Chapter 27 #2
Defeat washes over his face. “Fuck. Get behind the fucking tree and shoot from there. Do not leave it.”
He wets his bottom lip, eyes tracing my face whilst cupping my nape, and our lips crash together. “I fucking love you.”
Then he’s pulling away just as quickly.
Crawling over to the thick trunk, I slam my back against it. We’re taking heavy fire, and vibrations travel through my spine as bullets keep unloading into it.
Something catches the corner of my eye, someone with their gun aimed right at Holly. My finger rests over the trigger as I look down the scope, taking them out with a slight tug of the metal groove.
It feels like it never ends.
Greg and Holly move between ducking behind trees, to dropping low on the ground. Saint is the closest to me, lying flat on the ground as his gun yields no mercy, shooting until empty then seamlessly reloads.
But it’s not enough; the cracks increase, and the hidden bodies that shoot at us thicken through the woods.
There’s too many of them, and only four of us.
A large bang ruptures the forest. I drop to my knees and throw my hands over my ears as the ringing pierces through my ear drums. My stinging eyes fight to remain open.
A white fog rolls over the forest, filling in the pockets of greenery that peek through the snow, casting it like a clouded blanket.
I can’t see Saint anymore, can’t see anyone. The whistling air-like sound still bleeds in my hearing.
It all moves in slow motion.
Holly breaks through the smoke, dropping when she’s only a few inches away from me, speckles of blood bursting through her neck as bullets pierce through her skin.
I rush to her, dropping to my knees and hovering my hands over the wound.
There’s so much blood, I can’t figure out where to prioritise the pressure.
She can’t speak as it clogs her throat, making her gurgle. Shots fire again as I scream, a heavy weight falling onto my side and almost knocking me over as a man drops dead beside me.
When I glance wildly at Holly, her hand is still wrapped around her gun, life finally leaving her eyes.
Panic claws at me as I shove the dead guard off, forcing myself to my feet. “Saint!” I scream, running towards the tree I left.
When I reach it, my heart tightens painfully.
One man has the barrel of his gun digging into Saint’s forehead, another gripping him from behind as he holds a ragged knife to his throat.
I see fucking red.
My gun lifts to my eye as I shoot at the guy with his gun on him, downing him instantly, before aiming at the other during his distraction.
“Indie, No!” Saint roars, my finger pinging off the trigger, a red light coasting over my hand. I follow the piercing line and where it ends, the dot resting right above my heart, along with the myriad of others as they erupt.
Just like back at my mom’s house.
Saint loses his shit as I’m painted in luminous red, managing to slip free as he gets out of the hold, until another appears from nowhere. The guard’s fist pounds into Saint’s side, and when the knife pulls back, a spine-chilling scream rips from my throat as the red liquid drips from the blade.
He slams it in again, and it feels like the knife’s going through my heart.
I run to him, until I slam to a stop as a warning shot whizzes past my ear.
“That’ll do, George.”
My head snaps to the owner of the voice stepping out of a Jeep, and then back to the masked man.
I draw back, certain my face is ashen of all colour at the realisation slamming me like a brick wall, feeling the joints in my knees give out as I drop like dead weight to ground as he pulls off the black material.
Judge Montgomery and his other fucking spawn.
My gaze scrambles across the forest, looking for Greg. But all I see are the lasers that pierce into me from every angle. We’re outnumbered, and Saint’s people haven’t made it. I know Greg hasn’t either.
The judge looks down at me, nostrils flared against his greying beard. “You’re quite the piece of work, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you. Your day’s on its way.”
He grimaces at me. “Foolish words for a woman in your position. One wrong move could be fatal.”
My heart twists in my chest, and I look at Saint as his eyes are already on me.
The muscles in his throat are protruding against his tattoos. He looks pale; the knife has gotten him in his weak spot, exactly where his vest doesn’t protect him.
My hands itch to crawl to him, to grab him and get us the fuck out of here. Why does it feel when we’re so close to our happily ever after, some fuck from the Omnia comes and tries to steal it away.
The judge snaps his fingers. “Get him up. Let’s go.”
“No! Take me, it’s me you want,” I scream, a flood of tears wrecking my vision as I stare at the Judge.
If I need to get on my hands and knees, beg and crawl to this venomous man, I will. Without an ounce of shame, they’re not taking him from me.
I look at Saint as they pull him to his feet. Why the fuck isn’t he fighting?
The Judge shoves his hands in his coat pocket, that same stone-like expression still marked on his face after all these years.
“I no longer have an interest in you. Saint here has willingly offered his life for yours. He means much more to me. My son enjoys the chase and his foolish ideas. I, however, want compliance.”
My tear-filled eyes stare at Saint’s palling face as the Judge snickers. “You should appreciate such a gesture.”
Saint doesn’t speak, but his eyes say everything.
“No, please. Take me, fucking take me, I’m right here!” My arms splay wide as my words crack from how raw my throat is, the lasers following my every move.
Saint’s voice is quiet. Whether that’s through defeat or his stab wound, it hurts all the same. “Indie.”
“No, Saint!” My voice breaks as my teeth chatter together.
Why is he doing this? Why isn’t he fighting back? Did he know all along he’d be handing himself over?
Did he fucking lie to me?
Those grey eyes pin me in place. “You know how men say they would kill for the one they love?”
I shake my head so hard it hurts.
It feels like a hole has just erupted in my chest, threatening to swallow me into a hollow existence.
No. I’m not listening to this. He can’t talk like that; this can’t be it.
We can get him back; we just need to replan everything. We know more now than we ever did. Rex and Dawson will be here soon, and we’ll fucking get him back from whatever dumb deal he’s made.
My life isn’t worth his. It’s nothing without him.
“I’m not like other men though, am I, darling?” His chest rises and falls as he strains through the words, and my sob finally breaks free.
“No.”
“You see, whilst I’d enjoy nothing more than killing every fucker here…I’d also give my life for you too.”
My heart fractures into something irreparable. “No, Saint—”
The next words from him leave strangled, and when he spits the blood onto the white-dusted ground, an unfathomable sense of dread takes me under. “If it meant you stayed safe, forever.”
I’d give my life if it meant you’d never come to harm again.
He’s dragged away from me towards the car. It feels like my soul is clawing its way out of my body to follow him, teeth bared and talons sharpened as it tears through bone and flesh.
My upper body heaves forward as my hands fist in the blood-soaked snow. I hear the tut from the Judge as he turns his back on me, and my gun burns beside me. It’d be so easy to take him out with one shot, then fucking end George. But their men are littered everywhere. I can’t risk Saint.
A metallic taste fills my mouth as I bite down hard on my tongue, battling to keep the guttural sob contained.
Car doors slam shut, each bang causing my body to jolt nervously, and my head rises when George calls out my name. His laugh grates along my skin.
Until I don’t feel anything at all.
“Don’t worry, Indie. He actually won’t suffer too long. In fact…”
Bang.
Bang.
My scream shudders the earth beneath my palms.