Chapter 54
CHAPTER 54
Max
I’ve never seen Heath drive this fast up the mountain. He’s so fixated on the road that I can’t even get through to him.
“Hello, earth to Heath?” I say.
“Let him drive,” Silas barks.
“Well, he wouldn’t have had to if she hadn’t taken my bike because you scared her off,” I retort, narrowing my eyes.
Even if Silas and Heath believe Ivy stole Cora, I know deep down she did it for the right reasons.
Silas crosses his arms. “You’re looking at the wrong guy.”
“I didn’t do shit,” Heath growls back.
“She ran off because you said you knew Ivan,” Silas says. “He’s the dude you got your pills from, right?”
“Yes, but how was I supposed to know he’s been blackmailing her?” Heath retorts, jerking on the steering wheel. “He told me she stole Cora.”
I hold my chair tightly, but the buzzing in my pants catches me off guard. I fish out my phone and check, but message upon message of screaming all caps has me on edge again.
“Oh no.”
“What?” Heath growls.
I hold up my phone. “The Skull and Serpent Society is under attack.”
Heath’s eyes widen, and he immediately hits the gas even harder. “Fuck!”
“It’s those fucking Bones Brotherhood fuckers. I just know it,” Silas grits. “They came for her, just like that guy at The Shack said they would. Fuck!”
Silas chucks his phone to the floorboard.
Heath swerves around the corner, nearly crashing into the gate as we get on campus. People jump aside to avoid getting hit by the car because Heath is focused on getting to the building as fast as possible.
My nerves get the best of me, and I gaze around in the dark to see what’s going on, but there doesn’t appear to be any cars or trucks or men left at the scene. My eyes widen at the sight of the blasted-in door and the drag trail across the grass, accompanied by obvious car or van tire marks.
Shit. Shit. Shit!
Once the car comes to a stop, I immediately jump out to bolt inside. “Cora? Ivy? Cora? Please, anyone!”
On the floor are dozens of students, all riddled with bullets. Including my own brother.
“Fuck, Elliot!” I go to my knees in front of him. He’s been hit in the thigh.
“It hurts, it hurts so much!” He grips his leg in pain.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I rip off a piece of my shirt to wrap it around his leg. “I’m sorry.”
“They’re gone,” one of the other guys says, spluttering up blood. “They only came … to take the girls.”
“Silas, Heath!” I scream over my shoulder. “I need help over here!”
Heath and Silas rush in behind me, but their faces grow cold at the sight of all the bodies littering the halls.
“Oh fuck,” Heath mutters.
“Call an ambulance!” I yell.
Silas puts his phone to his ear. “Dad, the Skull and Serpent Society has been hit. I need help. Now.”
Heath runs to another student and pushes down on the open wound in the belly created by a bullet. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Keep pressing on the wounds,” I say. “Call more help.”
“On it.” Silas runs outside, where more people have finally gathered to see what’s going on.
But even as dozens of my fellow society mates have been injured in what is undoubtedly the most heinous attack on campus grounds, and I am doing my best to split my attention between all of them to keep them from dying on me, my mind still wanders off to Ivy and Cora, and how hard it hurts that I couldn’t be here in time to save them.
Ivy
I throw my body into the van’s doors, again and again, like a crazed bull ready to fight off those matadors in a ring. My shoulder is bruised, and my arm feels like it’s about to dislodge, but I don’t care about the pain or my ringing ears.
I have to get out of this van.
I have to get out and find Cora.
Because if I don’t … everything we’ve been through, everything we’ve had to endure, everything I’ve had to sacrifice will have been for nothing.
“Let. Me. Fucking. Out!” I say through gritted teeth, still hammering the doors. “Let me out!”
The doors open right when I was about to charge into them, and I fall onto the muddy ground instead, my face hitting the asphalt first. Blood rivulets down my forehead, and I groan from the pain of falling on my head twice in a single day.
“Get her up.”
Two strong hands drag me up by my arms, but the moment I lock eyes with Ivan, I completely forget any and all pain I felt before.
“You …” I hiss.
He throws me a disgusted look. “I told you, you can’t win this. You think I wanted to do this? You forced my hand.”
“I didn’t do shit. Where the fuck is Cora?”
He laughs. “Wouldn’t you like to know…”
“Tell me!” I screech, kicking and biting with every inch of energy I have left.
“Not a chance,” he replies, turning around.
“You promised! You swore you wouldn’t fucking rat us out!”
He shrugs and glances at me over his shoulder, winking. “Guess you shouldn’t trust just any man.”
That asshole!
“Fuck you, Ivan!” I yell, cursing the ground he walks on.
I look around and try to shake off the guards holding me back from jumping him and twisting his neck, but there are many more of them than there are of me.
“Bring her to the boss,” Ivan says.
Panic bubbles to the surface. “No.”
“Let’s go,” the guy behind me says, shoving me forward and dragging me along by my elbow.
“Tell me where Cora is,” I growl at the guy behind me, but of course he doesn’t reply.
That’s just how these men are. Exactly how I remember them to be. Ignorant, mindless drones who only listen to one man.
Dread fills my bones at the thought, so instead, I focus on looking for a way out. There must be something I can do. Anything.
I swallow away the lump in my throat as we approach the big mansion. The one I swore I would never come back to.
Fuck.
I dig my heels into the gravel, but it’s no use against this fucker’s strength.
“Keep walking,” he growls.
“If you hurt Cora, I will kill you,” I say out loud, hoping Ivan hears too.
I can hear Ivan’s laughter from inside the house. “You think you’re the one we should fear?”
Shit. This is getting serious now.
If I step foot inside that house, my death is as good as certain.
So I make one last ditch effort by shoving both feet into the doorjamb and then knocking my head against my captor, butting him out of the way. Finally, he loses his grip, and I bolt off back across the path.
I have no choice. I have to run. If he finds me, he’ll kill me.
I’ll come back for Cora.
Suddenly, two hands wrap around my ankles, and I’m tipped over.
No, no, no!
“You think you can run from this?” Ivan yells from the house.
“Fuck you, you know he’ll kill us both!” I scream.
“No … I think he’ll just kill you, and I will happily watch as he drains the blood from your body.”
The guy who caught me drags me by my feet all the way back to where we started. When I kick and thrash, another one joins, each one hauling me by the ankles back into the house and across the threshold. The moment the door closes, panic takes hold of my heart.
“Hello, Ivy.”
My blood runs cold.
Stefano .
“Leave us.”
As the men drop me, I take a few breaths to pull out the residual courage from deep within. Then I grab the small table to my left and fling it toward Stefano, but he sidesteps to avoid it hitting him, and it crashes into the wall instead.
“Is that how you greet the man who welcomed you into his house?”
“You’re not a man. You’re a fucking monster!” I yell back.
He snorts. “The only monster here is you.”
“Where is Cora?!” I scream at him.
“Inside. Safe,” he says, going to his knees in front of me. The thick bristles of his mustache don’t hide the wicked smile on his face. “Away from you.”
My nostrils flare, and I spit in his face.
He wipes it off, then grasps me by the neck.
SLAP!
His flat hand hits me so hard my nose begins to bleed too.
“She’s. Not. Yours,” he growls, squeezing my throat so tightly I can’t breathe.
Then he shoves me away.
“You will never see her again,” he says.
I shake my head, rasping, “No.”
“Yes.” He throws me a devilish glance. “In fact, I think it’s about time you learned what it means to steal from a man like me.” He snaps his fingers, and the guys drag me farther into the hallway and into a room with just a bed and some machines bleeping away. Tubes are attached to the machine and lead all the way to a woman lying motionless in a bed.
And I hold my breath.
Perhaps forever.
As the tears I’ve been holding for so long finally begin to cascade down my cheeks.
“All this running, fighting, hiding, trying to escape my men, and for what?” he whispers into my ear.
And I whisper back, “Nothing.”
“That’s right.” He places a hand on my shoulder. “You did this.”
I shake my head, tears still marking my face with all the emotions I’ve kept bottled up for her sake. Cora always said I was strong, stronger than anyone she ever knew.
But this is where my greatest weakness lies.
The one thing that could shatter me into tiny little pieces.
Knowing that, after everything I did, it still wasn’t enough to keep everyone I love safe.
I whisper, “I’m sorry.”
Stefano wickedly sniggers behind me. “Sorry won’t save you now.”