“Yes,” Alexei says with absolutely no shame or remorse. “I’m so glad you came to your senses, for Meghan’s sake.”
My father shoots Alexei a glare full of murder and his hands squeeze into fists. “Since accepting his alliance, he’s used us to do all his dirty work for him.”
“Well, not all of my dirty work,” Alexei snickers.
A look of pure disgust washes over my father’s face before he tears his attention away from Alexei and looks to me again.
His eyes are begging me for forgiveness, a forgiveness I’m not sure I can give, as he says, “I’m sorry, Meghan. I tried to send you away. Tried to—”
A sharp pain shoots up my arm as Alexei forces his finger over mine and the gun goes off in my hand.
Just like back in the church, everything seems to slow down.
My father jerks back and his open mouth goes slack. His eyes suddenly dim as if the lights inside them blew out.
A hole. A dark hole appears on his forehead.
Behind him there’s this blast, an explosion of blood and gore that splatters against the Audi’s window.
With nothing holding him up, he slumps down the car like a marionette whose strings were just cut, making this horrible squelching noise while leaving a slick trail of blood and brain matter behind him.
Horror. Unbearable horror floods through me, and everything inside me just falls out.
Then a scream pierces the air.
A scream full of shock and pain.
A scream that’s coming from me.
“He should have never tried to keep you from me,” I hear Alexei say as my lungs drag in more air to scream again.
The death grip around my hand loosens, and then the gun is pried from my aching fingers.
I start to fight the arm wrapped around my middle, fight to reach my father.
“Stop that now,” Alexei grunts, tightening his arm around me so hard I feel it bending my ribs.
But I don’t care. I don’t care what happens to me now. There’s just this unbearable need to reach my father.
To take back what I just did.
Another scream flows from my throat and it’s not enough, not enough to expel this pain inside me. Not enough to ease it even a fraction.
I start to claw at Alexei’s arm, start to fight him with this primal, feral need to hurt him, to escape him.
“Goddammit, I said stop,” Alexei snarls.
And then something cracks against my head so hard everything goes black.
19
Gabriel
What the fuck is Meghan thinking? Why the fuck would she run to them? I thought we had all this fucking shit figured out?
“Fucking hell!” Simon yells into my ear. “What the fuck is going on?”
Bullets rip into the trunk of the Lexus as I start trying to go after Meghan. God-fucking-dammit!
Hunkering down, I look behind me and watch as the state police officers raise their weapons at me.
Well fuck.
I don’t drop my rifle, but this shit isn’t looking fun,
“Simon, we’re all going to need a quick extraction,” I say into the comms, and try turning toward the Audis that are now revving their engines.
Fuck it. I gotta do something or she’s going to get away.
Standing up from the Lexus, I try to get a peek at the Audis. My view is mostly obscured by some big motherfucker holding onto Meghan.
I see Meghan’s father fall to the ground and I can feel my stomach drop with him.
“Chief is down, Brady is down. We’ve got two state highway patrols screaming at us,” Johnathan says into the comms.
“Damn them all to hell!” Simon yells. “I’m currently trying to get them under control. Do not shoot them. Respond to their commands.”
“Put your weapon down!” an officer behind me yells at my back as I watch Meghan being shoved into the back of one of the Audis.
“Simon, they’re taking Meghan,” I growl into the comms.
“Understood,” Lucifer says in a cool, quiet drawl. “Follow the officer’s orders.”
“Fuck that!” I shout and start to raise my rifle at the Audi.
“Don’t do it!” a shout comes from behind me and I can hear a quiver in the voice over all the shit that’s going on around us.
That quiver tells me that the officer is going to put a couple of rounds in me the moment my rifle raises enough to be a threat.
Fuck.
If I shoot now, I won’t have a clear shot of getting the driver and fucking Alexei. Too many variables could go wrong if I try anything. I could be shot in the back before I have a chance to hit one of the car’s wheels. I could also a get shot in the back of the head. That wouldn’t do anyone good.
Dropping the rifle, I slowly stand up from behind the Lexus. Motherfuckers. I swore I’d never raise my hands again in submission to fucking pigs.
“Kick the rifle away!” the officer screams at my back.