Chapter 44
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
BELLAMY
Their bodies sailed over me as I curled up in a ball on the floor. In a blink, their frames bent as they careened over the edge of the stone balcony. I struggled to catch my feet against the slick flooring as I frantically crawled to the edge of the balcony, pulling myself up onto weak legs so that I could look over the edge.
Right as their bodies hit the ground, a sickening crack broke the pounding of rain and my heart stopped. I forgot to breathe. I looked down at my husband, his body flat against the grass, blood coating his leg, and I nearly cried when he didn't move. I tried to scream, tried to warn him of the monster who was struggling to extract himself from the bushes, but my words were caught on a sob when he finally moved the slightest.
His hands came out in front of him as he pushed himself up, then promptly fell. Fuck.
Get the gun.
Grab it.
Protect yourself.
I wanted to shout at him, but he wouldn't hear me over the storm. Instead, I watched in horror as Accardo wrapped a rope around his neck and dragged him from my sight. I was frozen in a horrendous state of panic as I watched my husband struggle against a rope, and?—
I needed to do something.
I needed to stop this monster before he took something more precious than my life from me.
I turned, leaving the library behind as I ran for the hall. My fingers clenched against the banister as I rushed downstairs. I needed to save him. It had to be me. I didn't have time; he didn't have time to wait for Mercer and Ace. I ran past the downstairs hall, then paused long enough to make a split decision before I turned down it. I followed Lady's bark to Mercer's room and opened the door, releasing the dog before jogging toward the living room and the backdoor to the outside.
"Come on, girl," I called to the pup, who followed, an intense look on her face as she growled, sensing the tension.
The rain pounded hard against my skin the second I entered the outside, announcing my arrival to the world. The thunder clapped, feeling so close I swore the ground shook with it. Lightning cast across the sky, lighting up the beautiful rose garden, practically telling me the destination of where I'd find my husband.
The rose garden. Of course, he would pick a place of beauty to taint with the ugliness of his soul. But I'd not let him ruin something we'd worked so hard to restore. Not when I looked at those roses and thought about Ace with his white dress shirt digging holes. I loved that memory too much to let someone like Joseph Accardo ruin it.
I stopped just below the library balcony, searching around the grass, with Lady jumping at my feet. "Where is it? Where the hell is it?"
I shielded my eyes against the slanted rain, trying to make out more than a few feet in front of me. Lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the grass in front of me. The shiny exterior of Adam's gun twinkled in the light, and I rushed forward, snatching it from the grass. The metal was ice against my palm, slippery with the rain, and for the first time, I wished I had taken the time to learn how to use it. I just hoped it wasn't that hard.
Lady rushed forward, moving faster than I could as she let out a bark, announcing her presence. My head still pounded, but it did little to deter me. My steps were unwavering as I held onto my stomach, gripping the globe gingerly, hoping I didn't lose my balance and slip on the slick grass. Lady disappeared out of sight before turning back and running toward me. I held my breath as I approached the opening to the garden, afraid of what I'd see.
Could I handle the worst?
No. I didn't think I'd survive it. Not when these men had become my everything in such a short time. They were a bundle. I could not have one without the others. I refused.
I stepped through the door and covered my mouth, hiding the gasp. Adam, my strong and ruthless husband, lover, friend, was strung up from the oak tree. His hands were behind his back, his neck strained, his bone protruded from his leg, and a rope held him tightly in place as Accardo held a knife to his throat.
The rain pounded down so hard I couldn't hear the words, but it didn't matter. Judging by the look of things, they weren't friendly.
"Lady," I whispered the dog's name, and the single word was like a command. She charged forward, her soft little body plowing into Accardo until he stumbled backwards, dropping his knife as he tripped over a rock.
My breath was coming out in pants as I held one hand to my stomach, and the other held up the gun. Adam's eyes met mine, sorrow and longing so strong I could feel it. He mouthed words, but I couldn't make them out. It was too dark, the surroundings too loud.
"You won't shoot me." Accardo laughed as I stepped further into the garden.
"I might." I would.
"You're too weak. Just a little spoilt child," he taunted, his eye on my shaking hand, watching as I struggled to hold up the gun. I’d never held one before, never realized the weight of it in my palm and how rapidly holding it up could strain my muscles. How could my men walk around with these things on their bodies each day and not feel the strain?
"Let him go," I demanded.
"Your demands have no power, little girl."
I cringed, hating the nickname that Mercer so freely used, falling from a man like Accardo's lips. Did he know? Did he know that Mercer's term of endearment could be so repulsive coming from him?
"That man. Your husband ," he spat with disgust, "killed my son. Did you not think I wouldn't have come for him, eventually?"
"You killed his family," I reminded him.
Lady growled when he stepped closer, but the sweet puppy didn't know what to do. She looked at us all in confusion, not quite understanding it all. Accardo laughed. "It appears he's made a new family, with my very own grandchild right in the center. Doesn't seem like he's hurting too bad, now does it?"
"He's taking care of me. Something none of you had ever planned to do," I shouted over the rain.
"You were a girl." He said it so simply that it pained me. As if the simple fact that I had a vagina meant I was useless in his eyes. This was the family my daughter would have been raised into. A family who hated her just for existing when my men worshipped her before she even took her first breath. "Girls are useless except to advance our alliances. You should know that. You grew up in this world."
That I did, and I spent every second of my life — until Mercer threw me over his shoulders — hiding and pretending that the person inside of me didn't exist. But she did. And now that they’d freed her, she could never go back into that cage. Fear might have wanted me to escape initially, but now I never wanted to be apart from them. I couldn't. My heart beats were linked to their next breaths.
The clap of thunder roared, causing me to shift uneasily from foot to foot as I tried not to take my eyes off this man. This man who had been a danger to me and my men far longer than I realized. "You need to leave."
"I don't think I will." His eyes roamed over me. "Not when you're looking perfectly tousled for me. Tell me, would you have screamed my name?"
"Not a fucking chance," Adam growled as he strained against the rope.
Lady whimpered, and I stepped toward her, walking in a half circle so I stood a few feet in front of my husband. "Our guards will come."
I tried to lie, hoping he wouldn't question it. I knew he had killed some, but someone had to be left. Someone had to hear our desperate pleas for help if we shouted loud enough, right?
"The guards are all dead," he confirmed, the glint in his eye shining with the streak of lightning. "It's just us. And if you will not pull that trigger, I suggest you let me finish killing off Mr. Ferrari so that I can move on with my night."
Let him kill Adam? Was he fucking delusional? I'd never. "No."
"Well, then..."
It all happened faster than my mind could register. He stepped toward me, and Lady barked. The sharp sound caused me to jump, then hesitate as he took another step. Lady jumped forward, and his knife instantly connected into the tissue of her shoulder blade as he flung her to the side. I pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. Distantly, Adam was shouting, but I didn't understand.
Safety.
Safety.
The fucking safety.
Accardo charged, plowing into me full force, the gun flying from my shaky fingers as my back hit the tree and my eyes connected with Adam's as he fought against the rope that we both knew he'd never be able to free himself from. My hand reached out, grazing Adam's shirt before Accardo grabbed me roughly, picking me up and throwing me against the cement bench.
Pain seared through my body as warmth ran down my legs. I gasped, my eyes fluttering as his fingers dug into my bicep, his face close to mine as he pulled me up to his height. "You will watch him die. After that, you will do what I say, or I'll end you."
Why did I feel like he had already ended me? That my life was teetering on a ledge of life or death, and it all depended on this man whose fingers bruised my skin so roughly. I reached up, my fingers wrapping around his wrist as I tried to pull them away from me. He wouldn't budge. Digging my nails into his skin, I promised, "I'll never do what you say."
He leaned forward, a threat on his lips, but before he could speak, I slammed my head forward into his, and while he was stunned, I let my teeth sink into his cheek as he screamed and fought to get me off him. I refused to release him. Let him writhe in pain. It was nothing compared to the pain he'd caused me this last hour alone.
His fingers gripped my scalp, and with some considerable effort, he pried me loose. "You fucking bitch."
Without letting go of my hair, he hurled me downward, slamming me into the bench one more time before pitching me toward the ground, my head landing awkwardly on a rock. My vision grew blurry, and I blinked, trying to stay conscious even as my head pounded, and the pain was taking over everywhere.
Accardo stepped over my body, walking the few steps to my husband before digging another knife from his boot. "It appears your wife likes to misbehave. You really should have gotten that under control before the marriage."
"She's perfect," he declared.
"I'm going to kill you." Accardo sighed as he looked at me. "Then I'll take my grandchild. Both of you can rot here on this earth."
I tried to move, but the pain was all-consuming. I couldn't wiggle a single muscle, even though I was screaming inside for my body to cooperate. My head throbbed too much, the pain in my abdomen so excruciating that I could think of nearly nothing else, and try as I might, I couldn't bring my eyes to focus.
I reached a hand out, blood coating my palm. From where? I couldn't piece together where the blood had come from. Who did it belong to? My mind tried to focus on that question, but as soon as I thought it, it floated from my mind in a haze.
Accardo's hand threaded into Adam's beautiful strands of hair, pulling his head back so sharply that I could no longer look into his eyes. I missed them instantly, missed the connection I had to him, and I was desperate to get it back. I rolled over, scooting slowly toward my husband as my arm reached out desperately for him, but each shuffle seemed impossible. My body was too heavy; my muscles felt like lead.
The knife skimmed gently against Adam's neck as it trailed down his body, hovering just over his heart. The rain pelting down drowned my hoarse whisper out. "No."
"Don't worry. She'll die a hell of a lot slower than you will. And it will be so fucking satisfying." Accardo spoke against Adam's ear before he pulled back, his arm cocked, ready to plunge into my husband's heart, and right before the tip of the blade met skin, milliseconds before my entire world stopped, a loud crack broke into the night, and Accardo froze. The knife fell, bouncing off the cement bench before his knees buckled under him and he crumbled to the ground. Slumping to the side, his face landed mere inches away from mine as he stared into my soul with lifeless eyes.