“It just ain’t your day!” He laughed and then charged at me, my back hitting the back beam when he moved to strangle me. My head hit his, causing him to back up before I punched his jaw.
“JUST DIE ALREADY!” he yelled, grabbing a shard of broken glass.
BANG!
“Fucking shit—” he cried out, grabbing on his shoulder.
“Hurts like a bitch, doesn’t it?” Ivy said, pointing the pistol at him. He froze, staring at her. “You’re right. I’m a little insane. You shot me and my husband, Elroy. You threatened to rape me…IN OUR FUCKING HOUSE!”
“Cousin—”
“SHUT UP!”
“Run,” I said to him.
“Ethan—”
“Run. Let’s call this one a draw. Head down the stairs, to the basement, get out through the window. None of the cops will get you. This is between us men. You really want her to kill you? Go. And pray we don’t meet again.”
“ETHAN!” Ivy screamed.
“Ivy, do not shoot him!” I snapped at her. “He’s mine to kill.”
He snickered and walked backward, Ivy still pointing the gun at him. “Until next time, Callahan, then.”
“Watch to make sure he leaves,” I said to her, reaching into my pocket for the phone. She limped backward, carefully scanning around her, still holding the gun tightly before lifting the phone. She glanced down a few times before finally relaxing.
“Lock down the house,” I said to her.
When she did, the bars extended over the windows, and she turned to me. “I wanted to kill him. I could have killed him.”
“You only had one bullet,” I reminded her.
“What?”
“You cleaned the gun last night, remember? And only put one bullet in. Didn’t want to come down to get the rest, remember?” I snickered lazily and looked at her. “If he realized he would have kept attacking and I’m—”
My legs buckled under me and I slid onto the ground, staring at my own blood in my hands. Today really wasn’t my day.
“Ethan!” She ran to me, taking off her shirt, ignoring whatever pain it may have caused her, and placed it over my wound. “Put pressure on it! I’ll get—”
“G…et…get Wyatt…no one else.”
“Ethan, he could be anywhere right now. You need to go to the hospital!”
Putting my hand on her cheek, I brought her forehead to mine. “Wife, I need you first to keep calm, go upstairs, clean up as best as you can—”
“Ethan!”
“LISTEN TO ME!” I yelled more because I hated the way she said my name, with fear, with pain. “We are Callahans, baby, we do not fall and we do not show weakness. All eyes are on Boston right now. I cannot be wheeled out of here on a stretcher. You can’t run out crazed screaming for help. Half of our power is perception. I’d rather die here than look weak out there.”
Tears fell from her eyes. “You’ll bleed out.”
“Then stop arguing with me.” I smiled, bringing her forehead to kiss it. “Go. Wyatt is out there somewhere. My brother pretends he doesn’t like the madness, but the truth is he became a doctor so he could always be in it and still act innocent.”
She kissed my lips. “If you die I will kill you!”
“Noted.” I smiled, relaxing against the beam. “Go.”