Chapter 16 - Ashes on the SoundBANG.
The single gunshot echoed off the corrugated steel walls of the power plant, carrying out over the dark, fog-covered waters of the Long Island Sound before dying out completely.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Kai stood over the body of Ettore Vance for three seconds. He didn't search the old man’s pockets. He didn't look at the broken silver cane. He simply engaged the safety on his firearm, slid it back into his shoulder holster, and turned his back on the corpse.
Lev emerged from the shadow of the power plant, stepping over the debris, holding a tactical radio.
"Cleanup detail is two minutes out, Boss," Lev reported, his voice steady. "Three incinerator trucks and a heavy steel container unit. By dawn, this yard will be cleaner than a hospital operating room."
"Burn everything, Lev," Kai commanded, his voice raspy with exhaustion. "Every car, every body, every piece of paper carrying the Vance crest. I want nothing left of these ghosts."
"Understood, sir," Lev nodded. He paused, looking at Kai’s blood-splattered coat. "And you?"
"I’m going home to my family."
Five minutes later, the heavy door of our armored vehicle opened. The cold night air rushed in, bringing with it the faint smell of gunpowder, but Kai had already wiped his face clean with a damp cloth and thrown away his ruined coat. He wore a simple black sweater he had grabbed from the vehicle's emergency kit.
Lily looked up from her coloring book, pulling off her earmuffs.
"Uncle Kai!" she cheered, her face lighting up with pure, unadulterated joy. "Did you beat the bad men in the dark yard?"
Kai slid onto the leather seat beside her, pulling her small body into his lap and resting his chin on her soft hair. He closed his eyes, taking a deep, long breath, as if filling his lungs with life for the first time in hours.
"The game is over, Lily," Kai whispered, his broad hands trembling slightly as he held her tight. "All the bad men have gone away. They’re never coming back."
I reached across the seat, laying my hand over his knee. Kai opened his eyes, looking at me through the dim interior light. The icy, terrifying killer I had seen on the monitors was gone; sitting before me was simply a man who had dragged his soul through hell to build a heaven for the people he loved.
"Is it really over, Kai?" I asked softly, my voice barely above a whisper.
"It’s over, Maya," he promised, his fingers intertwining with mine. "The Vance bloodline ended tonight. The Moretti bloodline is dust. From this moment on... there is only us."
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As the heavy armored vehicle backed out of the tree line and headed south onto the open highway toward Hawthorne Road, I looked out the dark tinted window. In the far distance, behind the silhouette of the abandoned power plant, a bright orange plume of fire rose into the night sky—the final pyre of an empire that had terrorized three generations of women.
I squeezed Kai’s hand, resting my head against his arm, and for the first time in seven terrifying years, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to sleep without watching the door.
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