Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
LANA
I take a deep breath as we pass through the iron gates that surround the campus.
It was only a few hours ago that Dare told me I needed to stay within the campus for my own safety, and normally I wouldn’t go against anything he asked me to do.
But I seem to be doing a lot of things I wouldn’t normally do lately, and it all comes down to the guy walking beside me.
Besides, I’m not the type to back down from a fight. I’d just rather not get Cole mixed up in any more of my messes.
He’s seen enough of my shit to last a lifetime.
But I know in my gut the closer we get to the church that this is a bad idea.
My fight or flight instincts are firing on all cylinders, and fuck , I need to get Cole out of here before something bad does go down.
Last time, we got lucky.
I’m not counting on that happening twice.
Sure, Cole can fight .
But he’s never killed before, and I’m not sure he’d be able to take that step, even if it was a life or death situation.
I see him. I see who he is under the mask and the bravado.
And who I see is not a killer.
“Through here,” I murmur and pull Cole through a park. It’s dark, so I can’t see much, but the lights from the street make a little of what’s ahead visible.
It’s your standard play park, with swings and a slide and some sort of climbing apparatus.
“What are we doing? I’m not about to fuck you on the slide, if that’s what you’re after.”
“Shut. Up,” I say through gritted teeth as I pull him across a small field and to a more wooded area. I’ve walked through this place before. The farther you go, the farther you get from civilization, where there’s nothing but trees and a lake.
“Seriously Lana,” he says in hushed whisper. “What’s wrong?”
The joking in his tone is gone now, since I guess he’s caught on to the fact that I’m on high alert.
“I just have a feeling.”
“A feeling?” he asks, and I look up at him. There’s a frown on his face and a tic in his jaw, though I’m not sure if it’s me he’s pissed at, or the situation.
“I’m sorry,” I admit, I never should have agreed to leave with him. I never should have allowed him into my life in the first place.
“What are you— fuck ,” he yelps as something whizzes right by us.
No, not something.
A bullet.
God damm it .
I squint and see three figures coming towards us, each of them with a gun in hand, pointed directly at us.
“You should go,” I say to Cole without taking my eyes off the guys.
“If you think I’m leaving you here, then you’re out of your damn mind.”
Why is he such a pain in the ass?
“You’re not an easy girl to track down, A,” a voice calls out, and my blood runs cold.
No one should know to call me that. The only people who did were my dad and his men.
Which means…
“Seriously? You agreed to take up a contract on me?”
I don’t even want to think about what this means, because if a new contract has been put out, it means they know I’m here and I’m nowhere near ready to move on just yet.
The middle guy steps forward, and I recognize him as one of the guys I trained with, Dominic.
Charlie gasps from the corner of the room as I send my knife flying towards the target and hit it dead center.
I don’t know why he’s gasping; he’s seen me do it a hundred times before.
Probably something to do with the way Dominic is glowering at me from where he stands, his jaw clenched and his hands balled into fists at his sides.
I’m not sure what his issue is. It’s not my fault that he’s been at it all morning and couldn’t manage to hit a single target.
Knife throwing is not in his wheelhouse.
He’s good with hand-to-hand combat, and his shooting skills aren’t half bad but strategizing and knife throwing are the two things holding him back from climbing up the ranks .
He’s always had an issue with me.
He thinks I get preferential treatment because my dad is the boss, when in reality, I’m just better than him.
And that’s not my ego talking. It’s a cold, hard fact.
One that he’ll have to come to terms with, one of these days.
Dominic takes a step towards me and it snaps me back to the present, reminding me of the danger we’re in right now. “What can I say? They offered a good price.”
I chuckle. This asshole has always underestimated me, and it seems as though he’s once again going to make this mistake.
“I’m flattered, Dom. You didn’t have to come all of this way for little old me. You know I’d do anything for my father’s company.”
He barks out a dry laugh, and I grit my teeth in irritation.
“Daddy’s dead, little A. It’s not his company anymore. After the shitshow we were left with after you ran, we lost almost all of our men, so now we’re rebuilding.”
He continues walking towards us as he speaks, and I just need him a little closer, close enough for me to get the drop on him.
“They killed that many?” I ask, curiosity in my tone even though I already know the answer. Dare has been keeping me up to date on everything. He may not be one of them anymore and technically hasn’t been since even before Dad’s death, but he has eyes and ears everywhere.
“They fucking slaughtered them, and it was all because of you. The little princess who shouldn’t even have lived to see the age of three.”
Dominic steps up to me, a murderous look in his eyes as he stares at me. I can see the other two behind him, but they’re not close enough for me to work out who they are. What I do know is that the three of them are focused on me, not even glancing Cole’s way.
But my attention is on him, even if I can’t look at him directly.
And I know he’s moments away from losing his shit on Dom.
He may not have any idea of what’s going on, but he knows they’re here to kill me.
And he knows I won’t go down without a fight.
I throw my elbow out and hit Cole full force in the side of the head, making him hit the ground before I tackle Dom to the grass.
I take his gun from him and fire two shots, hitting both the other guys, and I watch to make sure they drop to the floor and stay there.
I’m a good shot, but it’s dark, and I don’t have fucking night vision.
Satisfied that they’re down for good, I turn my attention back to Dom, only I let my attention wander for too long and he manages to take the gun from me.
My head clears of all other thoughts as I grapple with Dom, kicking the gun out of his grip and away from the both of us.
We tussle back and forth, each of us getting hits in as we both battle for the upper hand.
Cole’s presence is a distant memory as I zone out from everything else and into the fight.
Thoughts of my dad and the company and the other guys are gone as I fight with Dom.
I haven’t had such a matched opponent in months, but I’m not just going to lie here and take it.
I can give as good as I get, and this asshole is going to get every ounce of fight I have left in me.
Dominic pins me to the ground, his hands wrapping around my neck, and he squeezes with everything he has. Too bad for him he seems to have forgotten we both had the same training.
I hike my leg up and slide it under his arm, hooking it around his torso and I flip us, landing beside him.
He pulls a knife from somewhere, but I was already reaching for mine when I made the move.
His arm darts out as though he’s attempting to slice my face and block it, only the move makes both knives go flying, too far away for either of us to reach.
Guess the only way this is going to end is by one of us killing the other with our bare hands.
“You always were a slithery little thing,” he mutters as he punches me in the side of the head.
He’s referring to my old code name. My dad gave me the nickname Cobra because he always thought I was silent and deadly.
He was always so damn proud of how well I did in training. Being the only girl part of the Virtus company and being one of the top graduates is something to be proud of, I guess.
“I prefer venomous,” I grit through clenched teeth and jump to my feet.
He does the same, so we’re back to squaring off against each other.
“That’s true,” he agrees. “You always were a poisonous little bitch. But your time as the Virtus queen has come to an end, and now you’re nothing but a poor little orphan who’s running for their life.
If you kill me here tonight, it won’t change anything.
More will come after you. It's only a matter of time. You may as well just give in now.”
Over my dead body will I just give in and let this backstabbing asshole kill me.
“You know me better than that, surely?” I ask sweetly before aiming a kick to his chest. He sees it coming though and grabs hold of my leg before I can make contact. His grip is like a vise around my ankle, and he pushes me backward, sending me flying to the floor.
I land with a thud, and pain reverberates up my spine, moving to my hips as he straddles me.
His head comes down, smashing into mine before his hands find my neck once more.
His legs are tight over mine this time, giving me room to get the upper hand, and I wriggle beneath him and scratch at the hand that’s cutting off my airway.
My lungs burn, and I can almost taste the end…
My vision blackens at the corners, and my entire body feels numb, but I don’t stop fighting.
A bang sounds, and Dominic’s body slumps on top of me as I cough and splutter beneath him, oxygen finally finding its way into my lungs.
What the fuck?
It takes me a moment to orient myself and push his body off of me, and what I see when I do has my blood running cold.
Cole is standing over me, a gun in hand resting against his leg and a glower on his face.
“Care to tell me what the fucking hell just happened?” he growls, and I wince before looking over at the body beside me.
Cole just killed him.
Cole just killed someone, for me.
Why would he do that?
Is it because he was worried Dominic would go after him once he was done with me?
“Long story,” I rasp and sit up. My body hurts like a motherfucker, but I climb to my feet anyways. I sway a little, and Cole reaches out to steady me before throwing the gun and grabbing my shoulders.
“Are you okay?” he asks. There’s worry in his eyes, as though he’s actually concerned for me.
Like he might actually care.
And I’m beginning to think he does.
“I-I’m fine,” I stutter, staring up at him.
I’m far from fine.
In agony, exhausted, confused and conflicted, maybe. But not fine.
“Can you call whoever you did last time to come clean up this mess so I can get you home?”
I glance at the bodies, and on closer inspection I see who the other two guys are. Charlie and Jeremy. They’re both guys I grew up with, one of them I even considered a friend. It just goes to show the things people will do for money.
I look back at Cole, my conflicted emotions about this entire thing making it hard to think straight.
“I can’t,” I say with a sigh. “Dare asked me earlier today not to leave the campus, and he’s gonna be pissed when he finds out. I don’t have the energy to deal with that tonight. You go ahead, I’ll clean this up.”
“Two things. One, who the fuck is Dare?” he growls, and I roll my eyes. He continues before I can answer him. “Two, we’re in this together whether you like it or not, little menace. So, where do we start?”
First, he killed someone, now he wants to help me get rid of the bodies?
This day just keeps getting more insane by the minute.