Chapter 225 HOME TO MY WIFE.
Chapter 225 HOME TO MY WIFE.
\~~~DAMIEN.
“You’re going to survive this, James,” I whispered, leaning down so my face was inches from his. “The doctors will save you. They will graft your skin. They will manage the pain. They will keep your heart beating. And when they’re finished, you are going to spend the next few months in a maximum-security medical prison, healing from those burns. And then, you’re going to spend the rest of your natural life in a concrete box, completely forgotten by the world.”
I stood back up, holstering my sidearm.
“There’d be no power, money, no influence and no ability to manipulate anyone ever again,” I said plainly. “You’ll sit in that cell day after day, alone in the dark, with nothing to do but remember every single choice you made that brought you here.”
James collapsed forward, pressing his forehead against the soot-stained floor, his shoulders shaking with a mixture of pain, rage, and absolute defeat. He had wanted to destroy my world, but instead, he had systematically destroyed his own.
I tapped my earpiece.
“Ethan,” I called out.
“Boss! We’re coming up!” Ethan’s voice replied instantly.
“Secure the room,” I ordered, turning my back on the broken man kneeling on the floor. “Call the clean-up crew, and have federal marshals waiting at the precinct. Let’s take our trash out.”
“And one more thing, James…”
I stopped at the edge of the blown-out doorway, not even bothering to look back at the broken, smoking wreck kneeling on the floor.
“Everything that just happened in this room, every word you said about your own daughter, every threat you made, and every sick plan to bury her alive was captured on a direct recording link straight to my phone,” I said, my voice cutting through the silence.
James stiffened, his charred fingers clutching weakly at the ash-covered floorboards as his breath hitched.
“You wanted to destroy her peace of mind,” I continued, turning my head just enough to let him see the cold, merciless glare in my eyes. “You wanted her to spend the rest of her life wondering if the shadow behind her was her own father. But she deserves the truth. She deserves to know the absolute depths of what you were willing to do to her.”
I tapped the side of my collar, where the miniature receiver was pinned.
“She needs to hear it from your own mouth so she can finally put you to rest in her heart. She needs to move on completely, knowing you were never worth a single tear she ever cried for you.”
I didn't wait for him to answer. I walked out leaving him alone in the dark.
Before I could take two steps toward the waiting car, figures were rushing out of the shadows.
Ethan was the first to reach me, his face tight with lingering tension, but before he could even open his mouth to give a report, Melissa pushed right past him.
And then, she did something I never expected.
Melissa threw her arms around my shoulders, burying her face against my jacket in a fierce, breathless hug. For a second, I froze, caught completely off guard, before I slowly raised my arms and pulled her close, resting a hand gently on her back.
“God… I don’t even know if I should hug you or salute you or call you an idiot, I really don’t want to lose my job.” Melissa choked out, her voice muffled against my chest, trembling with a mix of leftover terror and adrenaline. “Going in there alone with a madman wired to explosives was so...” she breathed out.
Ethan stepped in close, grabbing my shoulder with a heavy, grounding grip, his eyes scanning my face for injuries.
He didn't hug me but the fierce, unyielding relief shining in his eyes said more than words ever could.
“You okay, boss?” Ethan asked, his voice rough. “We heard the blast. I thought we lost you.”
“I’m fine,” I breathed out, letting go of Melissa as she pulled back, wiping a stray tear quickly from her cheek with the back of her sleeve. “Just a few bruises and a ringing ear. Thanks to you two.”
Melissa offered a shaky, brilliant smile, her fingers still clutching her tactical tablet like a lifeline. “The reroute was poetry, boss. I told you… nobody outsmarts our encryption.”
“You saved my life tonight, Melissa. Both of you did,” I said, looking between them.
The cold, heavy armor I had worn for twenty years felt a little lighter standing here with the people who had stayed loyal through every storm.
“The federal marshals are pulling up at the perimeter now,” Ethan reported, snapping back into professional mode as he pointed toward the line of armored vehicles rolling into the yard. “We’ve got a team heading up to secure James and hand him over to the black site transport.”
“Good,” I said, turning my gaze back toward the dark, ruined office window on the second floor. “Make sure he stays locked down. No visitors, no phone calls, no outside contact. He’s going straight to a maximum-security medical ward, and then to a box where the sun never shines.”
“Consider it done,” Ethan nodded.
I took a deep breath, feeling the cool air fill my lungs, clean and untainted for the first time in two decades.
“Take the lead on the cleanup,” I told Ethan, patting his arm. “I need to get back to the hospital.”
“Go,” Melissa smiled softly, stepping aside. “She’s waiting for you.”
I turned and walked toward the waiting SUV, the engine idling softly in the gray dawn. As I slid into the driver’s seat and pulled away from the harbor, the recording of James’s voice sat heavy and secure on my phone.
James had been taken care of, and now all I wanted was to go home to my wife