Chapter 40
CASSIAN
“Touching,” a voice says.
My back stiffens.
Allegra gasps.
She looks first. She turns and looks first. And I am a fucking idiot.
I turn to face Malek, who is standing with a gun at Jet’s head, a half-dozen soldiers behind him.
Malek glances at Enzo’s dead body. “Thanks for handling that for me.”
He shifts his gaze to me, and I begin to rise to my feet.
“No. As you were.” He grins “I like you on your knees.”
I glance at Jet who is standing perfectly still. His hands are empty, a soldier having relieved him of his weapon. His expression is unreadable, his eyes locked on me. He glances downward, then back up and I think I understand the signal.
But it won’t work.
There are too many of them. And there’s a gun to his head and I won’t risk his life.
“Bring me my wife,” Malek commands.
His soldiers fan out, one taking hold of Allegra to drag her to her feet and toward Malek who lowers his weapon to his side as another solider sets the barrel of his to Jet’s temple.
Malek looks at Allegra, naked and bloody. She doesn’t look away. She refuses to be afraid.
“Look at this mess,” he says.
“It was me, you know,” she tells him, raising her hands to show him the blood on her palms. She shrugs off the soldier who tries to keep her from doing it. “I killed him. Me. Just like I’m going to kill you.”
There’s a moment, a split second, where I think I see fear cross Malek’s eyes. It almost makes me laugh. Does he know what he’s in for with her? Except I can’t laugh, not now. Not as I kneel here and Jet stands with a gun to his head, not a single one of my soldiers in sight.
As if on cue, footsteps come charging up the stairs.
Malek grips Allegra by her hair and, like the coward Enzo, uses her as his human shield when my men come charging up.
“Weapons down!” Malek screams the order, but my men don’t take orders from him. “Tell them. Tell them or I fucking shoot her in the stomach!”
“Stop!” I call out. “Lower your weapons! Now!”
They do it.
“Drop them. I want weapons on the fucking ground!” Malek calls out.
“Do it,” I tell my men who look like they’re ready to fight to the death. I shake my head because it would be her death.
They set their weapons on the ground and kick them away.
“Get them out of here,” Malek says, spinning, but then changes his mind.
“No, wait. Bring him here. That one. On his knees right there.” Malek points to a spot beside me with his gun.
At least he’s pushed Allegra out from in front of him.
I look at her. She’s got her hands wrapped around the one of Malek’s which has a fistful of her hair, and I remember my promise to her.
Pieces.
I will deliver her enemies to her in pieces.
I will deliver him in a thousand fucking pieces.
“Good, that’s a good place,” Malek says once my soldier is beside me and, before any of us have a moment to think, he raises his weapon and shoots. The sound of a single man toppled, body falling across my knees is jarring in the aftermath of war. Allegra screams in shock.
Instinctively, I grab hold of his body, catch it. He’s already dead, though.
“Next!” Malek calls like it’s a fucking game.
“Fuck you! It’s me you want, not them!” I shift to rise, setting one foot flat on the ground before me.
Jet has shifted his position. In the commotion, he’s closer to me.
“Stay the fuck down!” Malek orders, aiming his weapon at me.
“No!” Allegra screams and knocks his arm so when he shoots, the bullet hits the dead man.
“You don’t want to make it that quick, do you?” I ask him. I need time.
“Take her. Fucking take her.” Malek shoves Allegra toward a soldier. Good. That’s good. It’d be better if he sent her downstairs, but he won’t do that. He wants her to watch me die. But I’m not dying. Not today.
“Let him go, you fucking bastard. I’ll stay with you. I’ll stay!” Allegra tries to bargain with him.
“No, Allegra,” I start, talking calmly. “You won’t stay. You forget you already belong to me.”
Malek’s eyes narrow. “You’ll stay where I put you, wife,” Malek says to her, but looks at me. “But first, you’ll watch him die.”
Allegra turns her head away. She refuses to watch.
“Allegra,” I say.
She shakes her head.
“Allegra,” I say sharply. “I promised you two things, didn’t I?” I ask her. She’s still not looking at me, but Malek is. “Two things. Look at me. Look at me now, Little Moth.” She does, eyes swimming in tears. “Do you remember what I promised you?”
She closes her eyes, turns her face. Her lip quivers.
“Little Moth. Have you not yet learned once I make a promise, I keep it?”
She opens her eyes and looks at me.
“Good girl,” I whisper and smile. “Down,” I mouth to her and just as Malek raises his weapon to aim it at me, I push off, lunging for Jet’s hidden gun, the one he has strapped to his ankle.
As soon as I move, all hell breaks loose, chaos as dawn breaks.
Chaos as Allegra drops down to the ground and I take Jet’s weapon, my body hurling sideways as bullets hit their mark, as I whirl to take aim at Malek’s gun arm and shoot.
He screams, the gun goes flying. Another bullet grazes my side.
I aim for his stomach this time and pull the trigger.
He stumbles backward into a sandbag wall.
Jet disarms the soldier who has him, killing him, and my men on the stairs storm up, blood and bullets and death all around us.
Although it feels like an eternity, it all happens fast the way death does. Bullets fly. Men fall. Mine. His. Crouched, I rush toward Allegra, shooting our enemies, throwing my body in front of hers to protect her, to keep her safe.
When the sounds of guns fired is finally over, when the streak of bullets catapulting inches past my face abruptly ends, I can hear the sound of my own breathing. Of blood pumping through my veins as my heart pounds.
Malek is gripping his side moaning in agony. Around me, bodies lie motionless, soldiers from both sides.
Across the way, Jet stumbles to his feet. His eyes meet mine and I see the blood on his shoulder, the splatters on his shirt. But he’s okay. He’s alive.
I turn to her.
Beneath me she is still. I’m afraid to look. Afraid to know. My world can change in an instant. My life as good as over. But I feel the warmth of her. And I think, if I listen hard enough, I think I can hear her heart beat.
I draw back slowly, still using my body as a shield. Still not trusting that it’s over.
Allegra is huddled beneath me.
“Allegra.” I touch her hair, tuck it behind her ear. Something I have liked to do from the beginning. From when we were enemies.
She turns her face to look at me through tear-stained eyes. She straightens. Her arm is broken. I see it. And I see her pain on her face. A quick inventory tells me she’s not shot. The bullets didn’t hit her.
I untie her wrists, careful for her arm.
“Are you all right?” I ask her, touching her face gently, seeing the line carved by a knife. It will scar her. She’ll be more beautiful for it. More fierce.
“Just my arm.” Her gaze searches me, too. “Cassian.” She turns wide eyes to me, lifting her hands to my face, wincing with the pain of her broken arm. “You’re shot all over.”
The adrenaline rush is subsiding, and I can feel each of those bullet wounds. Each and every one.
“I’ll live,” I say, touching her again, not quite believing she’s safe. I pull her into my arms, careful of her broken one, and hold her to me. I close my eyes and just breathe her in, cradling her.
Malek groans, interrupting.
We both turn to look at him.
This isn’t over.
I have one more promise to deliver on.