Chapter 53 - Verity
Verity
I’d always wondered whether at the point of death, your whole life really flashed before your eyes. Twenty years’ worth of experiences and curated highlights condensed into a microsecond. The ultimate social media reel.
When I saw the car heading right for me and realized I didn’t have time to get out of the way, the notion of a life not lived hit me hard.
So many opportunities wasted.
So many chances to be a better version of myself.
Shake off the shackles of my childhood.
In the last moments before the impact, I vowed that if I survived, I’d embrace my life with open arms and stop hiding in the shadows.
Just as the SUV bore down on me, I recognized the driver.
Declan.
I almost laughed. How ironic that the man who’d saved me many times was about to play an instrumental part in my death.
But there was nothing I could do apart from pray to a god I didn’t believe in. If my guardian angel was close, I hoped she was ready to do her thing.
I closed my eyes and waited for the pain. Being hit by a car had to hurt, right? Only nothing happened. An engine roared as the vehicle swerved past me, followed by a dull bang when it hit a tree.
For a few long seconds, silence reigned. Not even a bird chirruped in the trees. No insects buzzed. Nothing but the pulse of blood in my veins as my heart worked overtime, pounding like crazy in my chest.
When I finally dared open my eyes, steam rose from the crumpled front-end of the car. One headlamp had gone out but the other lit a path through the trees.
“No!” My voice was little more than a whisper in the still, humid air. I tried to crawl toward the stricken vehicle, but a burst of movement behind me caught my attention.
“Not so fast, bitch!” A hand grabbed my hair and yanked me backward, locking me in place with a brawny arm around my waist.
“Don’t you touch my Pixie!” Ronan crawled out of the SUV, snarling like an enraged cornered animal, blood trickling down his face. Conal appeared behind him with a gun in his hand.
“Looks like we have an impasse, boys,” Marku remarked in a conversational tone. “Except I have the girl and if you don’t back off, I’ll shoot her.”
“You’re bluffing,” Conal stated through gritted teeth.
“Am I, though? A gunshot to the knee won’t kill her, but it’ll hurt like a motherfucker. Or so I’m told. I don’t need her in one piece for what I have planned.” He chuckled. “In fact, it would benefit me if she could no longer run away.”
I kept my eyes fixed on the car while Marku pressed his gun into my lower back. Declan hadn’t emerged, and from this angle, I couldn’t see him. Was he hurt? Dead?
The fat guard appeared from the trees, red-faced and panting, followed by the tall one, both armed. I wondered how loyal they were to their boss. Were they willing to die for him? Or were they more like my father’s men back in the day, only there for the paycheck?
“Let her go, you cunt!” Ronan demanded. I glimpsed a gun in his right hand, partially hidden behind the car door.
“What’s she worth? A million? Two million? You’re going to have to make it worth my while to break my deal with di Luca, boys.”
“How about you walk away with your life? That sounds like a good deal to me.”
Marku scoffed. “I hear you’re a crack shot, Irish, but if you shoot me, my men will shoot you, so it’s a simple case of mutually assured destruction.”
He was right, but I forced myself not to panic. Marku’s focus remained on Ronan and Conal, not me. He assumed he had me right where he wanted me.
I’d escaped one guard already today. The gun digging into my flesh added an extra layer of complication this time, but unless I did something drastic, we were all fucked.
Marku’s grip on me loosened as he and Ronan exchanged insults. The tension between the two groups increased, and I knew if more of Marku’s men appeared, the guys would be in big trouble.
Then there was my father.
The minute I recalled him casually agreeing to hand me over to this monster in payment for weapons and men, my teeth clenched. I refused to let him steal any more of my life.
He’d stolen my childhood already.
I half smiled at Conal to let him know I was OK. Bruised, battered, but not beaten. He scanned me and nodded before focusing on Marku and his two goons. Finally, I saw Declan crouch down behind the car, a gun in his hand. Blood trickled down his face, but he didn’t look too badly injured.
Had Marku spotted him?
Maybe not. He seemed to be way too busy enjoying the sound of his own voice to pay attention to the various threats in the vicinity.
I closed my eyes for a second, breathed in, and then did exactly what Conal had taught me to do.
Marku grunted when I stomped down on his foot. He wore Italian leather dress shoes, so my heel digging into the small bones of his foot must have hurt like a bitch.
The bastard tried to pistol whip me with his free hand, but I dropped into a squat position and used my knuckles to hit the back of the hand still holding me. The minute he cried out, I forcefully bent his fingers back, trying not to vomit at the snapping sound they made.
He uttered a high-pitched squeal, which was enough to distract his two men. Ronan and Conal took advantage of the chaos, shooting the two idiot guards. Both dropped dead.
“You fucking bitch!” Marku swung the gun around with his one good hand, but I dived forward and punched him in the balls. He dropped to his knees with a low, strangled groan. The gun slid from his grasp, and I picked it up, my hands shaking.
“I won’t let you take me. I’m not a fucking possession you can barter with, you piece of shit!”
Marku tried to get up, but I stepped back and pointed the gun at him.
“You’re not going to shoot me, princess,” he gritted out.
Hearing him call me princess stoked my anger. Princess was Declan’s pet name for me. How dare Marku use it! Pointing a gun at someone felt all kinds of wrong, but I refused to let this monster win.
I’d rolled over and played possum too many times in the past.
No more.
“Pixie girl, let me handle him.” Ronan’s voice in my ear brought me back. “You don’t deserve to let that piece of shit leave a stain on your sweet soul.”
“He’s a people trafficking monster!” A tear slid down my cheek.
“I’m an entrepreneur!” Marku argued because, hey, even when facing imminent death, he still didn’t know when to shut the fuck up.
“Give me the gun, Pixie.”
“Let me go and I’ll never go near her again! Fuck the deal with her father!”
“I need to do this,” I insisted, ignoring Marku’s bullshit. Thea wouldn’t lose sleep over killing this scumbag, so why should I?
“No, sweetheart, you don’t.” Conal nudged my wrist down as Ronan kicked Marku back. “It’s our job to take out the trash. Not yours.”
“He’s right.” Declan removed the gun from my hand and tucked it into his waistband.
“You came for me,” I said, almost to myself.
“Princess, we’ll always find you.” He pulled me into his arms, holding me tight. “Now look away. You don’t need to see this.” I pressed my face into his chest before a gunshot echoed through the trees, followed by blessed silence.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here before we’re overrun,” Declan ordered over my head.
“How?” The SUV they’d arrived in wasn’t in any fit state to drive.
“Connor.”
Another SUV skidded to a halt a minute later. Connor jumped out of the driver’s seat holding two semi-automatic rifles. Ash joined him from the other side.
“Someone called for backup?” Ash winked in my direction before scowling at the sight of three dead bodies. “Well, shit, I’m fucking late to the party. Looks like you won’t be getting your security deposit back on that car, either.”
“My father’s back there,” I told them, pointing vaguely through the trees. “He did a deal with that man.” The now dead man lying in the mud, leaking blood everywhere.
“Yeah, we figured.” Declan pulled his phone out of his pocket and frowned as he read a message.
“Fuck, we definitely need to get out of here. The DIA are on their way with a fucking task force to arrest your father. We have 20 minutes to reach the village before we cross their path. We’ll need to take a detour to avoid them. ”
“But won’t my father have heard the gunshots and have left already?” Papa was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.
“This is the only way out unless he wants to go for a hike and try crossing a gorge.” Declan replied with a dry laugh.
“What about that?” I pointed to the wrecked SUV wrapped around the tree.
“Don’t worry, Pixie girl,” Ronan reassured me. “They’ll never connect it to us.” He pulled a lighter from his pocket, flicked it to produce a flame, and tossed it into the wrecked vehicle.
As the fire took hold, Ronan bundled me into the second car and we were off, only this time, instead of lying drugged in the back, I sat on Ronan’s knee with his arm tight around my waist while Conal gripped my hand like he worried I might vanish at any moment.