gulav’s mouth was opening and shutting like a carp’s, like he was searching for the right words to get him out of this situation. Like he was only just now realizing he’d been set up by Martinez. He took his black beanie and put it over his heart. He knew something bad was coming.
“Well, let’s just say that I’m no longer constrained by the law—or by my old friend Jack, who relentlessly accused me of working with the likes of Mr. G and had become dangerously close to proving it.” Martinez raised his weapon in the direction of my mom, Violet, and Gulav.
“No, wait!” Gulav shouted with his hands up. “I thought we had a deal! What about the big payout? What about the shipment?”
“Oh, the shipment will arrive per our agreement,” Martinez said, slowly lacing his hands around the gun, enjoying every second of this production. “You just won’t be there to profit from it. Good-bye and good riddance, Mr. Gulav.”
Two deafening shots blasted, and Gulav went flying backward. Then blood. So much blood. It began gushing out near my mother’s feet.
My mom released another guttural scream. I wished she would stop doing that. It wouldn’t get us out of here alive.
Or, then again, maybe it would. I examined the shadows of the large room and the overhangs of the decks above us. Maybe Sammy was here by now; maybe he’d gotten that murder on camera; maybe SWAT’s sharpshooter could take out Martinez from above.
I couldn’t see any signs of infiltration yet. On top of that, Martinez had positioned himself under the scaffolding. Even if sharpshooters were up there, they’d have no shot on Martinez. Not only was he protected, but I could vaguely see a door behind him.
Martinez was holding the smoking gun casually at his side. He showed no remorse, no shame. He was entirely unaffected by the taking of a human life.
In the space of a few seconds, my mind spun away from me. The adrenaline kicked in, and I couldn’t feel my own body. I was floating above this horror story, numb from the panic filling the room.
I still believed I had a chance to stop the madness. Not just for me, but also for the people I loved. For my good and loving father, for my selfish and manipulative mother, for Liam, for his family. But somehow Martinez had outsmarted me at every turn.
I’d let them all down. I could see where this situation was going. He was going to give Violet a choice: Kill my mom—or be killed.
Which really meant he was giving me a choice: Kill Violet or let him kill my mom, in which case I’d be responsible for another death. Ruby Rose, the serial killer.
I really hoped Violet was wearing the vest I’d given him. A sympathy pang for him caught me by surprise. He was a despicable human being, but still very human. And he was afraid.
“Don’t pretend to feel sorry for this waste of flesh, Ruby.” Martinez’s voice kicked me in the gut. “Remember who he is, what he’s done. What he’s capable of doing again.”
I remembered. Violet’s greatest pleasure was other people’s pain.
So why didn’t Martinez just shoot Violet himself if he thought it was right? Why make me do it? Nothing about this made sense to me.
“Now, before it’s Ruby’s turn to pull the trigger, there’s some more truth to be told,” Martinez said, removing a glove from his right hand and an arm guard off his forearm. Without losing focus, he threw both into the fire pit next to him. Was he trying to dispose of any traces of gunshot residue? He wore another glove underneath the first. The extent of this man’s planning blew my mind. “It’s time to come clean, Jane,” he said, turning to my mom.
She raised her head and gave him the scariest look I’d ever seen in my life. Her mascara had run and the demon glare she gave him made me flinch. “Don’t do this,” she said quietly. “For her sake. Don’t.”
“It’s not up to you anymore. Both you and Jack had your chances, and you failed to take them. I warned you it would come to this.” Martinez wasn’t intimidated. His lowered eyes matched her defiant stare. “If you don’t tell her, I will.”
“I’ve been trying to tell her. I was going to, but—”
“What are you talking about?” I yelled. “Mom, what are you not telling me?”
“Ruby, I know I haven’t been the perfect mother,” she said, leaning toward me. “I know I’ve let you down, but don’t let him—”
“Enough!” he roared. “We don’t have time for this.” Martinez showed his first signs of losing composure. If he was expecting my mom to cooperate, he was mistaken.
“Mr. Violet, you know what to do,” he said with eyes narrowed on my mom.
Mr. Violet didn’t look like he knew what to do at all. He stared back at Martinez with a pleading expression.
“Now.”
Violet scurried to a table behind him and came back to my mom’s side with a long knife. “I don’t want to do this,” he whimpered, wiping his snotty nose on his sleeve.
“What, it’s OK to do it to innocent young women, but not to the guilty?” Martinez asked. “You know your choices, Violet.” Martinez raised his weapon and aimed it right at the shaking predator.
I couldn’t stand it.
I started to move toward my mom, but Martinez stopped me with a bullet sparking on the floor six inches from my foot. “Ruby, be patient. You need to hear this.”
“Really?” I screamed, finally pulling out my gun. “You want me to be patient while you let this freak with no soul murder my mom right in front of me?”
“She’s not your mom,” he responded. “She’s a thief, a liar, and a murderer.”
“No, Ruby, don’t believe him,” my mother called out.
“Mr. Violet!” Martinez called out louder.
Violet placed the knife against my mom’s neck without conviction. A sliver of blood formed and ran down her skin. She screamed again.
“Stop!” I cried over all the madness, shooting ten feet to the left of Violet to scare him away. He cowered aside. “Do not hurt her.”
I spoke directly to her. “Mom, just tell me what he’s talking about.”
“I’m your mother, Ruby, I’ll always be your mother. I love you.” She sobbed through the pain. Though her bloody neck wound was unnerving, it wasn’t fatal. Not yet. “I was never any good at showing it. But I swear, Ruby, you’re everything to me. I couldn’t bear to burden you—”
“Lies, Jane,” Martinez interrupted. “Even faced with your own death you continue to lie.”
“I tried to tell her, but I couldn’t. I never wanted to hurt her—”
“No, you lie for your own sake,” he argued. “You lie to protect yourself. Through Jack’s death, your daughter’s misery, you deny the truth. The truth that you caused the death of Ruby’s real mother.”
My breath caught.
“No, that’s not true!” Mom reared her head.
“The truth that you stole Ruby and pretended she was your own,” he continued.
“It was all legal,” she said through labored breaths.