Chapter 41
ADRIEL
I find her car, yet I don’t see her, and all the blood leaves my body.
Without a second thought, I rush across the street, and the instant I peer in through the door left ajar, I hear voices coming from inside on the left.
A child cries, and I know immediately it’s Sophia.
Fuck!
If they hurt her or my little wolf, there’ll be hell to pay. No one will be able to stop me from unleashing my fury on every single person involved.
More voices ring through, clearer now. I register Cammie’s laugh. At first, I don’t understand why she’d be laughing. Not until she’s telling Kayla how she lied… Lied about the doctor being the murderer. And in that instant, all the muscles in my body tense.
She’s involved?
My teeth snap. She lied to Kayla? I’m…I’m gonna kill her.
The more I listen, the angrier I seem to get. But once I hear another voice, that punk from college, I want to rush in there and gut them both. I never fucking liked him. Now I know why.
Who am I kidding? I hated the bastard because he wanted to fuck the one woman who belongs to me. By the sound of it, though, he had much more sinister plans.
Glancing around the perimeter of the house, I realize I have to surprise them.
Gotta shoot them from the outside. If I can take him out quick, I can kill Cammie and save the girls.
No way can I storm inside and think one of them wouldn’t shoot Kayla or Sophia.
I have to be smart about this. Think before I act.
Silently jogging around the house, I creep down under a window, the one slightly opened, no curtain to hide what’s happening inside.
Hand on my weapon, I observe Prince and Cammie standing before a frightened Sophia and Kayla, her hands bound in front of her.
My fingers curl until my knuckles go white, hating that I’m not inside saving her, saving Sophia. This is killing me!
There’s no way I can wait anymore. I don’t know if they’re gonna keep them alive for long. They could do just about anything.
Prince holds a Glock in his grasp, while Cammie seems to be without one. She must have one too. There’s no way she’s not armed. We underestimated her. All Kayla wanted to do was help that girl, but she was playing us.
It all really hits me then. They were the ones who broke into Kayla’s place and did all that to her.
My breathing ravages from my lungs like I’m possessed. Flashes of Kayla right after I found her appear before me.
My sight grows hazy.
The pulse in my neck beats in my ears.
They won’t make it out of this house.
Prince strides back and forth, telling her how much he’ll enjoy selling her and Sophia to someone who’s gonna hurt them. That no one is coming for them.
A grin wraps around my lips. I can’t wait to see the smug look on his face when I prove him wrong.
This time when he darts toward her, I ready my gun.
And for that split second when he turns toward my direction, I don’t hesitate.
Pop.
A bullet fires from the open part of the window and sinks right into his stomach.
Cammie screams in surprise.
Sophia sobs.
While Kayla… Her eyes sink into mine in utter relief.
I drag the window all the way up and jump inside.
“You son of a…” Cammie whips out her own gun, and I fire.
Sophia hides her face in Kayla’s shoulder just as Cammie collapses to the floor, blood spilling from her upper arm.
She gasps, inching to sit up, but I kneel and push my fingers into her wound until she cries out.
“How does it feel?” I dig deeper into her flesh. “To know you’ve lost? To know you’ll die like every one of your victims?”
A small, dry laugh puffs out of her. “I ruined them all. Didn’t…didn’t lose.”
“How about now?” I straighten and put a bullet into her stomach, letting her bleed out in pain, not giving her the mercy of a quick death. She deserves worse.
Kayla pants, her vision overtaken by tears. But I must end this before I get them out of here.
“I’m coming, babe. I promise.”
She nods, trying to reassure a scared Sophia, and my heart hammers with a single look into her eyes, because she has me. She owns me. I’d rip my own heart to make her smile again.
When I near Prince, I find that he’s still alive. But that’s about to change. Aiming my weapon, I fire a single shot into his groin, his scream trapped inside these walls forever.
Lifting my foot, I dig the heel of my shoe into his wound. “Like father, like son.” I scowl. “Can’t say you’ll be buried with him, I’m afraid.”
Not that there’s a grave for any of the Bianchis.
“Winning…” He huffs a laugh as he tries to catch his breath. “Looks different…f-for everyone.”
Before I can grasp what he’s saying, a shot rings out, coming straight at Kayla.
Sophia screams as Kayla’s body falls backward, blood leaking from her stomach.
Looking down, I find the gun slipping from his grasp just as the last few seconds of his life disappear.
“No!” I run toward Kayla and fall to my knees.
That shellshocked look in her eyes has me lost in fear. With a pocketknife, I cut through the zip ties binding her wrists and rip off my shirt to put pressure on her wound.
When her blood soaks through it, agony like I’ve never known hits me in every cell of my body.
“No, no!” I shout. “Don’t fucking leave me!”
I fight for breaths that never come, my eyes burning with a raw kind of pain until a tear trips down my face. More come in its wake.
I realize in this moment as I gather her up in my arms that I’ve never cried before, not since I was a small child still seeking the comfort and love of the world. But I never felt an ounce of it, not until this woman, and I can’t let her go. I won’t.
“Un-Uncle A,” Sophia sobs, almost unable to get the words out. “Is she o-okay?”
The fresh flood of tears in her eyes causes more of mine to surface. I don’t know how or why she called me her uncle, nor do I have a chance to ask. Because my focus is on getting Kayla to a hospital. Her pulse still beats, but it’s weak.
As I grab Sophia’s hand, her eyes widen when I register a rush of footsteps behind me.
“Daddy!” she screams, dropping my hand immediately and charging for her father.
“Princess!” His emotions wrack within him.
As soon as she jumps into his arms, our eyes lock, and he gives me one solemn nod. And I do something I never thought I would: I return it.
I ignore my other two brothers, my half sister, and all the others standing there as I hurry out the door with a dying Kayla in my arms.
“Wait!” Michael calls out with Sophia still in his embrace. “We have our own hospital. Take her there.”
“I can drive,” Raph offers, slapping my shoulder with his palm.
I don’t shake it off. This is about more than my hate for them. This is about Kayla.
“Fine.”
Together, we race into his SUV, while he does over a hundred to save her life.
And mine.
Everyone’s gathered in the hospital while the docs operate on Kayla. The bullet is out, we were told, but she needed a transfusion for all the blood she lost. No one knows yet if she’ll be okay.
My mother keeps her worried attention on me, while Elsie is huddled with Jade and Kayla’s crying parents, who don’t understand why someone who lived through what Kayla did would do something like this.
They have no idea what Cammie truly did.
How many women she killed. And they won’t.
The news will never catch wind of the Midnight Murderer’s real identity.
Cammie will not get fame in her death. Nor will Jade’s center get bad press because of this.
It was the one thing we all agreed on—me, my brothers, and the Cavaleris, who are all also here.
I pace like a madman, waiting for her to wake up. To call me A just one more time.
“Fuck!” I whisper-shout just as I feel a hand on my back.
Pivoting, I find Michael there.
“I’m sorry.” His stern expression doesn’t make it seem as though he is, nor why he’s apologizing. “She clearly means a lot to you. I’m sorry this happened. That she’s here.”
“Should’ve been me. If I wasn’t at a fucking meeting, I would’ve been here!” I dig a fist into my forehead.
“I get it. Won’t feed you bullshit to make you feel better, because if Elsie was in the hospital, I’d feel the same way.”
I don’t respond. There’s nothing to say. I don’t know what the hell to say to any of them. I don’t even want to be here with them, but I also don’t want to be alone.
“The ring…” He glances behind his shoulder at Sophia, who’s in Raph’s arms, her pout breaking whatever’s left of my heart. “The ring you gave her. It had a tracker, didn’t it?”
I shrug. “Maybe.”
He chuckles wryly. “Not mad about it. It’s how you found her, and I’m grateful for that. No matter what. Understand?”
“I didn’t do it for you.”
“Doesn’t matter who you did it for. Matters that you did it.” He smiles at his daughter, who catches his eye.
It’s beautiful, his love for her. At least some in this family know what it means to be a parent.
“She likes you,” he tells me.
“I like her too.” Peering at her, I ask, “How is she processing everything?”
I can’t imagine what that’s doing to her—seeing the murders, being kidnapped.
“Not the first time she was taken or saw someone die.” His expression stiffens. “I’m failing her, yet it’s the only kinda life she knows.”
Neither of us say anything else, both looking at Sophia. When she sees me studying her, those big brown eyes of hers pop wide. Without hesitation, she jumps out of Raph’s arms and straight into mine. And thanks to Kayla, I know just how to hold her.
“Thanks again for saving me and Kayla.” She curls both of her thin arms around my neck, her gaze full of affection that I’ve only recently grown to understand or feel or want.
Never having people who care for you, then having someone who does… It’s funny how you realize how lost you were without it.
I cup her face. “You don’t have to thank me for that. I’ll always come and save you.”
“I know.” She kisses my cheek. “Kayla is gonna be okay. You’ll see! I made a special wish with Santa and told him that this year all I want is for Kayla to be okay, and he’s super magical, so he will make my wish come true. I just know it!”
I nod, pain lodged in my throat. “I think you’re right; she will be okay.”
Michael leaves us to settle on one of the empty chairs beside his mother, while I continue to focus on my niece, who’s the only family member I actually like.
“So…” I ask her, narrowing my eyes. “Why did you call me your uncle back in the house?”
She rolls her eyes. “That’s ’cause you are.”
“And how do you know that?” I tilt up a curious chin.
She cups her hands around her mouth and lowers it to my ear. “Don’t tell anyone I told you, but a few days ago, when Grandma was super sad, I heard her talking to Mommy.”
I jerk back and narrow an amused stare. “You mean you were snooping.”
“Of course not.” She snickers, her face upturning like I said the most ridiculous thing even as her lips jerk. “I was there to gather information about why Grandma was sad,” she clarifies rather cleverly. “So I could cheer her up. Obviously. It just so happens I heard some stuff.”
I chuckle. “Mm-hmm. Go on.”
“So, Grandma was telling Mommy how sad she was that she had to give you away.” Her brows furrow, and she lays her hand against my cheek. “I’m sorry that happened to you.” Her eyes grow sad, and my heart beats faster.
I don’t say a word. I can’t. Incapable of forming a sound. Because her words mean more to me than her young soul realizes. I place my hand on top of hers as she continues.
“She said she didn’t want to give you away, but her mommy made her the day you were born. She said her mommy didn’t give her a choice, and that she would send Grandma away and would take both you and Uncle Raph away too.”
What? Her mother?
But that still doesn’t excuse her never looking for me. She had time and money. She could’ve found me. She chose to close her eyes and forget.
Sophia sighs. “She cried a lot and said she had a picture of you in her wallet so that she never forgets you. She said she loved you. A lot.”
I scoff. “I don’t know about that.” Those words slip out of me gruffly.
“I’m sorry you’re sad. But I’m happy you’re my uncle.” She places her head on my shoulder. “You’re really nice.”
I laugh under my breath. “Wait until you actually get to know me.”
She giggles.
“Wait a minute, though.” My brows furrow as I glance back at her. “How did you even know she was talking about me?”
“Oh, that’s easy.” She waves off with another roll of her eyes. “She said you had very green eyes like Grandpa Patrick. And when I saw you at the park, you had green eyes too. So I figured…” She shrugs. “It had to be you. Then I asked my mom and she told me who you were, and I knew I was right.”
“You’re kinda smart.”
“Yeah.” She drops her head back on my shoulder. “You told me that already.”
“I did, didn’t I?” I chuckle, recalling that day when I called her insightful and she asked what it meant.
Just then, the doctor walks out in yellow scrubs, removing his cap, and I’m in front of him in an instant.
Keeping Sophia in my arms, I grab his wrist. “Tell me.”