21. Chapter Twenty One #2
I snort, trying to feign confidence. The sound comes out steadier than I expect.
I need to throw off his game. To get him to put the gun down.
To buy myself time. My story doesn’t end this way.
Not when I am so fucking close to getting my happily ever after.
Not after everything I’ve fought to build.
Not when my pack is waiting for me downstairs.
“You lost that privilege the day you decided to fuck over your only niece.”
His jaw ticks, and he rolls his eyes.
“So fucking dramatic. Just like your mother.”
“Don’t you fucking talk about her,” I growl, every muscle in my body locks as the room seems to shrink around me. The words leave me low and venomous. My mother’s memory is the one thing in this world I will never let him destroy.
He just laughs, the gun bobbing lazily in his hand as though it isn’t capable of ending my life with a single pull of the trigger.
I try to look at my surroundings for anything I can use.
Maybe if I had my own weapon, I might be able to throw him off long enough to get to the door. To try and get some help.
My gaze flicks across the kitchen. Bench. Chairs. Fruit bowl. Nothing.
Come on, Lennon. Think.
I spot my kitchen knife block, just one step to the right, will be within an arms reach of me. They say to never bring a knife to a gun fight, but something is better than the nothing I’m standing with at this moment. I only need one chance. Just one.
While his head is thrown back, laughing at my obvious anger at the mention of my mother, I take a careful step to retrieve the knife, careful not to make a single sound, but scream when he shoots, the knife block exploding, sending pieces of metal and wood flying around the kitchen.
Pain lances through my arms as the splinters of wood bury into my arms, while razor sharp fragments slice across my cheek and forehead.
The force of it throws me backwards, my ears ringing so violently that, for a heartbeat, I can’t hear anything except the high pitched whine filling my head. He isn’t warning me. He’s here to kill me.
“Nice try, niece. But you won’t be getting the upper hand on me this time around. No.” He shakes his head, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, the certainty in his eyes far more terrifying than any rage could ever be.
“You won’t be walking out of here alive.”
I begin to shiver. Fear pushes past any of the walls I’d tried to erect to protect me from him.
He’s completely lost his shit. For once, he poses a real threat to me.
One that no amount of legal bullshit can save me from.
The system barely fucking protects people as is, let alone in situations like this.
“H-how will my death benefit you?” I question, needing to know what it really is that I am worth to him.
What could possibly be worth throwing his entire life away?
What is worth not only the wrath of my pack, who are waiting down stairs for me, but also the force of the law?
While it might not save me now, he’s not getting out of this unscathed.
People know me. They’ll notice I’m gone.
It’ll be all over the media before he even reaches his getaway car.
“I’m so glad you asked,” he chuckles. “See, I had originally hoped that if I could just get you to sign over your parents’ inheritance to me, we wouldn’t have to worry about things getting ugly.
I already had a board member ready to help me acquire the Cardinals.
Your inheritance would’ve financed the purchase, and once the club was mine, it would’ve cleaned every dollar I needed before it found its way back into my accounts. And you, bitch! You ruined everything.”
I try to draw conclusions about what Brett is admitting to.
There is only one reason he could possibly want the money to be cleaned.
He’s doing illegal shit. I’m not surprised.
Yet, somehow, I still am. How wrong I’d been about him in the beginning.
Grief had blinded me. I’d been so consumed with it all that I ignored every instinct I might have had, all the things that didn’t add up when it came to him.
I should have seen it. Instead, I’m standing here wondering how I ever convinced myself he was simply another greedy businessman.
He’s much, much worse, and killing his niece is nothing more than child’s play to him, apparently.
But something must have happened.
Especially to make him look the way he does.
“See, when you refused to sign the contract and instead claimed your inheritance, you made a grave fucking mistake. There are things out in this world that you could never understand, Lennon. A girl like you has no reason to have full control of a billion dollar corporation.”
I snort, crossing my arms over my chest, trying not to react to the pain that shoots up my arms. “And what? You are?”
His smile widens,
“Exactly. And after tonight, you will no longer be a problem.”
I gasp as he tightens his pointer finger around the trigger.
Without zero hesitation, he presses it. The bullet hisses through the air.
I close my eyes, sending out a silent prayer.
A prayer of love to the pack that I could have had.
That I was so fucking close to telling just how much I loved and needed them.
That I wanted to bond with them during my next heat.
I think of Holden. His face and the way it will drop at seeing my brain scattered across the kitchen. The way he’ll blame himself for letting me walk upstairs alone. But none of this is his fault.
Dominic and the way he will completely shut down, retreating back from the world. He’ll bury every feeling he has until there’s nothing left of himself. He doesn’t deserve this. His heart is pure. His love is magical and it will all wither away to nothing the moment I’m taken from him.
And Sasha. My sweet, scarred Alpha. My death will ruin him.
He will try to follow me. He won’t survive the loss.
I just know it. He’ll think this is a punishment.
That he failed me all over again. The idea tears me to shreds.
Not because I’m about to die. Because I finally know where I belong.
I found my family only to have them ripped away from me before I ever got the chance to tell them they’re mine.
A thousand moments flash through my mind.
Holden’s quiet smile whenever I doubted myself.
Dominic’s steady hands caring for me in ways no one else has.
Sasha’s arms around me only minutes ago, holding me as though I’d always been the safest place he’d ever known.
I don’t regret loving them.
Against all odds, we almost made it.
I regret waiting so long to admit it.
Love is not simple and it sure hasn't been easy getting to where we are. But we almost made it. We were happy. I was finally happy.
My lungs burn as I force myself to draw in a breath.
Fuck, Veronica and Bronte. My team. The family I had begun to form for myself, seconds away from being crushed at the hands of greed.
If this is the end… Please let them know I chose them.
I wait to die.
But it doesn’t come.
I wait for the explosion of pain. Of the darkness that follows death, my eyes not daring to open as I listen only to my heart, and the rush of blood pumping through my ears. It’s the only indication I have that I’m still alive.