39. Stevie
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
STEVIE
My scream cuts through the silence as Sebastian’s hands fly up to cover my mouth.
“Get down!” Silas shouts into the void.
Sebastian shields my body with his, dragging us both down to hit the cold floor.
“Hayden and Christian?” I rush out in a loud whisper when Sebastian lets go.
He nods. “Yes. We need to stay out of range so they can focus on taking out the other guys.”
Another shot goes off.
My face is buried between Sebastian’s broad arms as he cranes his neck around the bookcase to see if he can spot another body. The pounding inside my chest is intense. It vibrates my rib cage, and I struggle to suck in a full breath. This fucking cloak is making me feel claustrophobic.
I need it off me. I need to move, to do something. It feels unnatural to just be standing here while gunshots go off around us.
“I’m going out there.” Sebastian rips off his mask and cloak. “I have to count the bodies to make sure two are dead.”
I grip his shirt. “No.”
He can’t leave me. Not with the members not knowing who’s trying to kill them.
“Stevie, I have to. You need to stay right here,” he tells me. “And take off the mask and robe, too.”
A cotton ball forms in my throat. “Sebastian. Are you sure?”
“Yes.” He dips down, grabs the back of my head, and pulls me in for a rough kiss.
My eyes close. I try to savor the moment, but he breaks our connection before I have the chance. “Do not move.”
I nod. I can’t change his mind.
Sebastian releases my hand and carefully steps out from behind the shelter of the bookcase. I watch with my stomach in knots as he approaches Dan’s body. He squats to check his neck to examine the fatal wound, then stands to scan the room.
Next, he quietly walks a few feet over to the podium and looks behind it. I can’t see what he’s staring at, but by the way he lowers to the ground once again, telling me it’s another body.
Sebastian looks over at me and mouths, Bob.
Suddenly, I see one member step into my view. My blood turns to ice as I spot a small black handgun in one hand. Without thinking, I jump out and rush the man from the side.
“Sebastian!”
Sebastian jerks his head around.
The man pushes me to the ground with a force that takes my breath away, but in time for Sebastian to tackle him.
They slam into the marble like heavy statues, each one holding strength as my shoulder comes crashing into a massive concrete vase.
My head jolts backward and bangs against the wall.
The pain shoots through the side of my body into my skull.
I reach up to my head, blinking a couple of times to focus my vision.
Another shot goes off.
My heart stops.
The man is now lying still on his back while Sebastian straddles him. He takes the gun and tucks it into the back of his waistband. “Harry,” he whispers.
Three down…one to go.
Once I realize Sebastian is okay, I have a minute to gather my wits, the pain inside my head intensifies. The ache is a ferocious pulse vibrating along my bones.
Sebastian almost got shot. Hayden and Christian were supposed to take the killers out, preventing them from running. What the hell happened?
“Are you okay?” Sebastian’s desperate words came out breathy from his sprint over here.
My ears ring from the sound of the gunshots. I want to answer him, but I can’t because I’m too focused on why it took Hayden and Christian so long to take the second shot, letting two members scatter.
If my calculations are correct, there is still one of them unaccounted for—Silas. Even though the night crew has the place surrounded and he isn’t getting out, he’s still running loose around the mansion.
“Why did it take them so long for the second shot?” My voice comes out high-pitched with panic.
Sebastian maneuvers me behind the bookcase. “I don’t know.”
“And one member had a gun!”
He nods, his eyebrows pushed together with a combination of worry, confusion. “I know.”
“I only counted three,” I say. “One of them is still out there. And the security guard.”
“Hayden was going to take out the security guard beforehand. Silas is the one who’s left.”
A chill shivers up my spine. “What do we do now?”
“You are going to wait here until this is over. I’m going to find Christian or Hayden,” he commands with a forceful tone.
My hands clutch at the collar of his leather jacket. “But you’re not armed!You were almost shot by one of them!”
“I’ll be okay. I grabbed Harry’s gun, remember?” he assures me. “And Silas doesn’t know who’s hunting them, so he won’t suspect me right away. For all he knows, I’m a target, too.”
“Please don’t leave me!” I plead.
His thumb caresses my cheek. “I’ll be okay, I promise.”
Tears prick the backs of my eyes, and I can barely utter an “okay” before the world stops spinning. To my guttural terror, I see Silas without a mask or robe standing about twenty feet behind us from over Sebastian’s shoulder.
“Oh god,” I mutter.
“Stevie?”
His expression cold, menacing while blood runs down from a cut on his forehead he must have sustained from a fall when the shots began.
Panic seizes hold of my limbs, but I try to remain calm. “He’s right behind you,” I whisper. “He’s got a gun.”
Sebastian immediately knows because his sharp features harden and his shoulders straighten. “Stay behind me. Do not move.”
I nod.
Sebastian turns around slowly until he’s face to face with Silas.
Then out of nowhere, a grin as wide as a crescent moon appears on Silas’s face. “I knew it was you.”
“What was me?” Sebastian baits him.
“I knew it was you all along.”
Sebastian takes a slow step forward. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t act like this wasn’t your plan from the beginning, or I’ll blow your fucking face off,” Silas threatens, aiming the gun at Sebastian’s face. “Don’t be a coward and acknowledge it.”
Sebastian’s jaw tightens. “What makes you think I had anything to do with this?”
“I followed you,” Silas spits out. “I knew something was strange about you two from the beginning. Then I remembered how Andrew kept going on about the lieutenant who he was hell-bent on getting revenge on.” He shakes the gun a little as if taunting us.
“It piqued my curiosity, so I did my research, and you’ll never believe what I stumbled upon.
A photo of the lieutenant and his daughters—one of them being Stevie Levinson.
Our dear Annabel. It didn’t take long for me to track her to you, Sebastian Thompson. ”
“That means nothing. So what?” Sebastian scoffs him off. “You know our true identities. Every serial killer lives two lives. What the hell is your point?”
“Andrew mentioned some arrogant billionaire was trying to get into his little raping group.” His smug expression chuckles. “And who is that billionaire, you ask? Well, it’s none other than River Thompson, your fucking cousin.”
Sebastian’s back stiffens. “Still means nothing.”
The more Silas speaks, the more my pulse races.
“Oh, but it gets better!” he continues. “He’s been fucking with a little crime writer who happens to be the daughter of the lieutenant that Andrew was after…ding, ding, ding,” he plays, pointing the gun at me. “Her sister. A little family affair we’ve got going on, don’t we? So fucking sweet.”
“We’re a group of serial killers, plain and simple.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t believe you. And since I’m the one with the gun, what I say is reality,” he replies coldly. “Now, she is coming with me.”
Sebastian’s arm comes out from behind him, pushing me to stay in his shadow. “That’s not going to happen.”
Silas chuckles an eerie laugh. The sound vibrates through my bones, penetrating me with fear. “Unless you both want to die right now?”
Sebastian lifts the other hand in front of him. “This has nothing to do with her. This is all about us. We are the monsters here, Silas, not Stevie.”
“And how do you figure that?” he counters, the gun shaking in his hand. “I saw her kill a man before my eyes! As a killer myself, I recognize that darkness in another. She is as much a part of this as you are.”
“I convinced her to be my girlfriend so I could infiltrate your group. She needs to be let go,” Sebastian argues, taking a few more slow steps toward Silas.
Then I catch sight of a dark figure up in the rafters getting into position with a long-range rifle perched on a tripod.
I need to buy us some more time—because that must be Hayden or Christian.
I rest my trembling hand on Sebastian’s biceps. “I’ll go.”
“No,” Sebastian growls.
“It’s okay,” I tell him, resting a shaky hand on his shoulder. “I know you’ll find me.”
“Stevie.” His teeth grit together as he pushes me back.
I look him in the eye, trying to communicate to him it will be okay.
“Trust me.” I have to do what he demands.
There’s no way out of this. They can try to rescue me later.
The guys need to kill the rest of the members, and Silas will be a lot easier to take out if he’s isolated and not hidden in the darkness of this mansion. I’m the one he wants.
I push past Sebastian’s muscular arm and walk the short distance to Silas.
“Good choice,” Silas compliments. His voice sends a shiver up my spine. But as I approach Silas with his gun still pointing at Sebastian, a loud bang reverberates in my left ear.
Silas startles as another shot comes from above, and he falls backward.
A shoulder wound is quickly visible as he stumbles.
I take this opportunity to lunge at him, grabbing the gun from his loose hand.
Gripping it tightly, my finger presses heavily on the metal, and without thought, I aim the barrel at Silas, who is scrambling to his feet.
My heart stops at the realization he wasn’t shot.
The space around me blurs, and I pull the trigger with everything I’ve got, shooting him directly in the face. Blood splatters and sprays my cheeks as Silas’s body falls backward again, hitting the marble floor like lead.
The kickback causes me to stumble. Losing my balance, I trip over something on the floor. My head whips around to see Sebastian lying on his back with a small pool of blood around his chest.
“Oh god!” I gasp. The gun falls from my clutches.
“Sebastian!” I hear a familiar masculine voice yell from a distance.
My legs give out, sending me to the floor beside him. “No!” A blood-curdling scream flies from my lips. Sebastian’s eyes are barely open. “Sebastian!”
“Silas shot me,” he grits through the pain.
“Oh my god!” My eyes frantically dart around his body before landing on his abdomen, my hands cup the wound, pressing deeply to try to stop the flow of blood. “Christian! Hayden!”
Sebastian’s hand reaches up, his clammy palm meeting my cheek. “I told you I’d protect you, Stevie.”
“No!” Tears spring from my eyes, my nose drips down my lips. “No, no, Sebastian. Don’t do this!”
Then his hand falls from my face, followed by my heart plunging from my chest.
“Sebastian!” I wail. The sounds of my painful cries echo throughout the room. This can’t be happening. “You said you’d take me with you! You can’t leave me!”
A set of broad arms wrap around my waist and lift me off the floor.
“I shot Silas!” I scream in desperation at Sebastian.
“It’s over, we can go to Greyfriars Kirkyard!
I shot him!” The grip around me gets tighter the more I struggle.
“Let me go!” I scream, my legs kick into the air.
I claw for Sebastian’s still body, without being able to touch it.
I can’t be without him. “You said you’d take me with you!
Sebastian! Please don’t leave me here alone! ”
Through blurry vision, I see four black figures carefully lifting Sebastian from the ground.
“Stevie, it’s me, Hayden!” Hayden shouts in my ear in an effort to calm me, but continues to hit, he needs to let me go.
My body trembles.
I can barely breathe.
I can’t think.
Everything around me goes black, as if someone turned off the lights.