“Probably,” Gene admitted. “But I need a break from fighting monsters.”
“Until the next one shows up?”
“Until then.”
They drove home through the city as the sun set, painting the sky in orange and gold. Gene thought about Sarah. About Paula. About all the people lost along the way. He thought about justice and revenge and the thin line dividing them.
He had crossed that line.
He had used Leanne and Marcus as bait. He had manipulated the Sparks into a trap. He had been willing to do whatever it took to destroy them.
Was that justice, or was it something darker?
In the end, Gene decided it did not matter.
The Sparks family had tortured his daughter. They had killed innocent people. They had corrupted officials and ruined lives. Now they were gone.
If that made Gene a monster too, he could live with it.
Some things mattered more than moral purity. Some things demanded a response beyond law and procedure.
Family mattered.
Truth mattered.
And sometimes revenge mattered too.
Gene Mullins had learned that lesson well, and he had taught it to the Sparks family in a language they would never forget.
As he pulled into the driveway, Leanne’s phone buzzed. She read the message and smiled.
“What is it?” Gene asked.
“Carolina. She’s organizing a support group for Spark Center survivors. She wants to know if I’ll help.”
“Will you?”
Leanne looked out through the windshield for a second, thoughtful.
“I think so. It feels like the right next step. Helping other people heal.”
Gene squeezed her hand.
“Your mother would be proud of you.”
“She’d be proud of you too, Dad. You kept your promise. You protected me.”
Gene looked at her.
“I’ll always protect you. That’s not a promise. That’s a fact.”
They went inside together. And Gene thought about the future. There would be more documentaries. More investigations. More fights. But for the moment, he had his daughter back. She was safe. She was healing. And the people who had hurt her were paying for it.
That was enough.
For now, that was enough.
Six months later, Gene received a letter from Brent Sparks in federal prison.
He almost threw it away unread.
Curiosity won.
The letter was short.
You think you’ve won, but you’ve only made things worse for Leanne. People like us have long memories. My family has connections you can’t imagine. When we rebuild, we’ll come for both of you. And this time, you won’t see us coming.
Gene read it twice. Then he lit the fireplace in his office, watched the letter curl and blacken in the flames, and made a phone call.
“Marcus, I have an idea for our next project.”
Marcus laughed on the other end. “Another documentary, I assume?”
“How do you feel about investigating corruption in the federal prison system?”
“You can’t let it go, can you?”
“Nope. Besides, I promised Brent I’d bury him. I keep my promises.”
Gene hung up and turned back to the wall of research in his office. He had already started a new board, mapping the remaining allies and loose connections tied to the Sparks network. There were still people who had helped them and had not yet been caught.
Gene would find them all.
Because this was what he did.
This was who he was.
The Sparks family had believed they could break Leanne. Instead, they had awakened something in her father that could not be put back to sleep. Gene Mullins did not just expose the truth. He hunted it down, cornered it, and made it impossible to hide.
And he was only getting started.
In the other room, Leanne was on the phone with Carolina, planning the support group’s first meeting. She was laughing—hopeful, healing. That sound, his daughter’s happiness, was worth everything: the years of work, the danger, the moral compromises.
Gene had learned a fundamental truth.
The world was full of monsters who preyed on the vulnerable. Most people could not fight back. They did not have the skills, the resources, or the will.
But Gene did.
And he would keep fighting until there were no monsters left, or until the monsters finally took him down.
Either way, he would go down swinging.
Because some people deserved to be destroyed.
And Gene Mullins was more than willing to be the one who did it.
He looked at the new research board, at all the names and connections, and smiled.
“Who’s next?” he murmured.
The war was over.
Long live the war.
And there you have it.
