Chapter 38 Cash #2
Something unreadable traipsed through her pretty features. Or maybe I could read it clearly and just didn’t want to admit to myself what it meant. The hope that burned and blazed from the depths.
I cleared my throat. “We should get out of here and get these kids to bed.”
She gave me an erratic nod. “Yeah.”
I stepped back so she could close the door, then I opened hers. A fool who was reaching out and wrapping my hands around her slight waist.
A rasp of surprise jutted out of her, a fire flicking far and fast. I bit it back and hoisted her up. My hands lingered a fraction too long. Wanting to cling on and never let go.
She turned her head to look at me.
A thousand questions radiated back.
Questions I could never give her the answers to.
I finally forced myself away, shutting her door and rounding the front.
Could feel my family peering out through the shadows, their own questions riding free as I hurried around to the driver’s seat.
I buckled and pushed the button to start the engine, then I slowly took the circular drive and pulled out onto the long, narrow lane.
Ribbons of silence enraptured us. A binding that held us in uncertainty and a growing sense of need as we traveled. We made it to the end of the lane, Kane’s lit up, the parking lot full, the chaos inside in full swing.
I made the right at the T and passed by the few businesses on the south end of Moonlit Ridge’s valley before we hit the two-lane road that wound up the mountain.
Trees enclosed on all sides. Whisking by as shadows as the moonlight flooded through their leaves.
That quiet so thick it was tangible. As if every one of our secrets could be carved and revealed.
There was something else that lacerated it. Something that cracked and expanded like hairline fractures that weaved through the solitude.
The tension that pulsed between Daisy and me shifted into something else entirely.
Nerves ramping, I glanced in the driver’s side mirror.
A set of headlights had appeared in the distance.
It wasn’t like a car traveling this road at this time of night was unheard of, but the sense I had last night returned in full force. Wickedness cleaving through the air. Talons ripping across my flesh.
The automobile held back a fraction, keeping their distance as we twisted and weaved up the mountain, but I could tell they were making sure we were never out of sight.
Increasing their speed when I did and slowing when I let off the gas.
Tracking us.
Adrenaline surged, and my hands tightened on the steering wheel as I glanced between the rearview and driver’s side mirrors. Gauging where they were coming from. Trying to see if I could discern what car it was and exactly who might be catching up to us.
The list was endless.
Thoughts rolled to Silas and his crew. By my estimation, the likeliest source. Our connections blatantly attached to the Crimson Crows.
Then it spiraled directly to that monster who wished to do Daisy harm.
Violence surged. Bashing and banging at the walls of the reservoir where I kept it trapped. Begging to be released.
Didn’t matter who it was or where they came from. I wasn’t about to let them get close to Daisy or those kids.
A flash of fear suddenly erupted off Daisy’s skin, and she glanced at my clenched, tremoring hands gripped on the steering wheel before she looked over her shoulder through the rear window.
The breath she exhaled was haggard. A shuddering of terror that pulsed through her being. “Are we being followed?”
My insides coiled. The beast raring to life.
“Not sure,” I gritted.
“But you feel it?”
I barely nodded. “Yeah. Same as I felt it last night.”
Horror streaked through her expression. “You think it’s the same person?”
“I don’t know.” I peeked through the side mirror before I let my gaze jump back to her. “But it doesn’t matter who it is. Won’t let them get to you.”
A billow of regret and anxiety broke from her body. “If I brought trouble—”
My hand clamped down on her bare thigh, silencing her words. “Don’t fucking say it, Daisy. Don’t say you regret coming to me because I’m exactly the person you needed. But we don’t know who it is. It could very well be someone comin’ after me.”
“Why would anyone be after you?” she wheezed.
No question, she hadn’t wanted to accept all the warnings I’d given her. Didn’t want to accept the peril that was my life. Like she wanted to think of me as something better than the beast.
Or maybe she just wanted me to give her a straightforward answer.
“Told you my life isn’t right, Daisy. Told you I’m involved in things that you don’t want to know about.”
Things I doubted she could handle.
Anxiety shivered through her, her delicate features creasing in trepidation and the trust she shouldn’t be watching me with.
But she could trust me with this.
I peered through the rearview mirror. Headlights speared through the darkness. Curving right and left as we wound our way up the mountain.
Though they were growing closer with each turn.
I could finally discern that it was a large pickup truck.
A charge of aggression streaked beneath the surface of my skin. Every muscle in my body rimmed in tension as I kept scanning between the road and the car behind us.
Measuring the best course of action. If I should flip a U and head back toward town. Gun it and keep hurtling higher to see if I could break away. Wait it out and call for backup.
But I didn’t get to make that decision for myself.
The car suddenly accelerated. Accelerated so fast they erased the distance in a fraction of a moment. The roar of the engine filled the air with an omen of devastation.
“Hold on!” I shouted the second before the bastard slammed us from behind.
Metal tore and ground, and our SUV jolted forward.
Shocked, disoriented cries suddenly filled the cab. Those precious kids jarred awake by the impact and catapulted right into fear.
A swell of protectiveness rose up from the darkest depths of me. From the deepest place where I kept all my secrets shrouded. Where old hopes were sent to fester and the hatred toiled like venom before it was released to pump through my veins.
“Mommy!” Eva cried, hands outstretched for Daisy.
“What happened?” Addy rushed as she sat upright, a deep alarm taking her over.
Colin remained silent, though I could feel the absolute terror radiating from him.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Daisy gushed through her own panic in an attempt to comfort them.
My teeth grated as I processed what to do.
My heart a battering ram at my ribs as I glanced behind us to see the motherfucker was coming at us again.
“Brace yourselves!” I shouted, accelerating so the impact wouldn’t be as great.
But it was still there.
A violent crash that slammed into our tail and nearly sent us into a spin. The SUV tipping right then swerving to the left.
I struggled with the steering wheel, jerking a fraction to try to correct it.
Praying the skidding tires would hold traction as we came up on a bend.
But the asshole didn’t slow. He took advantage of the instability of my SUV and clipped me on the left side.
There was nothing I could do to stop us from being tossed into a full spin. Our tires squealed as the SUV reeled, nearly toppling on the turn.
Thank fuck, it remained upright and didn’t roll. I didn’t have time to sit in the relief of it because we came to a standstill facing the opposite direction, and the other vehicle skidded to a stop facing us.
Its headlights were blinding, creating a bright haze that burned through the smoke and dust that billowed around the SUV.
Jagged breaths ripped out of Daisy and little cries echoed from the backseat.
Daisy looked over at me. Terror and belief ridged every angle of her gorgeous face.
“It’s going to be okay.” I was barely able to get the jagged words off my tongue with the hatred that clotted off my throat. The rage that blustered and blew. “Stay low.”
“Cash.”
“Do it,” I gritted, glancing at her once in a silent promise that I would make sure they were fine as I pulled my gun from the holster hidden at my back.
Surprise jutted from her, but she gave me an understanding nod as I unlatched the door and slowly slipped out.
I kept myself crouched and concealed behind the panels of the open door. Breaths raked from my lungs and blood thundered through my veins. So heavy I could feel every thudding, excruciating beat.
Both front doors of the truck opened, and my eyes jumped everywhere, calculating my best move. Knowing I couldn’t stand around waiting to find out what action they would take, since there was no question their aim was contemptible.
Vile monsters chasing me down when I had a family in the car. So fucked up I couldn’t process the cruelty.
But I’d witnessed the depraved depths of wickedness so many times I knew they didn’t give a fuck who would be harmed in the process of whatever revenge they were seeking.
It only made my blood boil hotter at the thought that it was their entire intention. That they were here to ruin Daisy and her children.
Tension held to the murky air. Waves of degeneracy crawling through the dense night. A quivering band stretched so tight that I knew it was going to snap.
Keeping low, I quickly moved out from behind the door with my gun cocked, hoping the haze would give me some amount of cover. Squinting, I rushed across the space, trying to make out where they were.
A crack came from out of nowhere. A bat slammed into my gut from the side. It knocked the breath from my lungs, and the splitting pain was enough that it should have dropped me to my knees.
Only thing it did was elicit a roar of wrath as I whirled in the direction of where the blow had come from.
“You should have known he would be coming for you.” The voice was barbaric, its warning rending through the curls of fog and smoke.
I wasn’t about to let them take me down. Only before I could find my gun’s target, another blow came from behind. Landing across my middle back and cracking against my ribs.
The breath I didn’t have was rived from me again, and my body arched forward only to sustain another blow across my cheek.
My gun clattered to the pavement, and blackness threatened to take me to the ground.
Agony splintering.
My vision faded in and out.
But I fought it. Fought it with everything I had.
I couldn’t give. I couldn’t give.
Violence churned. Boiling out from the vat where I kept it trapped.
The beast coming alive.
Venom filled my mouth and malice careened through my bloodstream.
Rage pummeling through me at a sadistic beat.
The thirst to gut and slay rushed up my spine and tingled my hands.
A growl ripped out of me as two assholes came at me from both sides.
It was a toil of chaos and confusion as they attacked.
Dark shadows spinning around me.
Two men dressed all in black.
Masks on their faces.
What in the everlovin’ fuck?
I kicked out, striking one in the gut with the sole of my boot. Shock jetted out of him, but I couldn’t find rest in it when I felt the movement from behind.
The bastard lifting that bat and readying to swing.
I whirled around, and I gripped him by the wrist right before it made contact.
I bent it back.
Hard.
Sick satisfaction pulsed in my consciousness when I felt his bone snap.
He howled in anguish, fucker dropping to his knees.
I swung all the way around and delivered a roundhouse to his face. My boot making contact with his jaw. It sent him flying sideways, bastard skidding across the pavement.
I turned just in time to see the other guy had ditched his bat for a gun.
“Did you think it wouldn’t come to this? Did you think you would get away with it?” he snarled.
He went to take aim, and I dove for where my gun had fallen four feet away, the outline dark in the disorienting haze that made it difficult to see.
I snatched it up as I tossed myself into a roll so I could take aim at the blackened silhouette that had turned to track me.
I fired.
The pop of my gun echoed in the night.
A wail ricocheted through the air, and he reached up to clutch his shoulder rather than his chest that was my target.
Fuck.
Thankfully, it was enough that he lost hold of his gun, the metal skidding across the pavement in my direction, and I dove for that one, too.
Both guns in hand, I whipped back around, sitting up so I could fire.
Gunshots pinged as I took aim at the shadows that flashed through the murky fog.
A shout of pain tore through the confusion, but both doors were slamming and the truck was being thrown into gear.
“Oh shit,” I mumbled when I realized their intention.
I flipped over and scrambled onto my feet, tossing myself off the side of the road as the truck came gunning for me.
I flew through the air, suspended for what felt like an eon, before I slammed into the dirt and pitched into the line of trees as the headlights bared down, the bumper of the truck barely missing me by an inch.
Throwing myself onto my back, I fired and fired as the truck was shoved into reverse. The windshield shattered as it was struck, and bullets pinged and sparked against the grill. Tires squealed as it skidded around, its engine roaring as it blazed back down the mountain.
I climbed to my feet, still firing, bullets pelting against the tailgate as they escaped.
They hit the curve in the road hard, and one second later, their taillights were swallowed by the forest.
“Fuck,” I spat.
Rage screamed through my veins as barbed, broken breaths heaved from my chest.
Felt like I was being burned alive.
The flames from the torch on the back of my hand licking up my arm, stoking the fire where I would forever burn.
No respite from the scorching blaze.
Half out of my mind, I considered hunting them down on foot.
End them the way I should have.
The warnings they issued spun through my brain on repeat.
“You should have known he would be coming for you.”
“Did you think it wouldn’t come to this? Did you think you would get away with it?”
This wasn’t about Daisy and the kids.
This was about me.
Poison dripping from my veins, my hands squeezed the grips of the guns that were still smoking.
Guilt and fury vied for dominance.
I should have known.
I should have known.
But as I turned back to the SUV and felt the horrified relief rolling from it, I wasn’t sure that I could change the trajectory.
Wasn’t sure I could find any goodness left inside to stop myself from consuming every perfect thing she was.