Our love wasn’t one that ended with death.
Our type of love was everlasting and immortal.
If having a gun trained on me meant they would get out of this safely, then I’d surrender to it willingly. I closed my eyes, giving into the moment, as the sound of a gun going off vibrated the air.
Then a solid thunk had my eyes opening in surprise, shocked there was no pain outside of Ian’s grip on my hair and wrists. My gaze focused on Dermot, who was standing over his very dead father.
Holy hell. Dermot had killed his father.
I was so damn surprised that when Lincoln tried to surge towards Ian, I didn’t have time to warn him. A cold barrel touched my temple as Ian stepped back with me, forcing me to go up on my toes so my heels didn’t hang off the edge. My breathing was stilted, my ears filled with ocean waves and wind, so it took me a moment to get my bearings again. The world was spinning around me.
“Ian, you’ve lost.”
I barely recognized Dermot’s voice, and I tried to turn to see him, but the ass holding me only pressed the gun harder against me, causing me to let out a whimper. Ian’s chuckle was threaded with panic as he spoke loudly over the wind. “That’s where you’re wrong, Dermot. If you try to touch me, she’s not only getting a bullet through the head, but she’s going to find her grave at the bottom of this cliff.”
I immediately felt a shift in the energy of the space, everyone hearing the truth in his words, and I realized that if I didn’t do anything, this could—and would—go south. Then my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a helicopter in the distance, the tightness in my chest intensifying as I caught the expressions on the guys’ faces.
“Back up, now,” Ian demanded. “I’m getting out of here with or without her.”
I inhaled sharply, trying to figure out how to handle this, how to handle him. An idea came to me as I felt a calm surface through my consciousness, telling me that this was the only option.
“Ian?” I asked softly yet clearly.
“What?” he demanded.
“Is the helicopter going to take us away?” I looked up towards him as surprise flashed through his gaze, replaced quickly by caution.
“Yes.” His voice was hard, his gaze darting to them before moving back to me.
“Good.”
“Good?” He seemed confused by my words, which was perfect.
“I’ve made my decision.” I offered him a knowing look.
Ian smiled victoriously, thinking I was choosing him, his grip on me loosening just slightly as I turned into him. Someone let out a vicious sound behind me and my breathing hitched, but I kept completely focused on what I needed to do.
I decided to be bold to catch him off guard. “You said you wanted them to feel pain?”
“More than anything.”
The helicopter was coming closer. Way too close. If I got onto that thing, it was absolutely over. I had no doubt about that.
“Kiss me.”
Silence filled the space, and I hoped like hell my men understood what was going on. Ian looked down at my lips, and when he surged forward, I let him kiss me. The taste of his lips was disgusting, but the satisfaction of the gun falling slightly from my head as I leaned into him was everything.
Everything I needed.
“Goodbye, Ian.”
Ian let out a cry of surprise as I pushed hard, the gun going off as I watched his body topple off the cliffside into the waiting ocean below.
The helicopter that was growing closer suddenly turned, fast enough that I couldn’t see who was standing at the open side. I moved my eyes away from the helicopter and let out a shuddered breath, my knees breaking as relief filled me and my body crashed. There were a ton of noises around me, but when two large arms wrapped around me, I knew for a fact that it was one of my boys. My eyes closed as I let out a happy hum in my throat.
“Track down the ’copter. It has to land soon, and I want whoever is on it brought back to the house.” Yates’s voice had me smiling despite knowing what he meant.
I mean…I couldn’t exactly judge anymore.