Chapter 40
Serenity
After about an hour of playing cat and mouse, Paul finally has me trapped.
My throat is dry from screaming, and my lungs are burning.
I’m slumped outside of Lana’s Boutique with my back against the door after calling her on repeat on the run over.
Her apartment is above her shop. She goes to bed early, but I was hoping if I made enough noise, she’d wake up.
She has to be here. I slam the back of my hand against the door again.
“Lana, help!”
The streetlamp flickers as Paul stands over me. He’s so close I see he has a tattoo that starts from under his shirt and twists up his neck. His face is distorted into anger.
“I can’t believe you lied to me, you bitch,” Paul spits out through gritted teeth. He raises his hand and slaps me across the face again. It’s as if he thinks it’s a power move. My cheek stings, and I hiss out a breath, but again, I refuse to show pain.
He paces away, not giving me the time to reply, and mumbles something under his breath. I can’t hear exactly what he’s saying, but the few words that make it to my ears sound a lot like, “They’re going to kill me.”
Paul’s phone trills with an incoming call, and when he looks at the caller ID, he groans. “Shit. I’m so dead.”
I guess I was right.
Even though he’s treated me like trash, I can’t help but reassure him. If he wasn’t Summer’s father, I wouldn’t give a shit. “I promise I’ll get you the money.”
“You escaped when I was on duty. Molly won’t let that slide.”
Molly. That’s his new girl’s name.
“So? Do you really have to tell her everything? You didn’t tell me about all your debt.”
He levels a glare on me. “She’s our leader’s daughter. I was hoping if I let her ride the pony, she’d convince her mother to lay off me.”
“If you knew how to find the clit, maybe it would’ve helped,” I say through gritted teeth.
His lips turn into a twisted smile. “Are you reminding me that you’re a slut now? If you’re willing, I’m sure we can find better ways to pass the time.”
The thought of his slimy hands on me makes me almost vomit.
Paul’s phone rings again. After he glances at the screen, he chucks it, and it hits the stone wall beneath Lana’s sign, clattering to the ground. My shoulders sag forward in relief that he forgot his line of thinking—at least for the moment.
The front door to Lana’s bursts open, and she comes running out with a butcher’s knife while still wearing her pink fluffy pajamas. She came. She slices at Paul, but he easily sidesteps her.
Now that he’s distracted, I push to my feet. With sore limbs, I surge forward and ram my hands into his back. He slams into the brick wall and turns to me. Blood drips down the side of his face, and his eyes bulge. His breathing comes out loud as he takes a step toward me.
I should’ve taken fighting classes along with the shooting.
“You’ll pay for that,” Paul sneers.
Sudden action explodes all at once. At least a dozen men file in beside me, coming from both directions.
My heart drops to the ground. I don’t recognize any of them. Tears spring to my eyes at the thought of being taken again. And not only the baby and me, but now Lana is also in danger. I was so close to getting away, but Paul somehow caught up to me and—
Victor strides into view from the darkness with a pistol in his hands, raised and ready. Butterflies take flight at the sight of him. He has come for me. When his gaze lands on me, his blue eyes soften.
Paul thrashes against two men, but it’s no use. They’re both twice the size of him, and they manage to knock him to his knees on the concrete.
One of the guards says something, but I can’t hear a word.
I can only concentrate on Victor as he strides over to me.
He pulls me into a tight embrace, crushing me to his chest. Our hearts pound together in sync.
He bends down and places his lips on mine.
The kiss starts out soft but becomes more urgent as our tongues collide.
I run my fingers through his blond locks and tug gently.
But I pull away. Hurt and something like confusion crosses Victor’s face. The thought of his lack of trust slams into me. One inkling of a doubt was planted in his mind, and suddenly, I was enemy number one. If he was so easily swayed, it will happen again.
“I thought I lost you.”
I inhale a deep breath. “I’m okay.”
As if he can detect the lie, he stiffens.
When he catches sight of my raw wrists, fury enters his eyes. He tries to reach out for me, but I step right out of arm’s length.
“My wrists will heal.”
He shakes his head. “If I hadn’t jumped to conclusions—”
I hold up a hand, and he stops talking. “This”—I motion to our surroundings—“isn’t your fault. There are other things we need to talk about, but I left on my own. That was my decision.”
I’m speaking the truth, but Victor shakes his head. Should he have accused me? No. But none of Paul’s actions were Victor’s fault.
Elias strides over to us with Sully on his heels. “Victor, your men have Paul, and the police are on the way.”
A commotion pulls my attention, and I look over to where Paul is.
He’s still trying to fight his way free, shoving at his captors.
He slips away from one of the men and grabs his gun from the back of his pants.
Pulling it out, he trains it directly on me.
My lungs seize as I just stare. In all the scenarios that played out in my head, standing here, waiting to be shot was never one of them, but I have no energy to move.
The fight drained the rest of the drive I had.
Two gunshots pierce the air, and I’m thrown to the ground. I press my hands around my body, trying to find the gunshot wound. There’s no pain other than the ache from hitting the concrete. No hole.
Glancing back at Paul, he’s on the ground. His hand is clenching his chest where blood seeps through his shirt, drenching it within seconds. He’s a bastard, but I didn’t want it to end this way.
Blood trickles out of his mouth, and his unseeing eyes stare directly at me.
Elias steps in front of me, blocking my view. “I think you need to call your sister. She has been texting me nonstop.”
I blink a few times, trying to clear the image of Paul’s body and blank eyes. No matter how many times I blink, the image is seared into my brain.
Lana sits on the ground, her shoulders slumped forward. I crawl over to her.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She nods, but a sob escapes her mouth.
Elias’s voice pulls my attention to him. “Do you think you can help her inside Lana’s?”
Victor nods, but my eyes narrow in on his blood-soaked sleeve.
“You’re hurt.”
He shakes his head. “It’s just a graze.”
No matter how badly I want to rush to his side, I hold back. Lana’s lost eyes demand attention, so I push to my feet and help her up. Her gaze doesn’t seem to focus, so I wrap her arm around my waist. I wince at the contact.
Victor’s eyebrows knit with concern. “Did he do something to you?”
Only slaps to the face and pushing me to the ground, but I don’t say that. I don’t want to bring more problems to the table. Paul’s lifeless eyes pop into my mind again, and my stomach curls. “I’m fine.”
Once all the commotion has died down and everyone gives statements about what happened and Paul’s death—including the surveillance video evidence that Paul was killed in self-defense—Victor and I lead Lana back into her apartment.
Victor doesn’t say a word as he guides us inside. Warmth envelops me as we enter her apartment. With everything that happened, I didn’t feel the chilliness at all, until now.
We help Lana to her bedroom. If not for her … I’m not sure what would’ve happened. Victor and Elias might’ve been too late.
“You can stay here tonight if you want,” she whispers.
If there’s one thing I don’t want, it’s to go back to my condo tonight—not after everything. And I’m sure she’s terrified. She’ll need someone to keep the nightmares away after everything she just witnessed.
I nod and turn off her light, heading back out to the small living room.
Thank God her mother isn’t home or else she might’ve been dragged into my mess, too.
Victor is quiet for a moment, and just when I think he isn’t going to say anything else, he says, “I was so scared.”
His words are full of vulnerability, but I can’t give in to the urge to comfort him. The more touching, the harder this will be.
“I thought I had lost you.”
If only he knew … I am gone, just not in the way he’s saying.
My chest tightens so much I almost feel like I can’t breathe.
Summer and Victor still have an incredible bond, and I’m about to shatter it into a million pieces.
But I finally have the answer to his question about dating for real. “Victor—”
I cut my words off when his pained eyes look down at me. “Please, don’t. Not yet.”
I let out a strangled sob. He knows.