Chapter 21 #2
“How can I not?” She sobs again. “Where is everyone? Why isn’t the damn sheriff out here doing his job?”
“Killian and Liam will find Tony. They will figure out what’s happening, and we will get you to the hospital.”
The fact that several of her wounds are still bleeding, and after seeing how much blood she lost up at the cabin, I’m terrified of her closing her eyes again—
A gunshot cracks, and we both flinch.
I jerk my head up and look toward town hall, to the doors Killian and Liam entered, where the shot just came from.
Raven struggles in my hold, trying to push herself up. “What was that?”
“Trouble.”
And my brothers just walked into it.
RAVEN
Connor carefully sets me down on the back seat like I’m a porcelain doll he’s afraid is going to shatter if he so much as breathes on me in the wrong way. He slides across the backseat and grabs the door handle to climb from the truck, but I snatch his wrist before he can get out.
Panic seizes my lungs, tightening them so intensely that I barely manage to get the words out. “You can’t go in there!”
“I have to, Raven.” He points toward the building. “Killian and Liam just went in, Tony’s car is here, there are dead bodies lying in town square, and that was a gunshot.” He pulls out his gun, the one that he left for me at the cabin, from his waistband. “I’ll be all right. I have to go.”
Tears well in my eyes, but I don’t bother trying to fight them, just let them fall. “I’m coming with you.”
“Like fucking hell you are! You’ve been unconscious for literally half a day, you’ve lost a lot of blood, you’re hurt.
You’re staying in the fucking car with the doors locked, with this.
” He hands me the gun. “Anyone you don’t know comes out, you shoot them.
Anyone you don’t know approaches this truck, you shoot them. Do you hear me?”
“No.” I shake my head, holding the gun in my trembling hand. “If you won’t let me come, take this, otherwise you won’t have any way to protect yourself.”
Connor scowls at me. “When am I ever without my axe?”
He closes the door, walks around to the bed of the truck, and pulls out his axe that still glistens with the blood of the man from the mountain.
A normal person might recoil from the sight of it.
I’ve never been normal by anyone’s standards.
Knowing what he did to protect me, after everything he’s suffered, all his guilt and nightmares and demons that have plagued him, knowing he was willing to do it again, only reminds me why Connor McBride was my first choice all those years ago.
He pauses next to the door again and stares at me through the window, pointing toward Killian’s door. “Lock the fucking doors.”
I nod and shift off the seat to lean over and hit the button, wincing at the pain searing through every part of my body with the movement.
Warm blood seeps from the wound in my side, soaking through Connor’s shirt, and I press my hand against it, trying to stem the flow and to prevent him from seeing it.
A fog envelops my brain, dizziness making me nauseous as I settle back onto the seat and take the gun into my hand.
Seemingly satisfied, Connor gives me one long last look before he stalks toward town hall, cautiously eases open the door, and slips inside.
I hold my breath, waiting, scanning all of downtown McBride Mountain from where I sit in the back seat of Killian’s truck, expecting a threat to appear at any moment, the same way that man just appeared in the cabin.
The same terror that seized me then does again, and I have to force myself to take a breath so I don’t pass out. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I shift myself more upright so I can see better, so I can watch for the McBrides…
One minute passes.
Another.
Several more…
Fuck, I can’t just sit here.
I don’t care what Connor said. If Tony and the McBrides are in trouble, I have to try to do what I can to help them, especially since I’m the one who brought all of this down on all of us.
Gritting my teeth, I push myself up until I’m leaning between the front seat, still clutching the gun in one hand. Sweat slickens my skin with the effort, that warm blood on my side seeping out again.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
The pain is excruciating.
But I have to ignore it.
For Connor. For what he did for me.
With every last ounce of strength I have, I manage to unlock the doors and slip out.
The moment my boots hit the ground, my legs almost give out, the pain and weakness in them is so unexpected, and I cling to the door to keep myself upright with one hand as I struggle to keep hold of the gun in the other.
My head spins violently and my stomach roils, mixing with that taste of blood in my mouth, and I heave onto the street beside town square.
The act only makes the pain worse, but I force myself to draw in a heavy breath, trying to find the strength to keep moving, the strength not to collapse right here on the fucking blacktop.
I somehow manage to get myself upright, still clinging to the door, and I scan town square again.
Still too quiet.
Too still.
It’s all wrong.
Wrong in a way that matches what I felt up on the mountain, when I knew something was wrong, which only confirms for me that I have to help, that I have to keep moving.
I stagger through town square, my eyes drifting over the bodies of the two strangers without so much as an ounce of regret for their deaths.
These fuckers deserved what came to them, just like their friend up at the cabin did. I only wish I had gotten to see what Connor and Killian did to him.