Chapter 38 #2
This entrance to the library is already slightly ajar, and I stare down to see the bookcase collapsed near the door we just left, glass lamps lying shattered across the dark wooden floor, windows showing signs of something being thrown through them.
The place is a fucking mess.
I catch a manic Conrad pacing back and forth, looking dishevelled and in the same suit I last saw him in, running his hands through his hair. “You don’t tell me fucking no, Louisa. You know that better than anyone.”
I can only see her elbow, angled as if her hand’s propped on her hip. She’s standing near the window. “Oh, fuck you. The Omnia is no more. Your entire family is dead. You don’t scare me anymore. You’ll be with them soon enough.”
His erratic laugh bounces off the walls, and I take Indie’s hand as we take the chance to slip inside. My gaze fixates on him as I tug her in, slowly closing the door until we duck behind a desk.
“You? You’re going to kill me?!” he blurts in humour. I can feel the crooked smile on his face.
Louisa mutters, but it travels, “I’ll leave that to my sister. She’s well equipped at dealing with your kind.”
I glance at Indie, and the earlier darkness in her seems to have subsided, replaced with something I can’t put my finger on, her eyes vacant as she listens to her sibling.
The silence stretches, and the tension in the room thickens and tightens to the point it feels like a storm is about to erupt. “You’re the exact same as I am, Louisa. You took the oath on your wedding night.”
“An oath I was forced into. Take it, or my family would die anyway? Your world is built on manipulation. No one really respected any of you, you most of all. You’re fucking pathetic.”
Indie slowly rises from the desk, and I go to grab her, but she’s out of my grasp as my fingers brush over her hoodie.
God dammit.
I get up, watching her between the bookshelves. Conrad’s got his back to us as he approaches a cornered Louisa.
I know she can fucking see us now. Indie’s in her line of sight; all she needs to do is look over Conrad’s shoulder.
She doesn’t react, doesn’t take her eyes off the man in front of her.
“I never wanted to be a part of this. Not when I saw what lies beneath the masks of you all. I stayed to keep my family safe. I couldn’t stand the sight of any of you.
You and Barry might have been able to control me for all these years, but it ends now. ”
She drags in a stuttered breath. “You’ll never have my sister. She’s the one thing you’ll never call yours. I’m glad she made it in time to catch your father and brother. Revenge for what you did to mine.”
My hand wraps around my gun, tightening as I get ready to aim.
Conrad’s shoulders are vibrating with rage; I can feel the heat of it from here. I’m only a few feet behind him, Indie much closer, but I’ve got him at an angle if he turns. He’s not even getting within an inch of her.
“Say that again.” His voice rumbles through the entire room.
Louisa steels her shoulders; there’s not an ounce of fear shaking her. She looks…So much like fucking Indie. “No. I’ll tell you something better…It was me who told them where Saint was held. I fooled you and your pathetic fa—”
Deafening cracks clap through the air.
A gun I didn’t know Conrad was holding unloads into Louisa. And the scream that rips from Indie shatters my heart.
Conrad whips round, dilated eyes wild and vicious, but he catches sight of me first.
My hand wraps around his armed one, and I throw my head into his face with every bit of force I have, making him release the gun as it clatters to the ground.
He reeks of alcohol and aggression as he tries to fight me, and I can feel the warm blood slinking down my forehead as I get him on the floor.
I grip my knife from my belt, stabbing it through one hand and impaling it into the wooden slats, then do the same on the other side with another blade.
The man lies crucified on the floor. My shoulders rise and fall as I stare down at his red-hot face, screaming incoherent fucking nonsense up at me.
Spit flies from his mouth as he tries to break free, but each wriggle has blood seeping from the wounds in his hands, tearing them wider, and it causes him to buck wildly.
I grip his jaw so hard, just a slight bit more added pressure would crack it in half. “You and I are gonna have a lot of fucking fun together.”
I yank his face away from me as pathetic tears spill from his eyes, and then I kick him so hard in the temple, it swiftly silences his voice that was grating on my fucking nerves, his head snapping to the side.
I rise to my feet, my gaze travelling towards Indie, and the sight fucking crushes me.
Louisa is lying in a pool of red, her white blouse now stained with it. Indie kneels over her, trying to pressurise the multiple bullet wounds, but it’s no use.
I think she knows it too.
“Just stay awake, Louisa. You’ll be okay. Don’t let your eyes close.” Her voice shudders along with her body, her hands stained with blood as her sister intertwines with them.
“I’m…sorry,” Louisa chokes, and blood runs down the side of her mouth.
She doesn’t have long.
Indie’s head rattles from side to side. “You don’t have to be.”
“I do. Regina…too.” Her voice grows weaker, and so does the grip she has on Indie.
“I heard you, Louisa, okay. I heard every word you said. I know it wasn’t your fault.”
I kneel down beside Indie, my hand resting gently on her nape as the other fists against my mouth. She ushers Indie closer, whispering something that only she can hear, and when my girl looks down at her, the tears stream down her cheeks.
The last words that Louisa manages to force out to her sister have Indie tensing under my hold. “I’m proud of you, Indigo.”
She shakes her sister’s body violently. “Louisa? LOUISA!”
The pain in her voice causes my body to shudder, and when her sister’s eyes stare blindly up at the ceiling, I know she’s gone.
Her tear-soaked face whips to me, and I know what she’s going to ask, so I speak before she can fill herself with the dangers of hope. “She’s gone, darling.”