Chapter 39 - The Lion Unleashed
The fire from the overturned technical truck cast long, dancing shadows across the gravel courtyard. The gunfire had died away into the crackle of burning rubber and the groans of wounded mercenaries being rounded up by Cormac’s men.
Victor Moreau stood alone in the center of the terrace, the barrel of his revolver shaking as he pointed it toward the stone arches.
Desmond Gallagher walked through the smoke.
He had lowered his rifle. He walked slowly, deliberately, his footsteps crunching on the broken glass and gravel. The red glow of the fire illuminated the hard, unyielding contours of his face. He looked like an ancient warlord stepping over the ruins of an invaded city.
"Stay back, Gallagher!" Moreau screamed, his voice cracking with hysteria. "I am the head of the Latitudes! I control the wealth of nations! You are nothing! A crippled gangster who got lucky with a country girl!"
Desmond didn't stop. He didn't even blink.
"You called my wife a country girl," Desmond said, his voice a low, rumbling thunder that seemed to rattle the very earth beneath their feet. "You threatened my son. You brought fire to my home."
Moreau pulled the trigger.
*BANG.*
The bullet tore through Desmond’s left shoulder, ripping through the Kevlar seam, drawing a line of crimson blood.
Desmond didn't even stumble. He didn't flinch. The pain was nothing to a man who had lived five years in the agony of shattered vertebrae and rebuilt his own nervous system through sheer willpower and the love of one woman.
In a fraction of a second, Desmond closed the distance.
His hand shot out like an iron vice, clamping around Moreau’s wrist. With a brutal, sickening twist, he snapped the bones, forcing the revolver to fall into the gravel.
Before Moreau could scream, Desmond’s other hand locked around the older man's throat, lifting him off his feet and slamming him down onto the hood of a shattered SUV.
The metal buckled under the impact.
Desmond leaned over him, his face inches from Moreau’s gasping, terrified countenance. Desmond’s eyes were not full of rage; they were full of the cold, absolute emptiness of the void.
"Your Council is finished, Victor," Desmond whispered into his ear. "Your accounts in Zurich are empty. Sadi transferred your liquid reserves to the maritime dockworkers' pension funds fifteen minutes ago. You are broke. You are friendless. And your name will be erased from history."
"Gallagher... please..." Moreau choked out, clawing desperately at Desmond’s iron fingers. "I... I can give you the names... the ones who paid for your car crash..."
Desmond’s grip tightened until Moreau’s face turned purple.
"I already have their names," Desmond said softly. "My father left them in the ledger. And they will join you in hell."
With a single, devastating strike of his elbow, Desmond rendered Moreau unconscious, dropping him onto the crumpled hood like a discarded rag.
Desmond stood upright. He breathed in the cool mountain air, the firelight washing over his blood-stained shoulder.
Footsteps approached.
Sadi walked out onto the terrace. Her rifle was slung over her shoulder. Liam was fast asleep against her heart, completely undisturbed by the battle that had raged around him.
She walked to Desmond’s side. She saw the blood on his shoulder, and her eyes softened with that deep, eternal tenderness that had once saved his life in the dark.
She reached out with a clean linen handkerchief, gently dabbing the blood away from his skin.
"You're bleeding, my King," she whispered softly.
Desmond looked down at her. The icy sovereign vanished, replaced entirely by the man who worshipped her with every beat of his heart.
He reached down, his clean hand cradling the back of her head, pulling her into a fierce, deep, and passionate kiss right there in the middle of the smoking courtyard. Sadi melted into his embrace, her fingers tangling into his hair, their lips tasting of salt, smoke, and total victory.
"It is over, Sadi," Desmond breathed against her lips, his forehead resting against hers. "The ledger is clean. The valley is ours. No one will ever threaten our sanctuary again."
May you like
Sadi smiled, looking down at their sleeping son, and then up into the infinite, star-filled California sky. "We built a home in the light, Desmond. And here we stay."
***
