THIRTY-ONE - ROMAN
Saying those words out loud, I killed Elliott, was liberating. I’d long wanted to get that off my chest, and damn did it feel like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders.
Jameson, on the other hand, didn’t agree.
Her body went limp in my grasp when I’d finally confessed to her that I was the one who had killed her dad, her only living parent.
The guilt and anger and pain that she must have felt coursing through her body all at once at my admission, knowing she’d been sleeping with the enemy all along, fucking gutted me.
I knew better. I’d warned her from the very beginning this was a bad idea, me and her, that we had no business being together.
Fuck.
Everything was finally coming together though. Soon enough, she’d understand. We all would. Right now, there were still a few loose ends that needed to be tied up.
I made my way back up to the ballroom. The place had mostly cleared out—a few people were still pushing their way toward the main entrance. Our own security had taken off, save for a few who were sweeping the room.
Several chairs had been tipped over. Wine flutes, cups, and plates had been dropped in place; other various pieces of trash and remnants from a good time littered the floor.
I hung back in a dark corner at the top of the hull stairs. The last thing I needed was for anyone to see or recognize me and wonder why I hadn’t left yet.
“Where the fuck is he,” I mumbled to myself as I scanned the massive room. I knew that piece of shit had to be around here somewhere. This was the singular moment of his career that would launch Kane to the top. He’d be the last man standing.
Except he wouldn’t because he couldn’t get to James anymore, and that was the one missing piece he needed to win this war. He’d have to settle for me in the meantime.
With my gun in a tight grip, pointed to the floor yet still very ready to fire at a moment’s notice, I walked out to the middle of the massive empty room, exposing myself out in the open. Emergency lights flashed from every corner, and alarms blared with an ear-assaulting echo.
“Come on out, you piece of shit,” I called out loud. “I know you’re here.”
He’d better have fucking been here, or this was a whole lot of planning and organizing for nothing.
I stood in the middle of the room, making myself a wide-open target. It was a huge risk ’cause if Kane had decent aim and if he wanted to, he could take me out with a single shot, right here, right now.
“You clean up well for hired help,” I heard Kane’s voice come from behind me.
I raised my gun as I turned around, coming face-to-face with the man of the hour.
“I see you dressed for the event yourself.”
Kane brushed his hands down the front of his suit at invisible lint, then fumbled with the buttons on his sleeve. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Bold of you to brave this alone.”
His fumbling hand stilled and cut his eyes up at me. “Who says I’m here alone?”
“If it were me trying to take down the leader of an empire,” I said, ignoring his question, “I would’ve at least come with some kind of backup.”
River had done extensive research on Kane over the last twenty-four hours. He’d already warned me there would be someone else, but River would have my back should shit hit the fan. There was no way Kane would god own without a fight, so a mess would surely ensue.
“Speaking of empire, where is the lady of the night? I was looking forward to seeing her up close in that ball gown.”
This motherfucker.
I steadied my aim, maintaining clear and precise focus on my target.
One slight move out of line was all it would take to end him, and I would have had I known where the other guy was hiding.
I needed him out in the open. Kane and his accomplice weren’t even my biggest problems. Right now, I couldn’t hear shit over the squelching of the alarms to know if someone was coming up behind me, and I couldn’t turn my back on Kane.
I’d just have to wait and find out the hard way.
“First, you lose your boats; now, you lose your target. Damn, Kane, seems like you’re good at misplacing some pretty important shit for someone who runs a multibillion-dollar-a-year business.”
He let out a barely audible soft chuckle. “You’re quite entertaining, you know that?”
“Why didn’t you take her out when you had the chance?”
He grinned. “A magician never reveals his secrets.”
There was no way he had any other plan. Even if he did, he couldn’t get to her now. Nothing else mattered.
“Keep your secrets. You’ll never get to her.”
“I beg to differ.”
Just then, something hard pressed to the back of my head. Fucking alarms.
“Classic move,” I said to Kane, who stood as casually as could be, like he had other shit to do and this was infringing on his time.
“You didn’t think I was going to get any blood on my hands, did you?”
I’d never taken Kane for a complete idiot, but he probably never planned on my being here. This was single-handedly the moment I’d been waiting for.
“Not mine.”
Without thinking, as if on autopilot, I tossed my gun down to the floor toward Kane. Then, in one calculated move, I reached behind my head, grabbed the guy by the wrist, and pulled him forward at the same time I ducked and twisted his arm behind his back.
My gun went off, and the guy in front of me went limp. Too fucking predictable.
I pulled his gun from his dead hand as his body dropped to the floor and leveled it at Kane.
My own gun was now pointed directly at me.
“You’re good,” he mused. “Seems like I may have underestimated you.”
I cocked the dead guy’s gun. This shit was getting old and needed to end.
Just as I was about to pull the trigger, an explosion went off somewhere in the distance. The floor shook beneath our feet. What the fuck, River?
I made the rookie mistake of taking my eyes off Kane for 0.5 seconds. Just long enough for him to launch himself at me, taking me to the floor with a hit to the ribs. He landed on top of me, squishing the breath out of my chest. My gun went flying from my hand.
Well, shit.
No worries. I wasn’t about to get my ass beat by a man who had probably twenty years on me.
We wrestled around, tossing punches, taking hits from each other, until I was able to get my own gun back from him. I managed to shove him off me and onto his side, but he got up and came back for more. I took my shot as he lurched forward, but he managed to avoid my bullet. Fuck.
Seems like I’d been the one to underestimate him.
Where the fuck was River? He was supposed to be my damned backup here.
As Kane knocked into me, I planted my feet into the floor to keep my balance but fell as searing pain shot through me.
“What the hell?” I cursed to myself as I landed on my back.
As I lay there, Kane hovered over me, bloody knife in his hand. “Never bring a gun to a knife fight or whatever the hell it is they say,” he smirked.
I grabbed onto my side. That motherfucker stabbed me. Shit, I did not see that coming. Who’s the rookie now?
“Christ, what kind of knife did you use? That hurt like a bitch,” I said between painful breaths. This wasn’t my first time being stabbed…or second or third. Just the first time it damn near debilitated me.
Kane braced himself on a knee as he bent down and hovered over me. “Pussy. It’s not even that big.”
As if shit weren’t bad enough, not having a gun, now subdued by the pain shooting through my side, Kane shoved the tip of my gun into the knife wound.
“Ahh. Fuck,” I hissed through gritted teeth.
“Not so tough, are we? And to think, someone thought you’d be the end to all of this.”
As he stood up, another shot rang out over the still loud-as-fuck fire alarms. River. Thank fuck.
Kane froze mid-air, a look of shock on his face. He fell down to the floor, half-slumped on top of me.
“It’s about time, asshole,” I said as I shoved Kane’s now lifeless body and haphazardly pushed him onto the floor by my side.
“You’re welcome.”
I rolled over and attempted to stand upright. I hunched over on my knees, gripping my side. “Nice shot.”
Josephine half shrugged. “Ain’t missed one yet.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t have to do that.”
“It was an easy decision. He was a shitty nephew.”
“Yeah. Well thanks for only ever throwing a tomato at me.”
“It’s never too late.” She smiled.
“Noted. Now, get out of here. Go out of the main entrance to the parking lot. I’ll be right there.”
“What about you? You can’t even stand up.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I’m gonna do one more sweep of the place, make sure there’s no stragglers or people hiding out in the bathroom.”
She shook her head. “Sounds like that’s their problem for not leaving, but if you insist.”
“Speaking of, why didn’t you leave when the alarms went off?”
“’Cause nobody tells me what to do.”
Josephine left, and I forced myself to stand upright. “Walk it off. Don’t be a bitch,” I said to myself.
Fucking Christ. Judging by the size of the knife Kane had used and the force he’d shoved it into me, there was no way I didn’t have some kind of internal damage.
I swiped up my gun and started limping my way around the event center. I called out for River as I shuffled along, but he didn’t respond.
Just as I was getting ready to make my way toward the main entrance, another explosion went off. This time, the chandeliers shook, and plaster rained down in pieces from the ceiling.
A third explosion went off, then a fourth. They were coming more frequently and louder than the one before. This time, the pillars near the exit to the casino, aka my escape, fell over, blocking the doors. Then the lights went out.
“Fuck, River. The hell are you doing”
The only other way out was through a service hall that led to the kitchen and out to the docks. It wasn’t an ideal getaway plan, but it was my only option.
Sink or swim. Those were literally my only two options at this point—literally. Sink with the boat or swim with the gar.
I made it to the docks just as a series of more explosions went off. I jumped over the guardrail to get to the rusted ladder hanging over the side and almost threw up from the pain.
Fuck it.
I didn’t make it this far to give up now.
As I lowered myself down into the cool, murky water, an unexpected clanging noise forced me to stop. I froze in place, already knee-deep in water, with a death grip on the ladder rung. I looked up in the direction of the noise. A push broom had been knocked over.
“What in the hell are you doing out here?”