Chapter 30 Duncan
DUNCAN
Raindrops land on my suit jacket, bead, then roll down the fabric as I move toward the warehouse. Wild grass reaches my knees, grazing against my pants with every step.
Years ago, Barclay and I walked up to a place just like this one.
Together, we treaded through a stretch of ground that was barely a trail. We reached the abandoned building carrying an unconscious Ross, who was about to get what was coming to him.
Back then, I was terrified. Justified as the murder was, sweat slicked my forehead. Adrenaline flooded my veins. My teeth chattered.
I’ve changed since.
Everything has.
As I walk alone toward what must be a MacQuoid property, my steps are steady. My stomach doesn’t churn. My grip on the SIG doesn’t shake.
I don’t feel my pulse. I don’t feel my breath.
All I feel is her.
There’s no room for fear when Elowyn’s life is on the line.
Somewhere behind those walls, my woman is alone in this windowless warehouse. Hurt. Scared.
I’m coming, little moon.
Frustrated at the never-ending path, I pick up my pace, tearing through the last hundred feet at a run.
My clothes are soaked by the time I reach the brass door, my hair falling onto my forehead. I swipe it back angrily while listening to what’s going on inside.
Of course I want to barge in, guns blazing.
But if Elowyn’s the one closest to the door, I might kill her.
I can’t and won’t lose the single most important person in my life.
I have to play it smart.
“What’d I tell you?” I hear Barclay, the ringleader. The role he loves so damn much. Young me called it charisma. What a joke. “He’s probably still bitching about the fire to the cops. He’s going to let you rot and take care of his whore investment only when it suits him. Once trash, always trash.”
A violent tremor rakes through me. It takes everything to stay outside.
“And I told you.” Her determination threads through the walls. Sweet and furious, cutting straight into my marrow. “I don’t want him here.”
She’s still protecting me. Even now, she hopes I’ll save myself. After I’ve failed her.
And I have failed her. I didn’t install the best security systems because I’d been a fool, believing the high gates could keep the threats out.
Worse still, I let Barclay live. I dismissed his threat as a tantrum.
Guilt hollows my chest. Makes it practically impossible to breathe.
I can’t succumb to it. Can’t let myself be consumed by anything other than saving Elowyn.
“You still care about him? Pathetic.” Barclay barks a laugh.
“Barclay,” another man says. His voice sounds farther from the door. Just one man. Where’s the other one?
“Don’t you Barclay me, Jayden. You signed up for this,” Barclay growls. “As for you, Sis. If he doesn’t show, I’ll find that new-money douchebag and his dog. Will kill them myself. Don’t even need these cowards here.” His friends. “When there’s a will, there’s a way.”
I clear my head and press my ear to the door to hear what’s going on inside. One last time, just to be sure.
“I hate you, Barclay!” Elowyn’s voice is shrill, clear. Telling me exactly where she is.
Deeper inside and away from her brother.
Thank fuck.
I throw my shoulder into the door and break into the warehouse in a single hit.
The door slams against the wall with a metallic shriek.
“Duncan!” Elowyn gasps.
I don’t spare a glance her way.
It pains me to scan the room for threats, but I have no other choice. Both our lives depend on my being vigilant.
Barclay’s pale blue eyes squint, a repulsive snarl twisting his features as he looks over his shoulder.
Jayden is a mountain of a man, just like I remembered him. My brow furrows to find him cowering against the wall in the back, running his hand through his short hair. He seems almost…remorseful. Fuck him and fuck his guilty conscience.
Last is Victor. The conniving bastard has his hands half-lifted in a useless gesture of surrender.
I don’t make any sudden moves that might set either of them off. I don’t dare lift my gun.
Not before I look at her.
My senses stay trained on the threats as I cut my eyes to Elowyn. She’s bound to a chair beside where Victor stands.
But that’s not what has me growling with rage.
My finger curls tighter around the trigger because she’s hurt.
The gash on her cheek is split open and bleeding.
There’s a red streak reaching as low as her chin. One infuriating drop trickles into the soaked collar of her sweater.
A bruise is already blooming under her skin, dark and infuriating.
I need to find out which one of them did it. Or if they all took turns punching a woman half their size. My woman.
There’s no blood on Jayden’s hands.
Victor’s knuckles are swollen, and Barclay’s look worse. And the dried blood staining his watch…
A flood of hate and searing madness punches at my ribs. My temples throb. The room becomes as red as the blood on Elowyn’s cheek.
“You’re going to die for this,” I say through clenched teeth. “All. Of. You.”
“No!” Elowyn screams, breaking my fucking heart. “Go. Just leave! Call the cops, just don’t. Please, go.”
Deep down, I know she doesn’t mean it. She doesn’t want the cops swarming in. Doesn’t trust anyone else.
Me.
Only ever me.
“Don’t worry,” I reassure her. “Everything’s going to be okay. You’ll see.”
“It will when you hold up your end of the deal.” It’s clear that Barclay’s lying, but I don’t give a fuck. He’s not making it out of here alive. “Your beloved’s life for your entire savings, remember?”
“I remember.” My bones ache. My blood pressure spikes to dangerous levels. Despite that, I pretend to be calm as I scan the room again. “Except…”
“Just give Barclay the money already.” Jayden wipes his meaty hands on his jeans. “No one was supposed to get seriously hurt. No one but you, Duncan, in case you said no.”
A lie coming from a desperate man’s mouth. Given the gasoline tanks I spot in the corner, I was never meant to get out of here alive.
“Which…” he continues. “We didn’t think you would. You always did what Barclay wanted. Same as the rest of us. So, end this. Right now. Just give him the money.”
“He’s lying.” Elowyn’s voice is hoarse from screaming. I fucking hate it. Fucking hate all of them. “Duncan, save yourself. Call the cops. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
Like hell I’m leaving her.
“I considered what you said on my way to this shithole.” With my SIG raised at Barclay now, it’s like the entire room freezes. “This deal isn’t working for me.”
“Duncan, no.” Elowyn’s eyes meet mine. Wide, shining, but alive. “Leave!”
Her plea seems to wake Barclay out of his trance. He flinches and grimaces as he makes a beeline to Elowyn’s chair. Before I get a good aim, he’s already behind her.
My world narrows to this bastard. To his hand that’s wrapped around his sister’s throat, how he hides like a coward.
“Let her go,” I command.
“Don’t touch me.” My brave girl wiggles, thrashing, doing everything to get him off her. She lands a hit with her head when she throws it back, wounding his bad shoulder. “Leave me the fuck alone, Barclay.”
Barclay winces. “Fuck you.”
When he fixes his eyes on me, a smirk curves on his ugly lips. It’s not hard to figure out why.
He thinks he’s safe.
For now, he is.
I can’t pull the trigger while he hides behind her, using her as a shield. And Elowyn won’t be able to break free on her own. One look at her ankles tells me everything I need to know. The restraints are the same ones we used on Ross Harker, a man twice her size and strength.
I try again, aim my gun higher, just like this, in this angle, then maybe—
I can’t get a shot. Fuck.
Fuck.
“Get him, Vic,” Barclay snarls.
“No!” Jayden calls out, but it’s too late. “He’s got a gun, dammit!”
Victor, whether looking for a fight or high on adrenaline, doesn’t listen to his cousin. He charges forward, his boots pounding on concrete.
I shift my stance, SIG locked on Victor’s face.
Click.
The recoil snaps up my arm.
A deafening sound thunders inside the warehouse. The world stills.
Then it happens.
A hole gapes in Victor’s forehead, red and gory. His eyes shutter.
Blood trickles between them a second before he collapses to the floor, a pool of blood gathering on the concrete by his head.
I don’t pity him. Don’t regret what I’ve done.
As the thin plume of smoke curls from the barrel, I feel nothing but an ice-cold sense of righteousness.
Unlike me, Jayden’s grieving his cousin. “Victor!” he screams, his feet moving.
To where? I don’t give a fuck.
The gun obeys me without question when I take him out too.
Barclay whips his head toward his friends, both sprawled on the floor, dead. His mouth gapes.
Thankfully, his fingers loosen around Elowyn’s neck as his mind scrambles to understand how his meticulous plan just imploded.
In the split second his focus isn’t on me, I mouth to Elowyn, Duck.
Elowyn, my clever and beautiful girl, dips her chin as far as it’ll go.
Resolve pours through me like molten iron, honing my vision.
Everything snaps into clarity, even things that aren’t there.
Like the straight line from my arm to Barclay. I see it as if a thread connects us.
That’s it.
I’m going to murder my former best friend.
He’s had his chance to be a better human. Dozens of them. One after another, Barclay blew them all to hell.
The trigger is hot beneath my index finger when I feel pulled to look at Elowyn’s face.
She gazes at me beneath her lashes, her serious gaze saying one thing.
Do it.
That’s all the approval I need to pull the trigger.
Because she doesn’t just have my back. She’s choosing me.
Choosing Varn, Mary, and Herbert.
All of us.
The shot tears through the stale air and lands on its mark. The impact sends Barclay collapsing behind the chair with a scream. He ends up plopping on the floor, right there, next to his friends.
A half-formed curse stumbles out of him, ragged and pointless, and then he’s dead.
I don’t give a fuck about him or his corpse.
Elowyn. She’s still bound like a goddamn animal.
Her eyes have become hollow, and all she does is stare.
“Elowyn?”
Nothing. My heart sinks lower, beneath the floor. Straight to hell.
“Baby?”
She parts her lips, but no words come out. No tears roll down her cheeks.
“Elowyn,” I growl before putting the gun on the floor and stalking over to the chair.
I’m going to get my woman.