Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
WINDER
Idropped Duke with a solid shot to his chest. He collapsed to the ground without a sound, his gun dropping beside him.
Conrad’s face went from angry, to downright atomic. He reached for his own piece, and his man behind me grabbed for me.
I had about five seconds, and I needed to make it count. I sprinted across the room, ducking to avoid the shot Conrad blasted in my direction, and grabbed Blaire by the arm. “Hide!” I screamed.
There was no way to get out the door I’d come in without going past the massive guard who’d brought me in, so we’d have to fight our way out.
I pulled Blaire into the maze of wooden crates, a poor cover but better than nothing. Grabbing her face between my hand and my gun, I examined her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She pulled away from my hands without meeting my gaze. “How are we going to get out of here?”
The odds weren’t in our favor, but they weren’t bad either, three to one. Unfortunately, we were just short a gun. “We draw out the other two, and take care of them first. For all his talk, Conrad’s a coward, and will send them in before he comes for us himself.”
Speak of the devil. His taunt echoed around us. “What’s wrong, Blaire? Don’t you want to come out and show me how tough you really are?” His voice dripped with sugar.
“I don’t have a gun,” she whispered.
“I know. It’s okay. I’ll take care of it. You stay hidden.” Blaire wouldn’t meet my gaze, but we didn’t have time for me to interrogate her, let alone for her to process the shock of what we’d just learned.
She frowned. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“If it comes to it, I’ll give you the signal, and you do what you can with your hands.
” I didn’t like this option, but it was better than nothing, because these men wouldn’t hesitate to kill her.
On the other hand, if her memories really had come back, which I thought they had, she would have some knowledge of hand-to-hand combat, even if she was a little rusty.
“A signal?” A crease appeared between Blaire’s brows, exhaustion scrawled clearly across her face. “What kind of signal are you thinking?”
“Kick his ass.” I smiled. “How’s that?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re the worst.”
A gunshot pierced a wooden crate beside us, causing us both to jump. “Fuck. Stay here.”
I peered around the corner of the stack of crates, barely making out the shoulder of the bigger guard. I fired, missing him, and he shot back, a crate behind us cracking. Steadying my hand, I fired one last round, landing it neatly in his forehead. He dropped like a ton of bricks. One down.
I reloaded my gun, nodding for Blaire to follow me around the crates. Even numbers now. Just Conrad and his lackey left.
“I think you’ve spilled enough blood for one lifetime,” Conrad’s voice called. “It’s time to come and pay the piper, now.”
The open space near Conrad’s office was empty. I pointed, and we inched forward. When I snuck a glance around the next row, Conrad stood with his back to the crates, gun drawn.
Conrad, I mouthed to Blaire. She nodded, understanding completely. When I moved next, it needed to be seamless. A second too long, and Conrad would shoot to kill—either me or Blaire; I’m not sure he cared at this point.
I stepped out from behind the crates, gun steady. Conrad trained his gun on me, but I fired just past his head before he could do anything. “Drop it. Now.”
Conrad raised his eyebrow, and held his hands up. He put his gun down on the ground. “Let’s not do anything hasty.”
“Hasty?” I barked out a laugh. “You’ve been haunting me for years. I wouldn’t call this a hasty move.”
“Yes, well.” Conrad looked past me, toward the empty space in front of his office. “Before you kill me, you might want to turn around.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see the last guard with his arms wrapped around Blaire. His hand covered her mouth, even though he still looked pained from Blaire’s knee to his groin. Still, he held her tightly. When I made a move to free her, she jerked her head.
She was right. Stray from the plan, and there was no telling what would happen. Stick to the plan, and we might both get out of this alive.
Keeping my gun trained on Conrad, I turned so I could see both men at the same time. “Just let her go. It’s over, Conrad.”
He shrugged. “You can say it’s over. I can say you killed my son.
Is something like that ever really over?
So, here’s the game. You shoot me, and Brad chokes her while you watch.
Or, you let me go, and I let you die before I kill her, so you don’t have to see your beloved bleed out in front of you. ”
A lifetime of resentment boiled down to this moment. The steady gun I held between my hands. This man had let me fade away in prison, let a young kid with his entire life ahead of him take the fall for something he’d done.
That kind of person didn’t deserve to walk on this earth.
I frowned. “I like the option where you die, and Blaire kicks this guy’s ass instead.”
On cue, Blaire threw her elbow into the man’s stomach, stomping on his foot until he dropped her.
Conrad dropped his mask for only a moment, where I witnessed his shock as Blaire grabbed the moaning man’s head, bringing it down her knee with a sickening crunch.
Incapacitated, she neatly snapped his neck with a quick twist.
I laughed. “Well, I wasn’t quite expecting that.”
“You told me to kick his ass.” Blaire joined me at my side, and with my attention on her, Conrad snapped at the waist to reach for his gun.
“Don’t even fucking thinking about it,” I snapped.
Conrad rose stiffly. “What? You going to kill me after all I’ve done for you?”
“First, you’ve done nothing for me. Second, I’m not going to kill you.”
“You’re not?”
“No. I’m going to let Blaire do the honors.” I smiled, turned to Blaire, and offered her my gun. “All yours, baby.”
She looked from the gun, to me, to Conrad. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. You should be the one to finish this, after everything he’s put you through.”
Blaire took the gun with a steady hand, and leveled it at Conrad. “It seems like such a waste for him to have a quick and easy death, after all the lives he’s messed up.”
“I know, but I’d rather he not get to breathe a minute longer than he has to.”
Conrad glared at both of us. “I’m right fucking here.”
“Oh, are you? I nearly forgot,” I drawled. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Blaire hesitated, aiming the gun at his head, but not shooting him.
“If you don’t want to do this, I can do it for you,” I said in her ear.
She shook her head. “No. It has to be me. I started it. I have to finish it.” She looked at Conrad.
“I know you think you took everything away from me. My life. My boyfriend. My memories. My freedom. And you did, but you didn’t break me.
I bent a little bit. Cracked in other places.
But I was still me. I just needed to find my way back.
So, I’m sorry to disappoint. I will always find my way back, no matter how many times you try and take that away from me.
I wanted that to be your last thought before you died.
That no matter how hard you tried, I was always stronger than you will ever be. ”
Without another word, she fired the gun, sending the bullet straight into Conrad’s forehead. A perfect shot. He fell unceremoniously, and Blaire immediately dropped the gun.
I gathered her in my arms, squeezing her tight enough that she would never be able to leave me again. I wanted her imprinted on my cells, tattooed across my skin. I wanted her to be a part of every bit of who I was, because that was the only way I would ever be whole.
Blaire shook, and I stroked her hair. “Hey, it’s okay now. You’re safe. I’m safe. We’re going to be okay now. I promised you, didn’t I?”
She sobbed, and pulled away from me. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so fucking sorry. I understand if you never want to see me again. I’ll leave you alone, and you can be done with me, I swear.”
“Baby, where the Hell is all this coming from?” I wiped the tears away from her face, wishing I could ease the sadness tearing her apart.
“I killed him. I killed Oliver. I don’t know how you could ever forgive me.” Blaire buried her face against my chest.
Oliver. The name was a knife to my heart, for more reasons than one, but the fact that Blaire was beating herself up so badly over this was top of the list. I pushed her away from her cocoon, crouching so we were eye to eye.
“I want you to listen to me closely, because this is the last time I’m ever going to speak about this. You hear me?”
She nodded, sniffling.
“Good. Now, listen here. I loved Oliver because I thought he made you happy, and I loved you. I wanted you to be happy. If that was with my brother, so be it. I truly thought he made you happy. But my brother wasn’t someone I’d call a ‘good person,’ whatever that means.
He had his issues, and he covered them all up with charisma and a smile.
And it kills me to know you were hurting like that, and I had no idea, and no way to help.
Baby, if I knew he was hurting you, I would’ve been there to take him out myself—blood or not.
” I rubbed my thumb against her cheek, still in absolute disbelief that this heavenly being let me put my stained hands on her.
A tear dripped down Blaire’s face. “Are you sure you don’t hate me?”
I smiled. “I promise you, what I feel for you is the furthest thing from hate.” I gathered her into my arms again, giving us a moment to breathe each other in.
The moment didn’t last for long.
Another gunshot filled the air, but it didn’t make sense. No one was left besides myself and Blaire, and we were finally safe.
I looked behind me to see Duke holding his fallen father’s smoking gun, before he dropped back to the ground, clutching his chest. One last shot, and he missed us both. Served the dick right.
Blaire picked up her dropped gun, and neatly fired two more shots into Duke. His body twitched, then fell still. “That felt a lot better than I thought it would,” she said.
“Well, he was a dick and a half.” I ran my gaze over his body. “If he hadn’t been Conrad’s son, I think he might’ve been a decent guy. Too bad, so sad.”
“Do we call the cops?” Blaire asked.
“Yeah. They aren’t all dirty, despite whatever Conrad and my brother believed. There are still some who will listen. But things are also different now that Conrad’s dead. Anyone he blackmailed on the force will hopefully come forward. Besides, I’ll be with you, making sure they do.”
When I reached for Blaire’s hand, something pinched in my side. Suddenly, I felt like I needed a nap. A really long one.
“I think I’m getting too old for this shit,” I muttered. “I pulled something in my side.”
“Where?” Her eyes ran down my body, until she gasped. “Winder.”
I followed her gaze, to the small spot of red on my side that was spreading at an incredible rate. I put my hand on it, pulling it away, sticky with blood. A gunshot wound.
Funny, because it didn’t hurt at all.
It felt almost good. Blaire’s hands were on me, and that was all I needed.
Blaire’s hands on me, this had to be a dream.
I fell to the floor, Blaire’s scream following me down. She’d always been my only thought. Made sense for her to be my last.