Chapter Forty-Two
Kalen
Helicopters fill the sky. Fucking choppers! We weren’t expecting this.
Men descend on ropes and drop to the ground, gun shots from trained snipers fill the air. Our team retaliates fast, shooting at them but carefully to not bring them down onto the people below.
People are ducking and moving to take out the intruders.
In a panic, I scan for Amelie, but it’s okay: Dad has her.
Until she looks down. I follow her line of sight and see her father taking Chelsea to safety.
He was against this plan from the start, not wanting to put her in any danger.
But he didn’t have a choice; he had to be here.
He may be out because of some deal, but you are never fully out out.
If you’re called upon, you turn up. Harold would have been on our ass like grass or whatever that stupid Aussie saying is.
“Teacher dick, are you seeing…”
“Kalen shut the fuck up!” Sawyer snaps. “Find Amelie and get her to safety! We’ve been ambushed, and our priority is her. Now move.”
Jeez. Like I didn’t know this was an ambush? I swear my brothers think I’m stupid and incompetent most of the time.
I’m neither. Which I will prove when I save Amelie’s ass and play the hero—oh shit. Where’d she go?
I lost sight of her between everyone running.
Turning to run through the swarms of people, a knife comes flying through the air, right towards my pretty face. Not today, motherfucker! I manage to side step. Amelie would kill me if my face got messed up.
Coming around behind the knife thrower, I wrap my arm around his neck.
He frantically slashes another knife back to try and hit me, and the blade slices at my pants.
Elsie’s gonna be pissed about that one. Cap runs up beside me and kicks the knife from his hand.
I release the guy and he falls to the ground as Cap pulls the trigger and it’s lights out.
Bye bye asshole, maybe you’ll learn not to bring a knife to a gun fight in the afterlife.
I nod my thanks at Cap and he continues searching through the crowd.
Amelie’s dad has Chelsea wrapped in his arms and standing behind a massive speaker.
I race towards them as a man sets his sights on them.
I’ve never had to kill anyone with a gun at close range before.
I always wondered what kind of blood splatter would happen if I did…
No better time than the present to find out.
I sneak up behind him and as I expected it makes a huge mess. Chelsea screams. I look at her and Marco and they’re covered in blood.
“Ooops! Sorry! Go. I’ll cover you. Get inside the building and hide.”
Marco nods and drags a shaken Chelsea across the lawn, while I make sure they have a clear path. I know I need to find Amelie, but she would never forgive me if anything happened to her parents. I may as well let her die in the process if anything happened to them.
Once they reach the building, I come out from my hiding spot. I haven’t seen my brothers or Amelie since the helicopters came over.
I run towards the building, thinking that she may have headed back inside to get herself out of the ambush. I mean, I doubt it, but I have to at least look.
I jump as shots are fired around me, and as soon as I reach the doors I yank them open and check my surroundings. The first door on the left is locked.
“Amelie, are you in there?” She doesn’t answer so I leave that door to check the rest of the rooms in the hallway. I scour room by room. Marco has Chelsea in a supply closet, but he opens the door at my knock.
“Have you seen Amelie since she was on the stage?”
He shakes his head no.
“Go and look for her, I’ll be fine here,” Chelsea barely whispers. I shake my head no.
“You need to stay here, keep an ear out for her, but do not leave. She won’t forgive me if anything happens to you.”
“I won't forgive myself if anything happens to her.”
“We have so many trained men out there, she’ll be fine. She’s probably with Baxter, hauled up safe and the ass isn’t telling us. I’ll come back as soon as I find her.”
“If anything happens to her…”
“It won't, I promise. I know that I shouldn’t make promises that I can’t keep but I refuse to think of the alternative. If she doesn’t make it, none of us will.”
He nods and pulls the door shut, locking it. I check the bathrooms, kicking each stall open to make sure no one is hiding inside.
“Kalen,” Elsie calls from behind me. “Has anyone found her?”
I shake my head. We should have known this would happen. How many times did she slip her security? The girl was raised around bloody street criminals, and she’s always claimed her speciality was running and hiding.
I hope to god she’s doing that right now but my gut tells me otherwise.
Elsie reaches to her side and pulls out a knife, it happens so damn quickly. The thing sails past my head and straight into the neck of a woman dressed all in green. She stumbles into the wall and slides down it as blood runs from her mouth.
“Where the fuck did you learn how to do that?”
“I didn’t.”
“And you fucking just threw it past my head! What if you hit me?!”
“It didn’t. But we all have to make sacrifices. She was going to kill you, it was better than doing nothing.”
“We’ll talk about this later. You head out the emergency exit doors and I’ll check through the back of the building. If you find her, leave. Don’t come looking for us. Send an SOS once you’re safe.”
With a stern nod, she turns and leaves. Who would have thought Elsie would be a badass in a situation like this? Not me, that’s for sure.
The back entrance just comes into my view when cold metal is pressed against my temple.
“Hello, Kalen.”
“Grandfather. What a pleasant surprise! I never would have expected to see you here.”
“There is no need for the smart mouth, it will only get you killed.”
“Will it? Don’t you need me for your evil plan?” I chuckle at him.
“It’s too late for that. I need to use you as bait since the girl has vanished. Everyone loves little Kalen. So it shouldn’t be hard to get them all to come looking for you.”
“You’re wrong, pops, this can turn into a suicide mission. I won’t let them come looking.”
This time he laughs. “I never said I needed you alive for this, but you’re my grandson, maybe I could persuade you to come and work for me. We can take down The Order and be bigger and more powerful.”
I snort. “Calm down, Lord Farquaad. You’re forgetting an important piece of the puzzle.”
“And what’s that?” he asks, full of confidence.
“You have to make a getaway, and that means you have to get me out of the building to protect yourself. I’m assuming that’s your plan. There’s no way you could walk out of here alive otherwise.”
“You’re not as daft as everyone thinks you are, after all.”
I just shrug. He can try and make digs – or are they backhanded compliments? – at me to make me turn on my brothers, but it won’t happen.
“Let’s get going then, gramps, we have evil plans to carry out and shit.”
We both step out of the building and it seems as if a lot of men are retreating and backing off.
I guess they’re no match against the hundred plus Order members we have here today.
Using the younger members as fake students was a good idea, but I think bringing in more men under the guise of parents in the crowd was a genius idea on my part.
Casualties are being taken into the main building and through to the nurses’ office, I’m presuming.
Harold is behind me as we walk, a gun clearly pressed against the back of my skull as he watches his surroundings.
I lock eyes with my mother who is pressed against the ground with a sniper rifle.
I smile; my mum is a bad bitch. Like, she will fuck you up and they will never find your body, levels of bad.
“Will you quit dancing around like you have ants in your pants?!” My grandfather snaps.
“Itching powder actually. My cock is red raw from scratching. It might be bleeding a little.” I need to keep him distracted, so he doesn’t see what’s about to happen.
He presses up against my back; he must be on edge with all my talking.
I see my mum wink at me and my eyes go wide, how the fuck does she have a good shot?
Being this close, everything happens so fast and Sawyer appears out of nowhere like a damn magician.
I drop to the ground and pat down my body. Everything is still intact.