Boom!
The crack of gunfire ripped through the night. I flinched, lying on the ground, waiting for agony as I stared at the weapon in my father’s hands. But it wasn’t his gun that had fired. It was another. One that glinted in the darkness from between the trees.
Then, through the gloom, someone stepped behind Dad. But he didn’t see that. Instead, he stumbled forward, then slowly looked down. Blood bloomed black, sticking his white shirt to his stomach. I couldn’t move, pinned by the sight of that stain and my own panic racing through me.
He was going to kill me…He was going to kill me. He was going to—
“I won’t go back to them, do you hear me?” Elle spoke as she moved into view. “I won’t go back to what they made me do.”
Her eyes flared as she looked my way. I waited for the weapon in her hand to follow, for her to take out not one Banks tonight, but two. A panicked glance to my right, at my gun out of reach, and I knew I’d be dead long before I could even move.
But she didn’t take aim. Elle fixed her empty stare on me. “Give her up.” Her words were barely audible. “She’s as good as dead anyway.”
Then she slowly lowered her hand and turned, racing back the way she’d come, leaving with nothing more than the snap of a twig in her wake.
Then there was silence…
Smothered by the booming of my heart.
Jesus…
JESUS…
My father released a moan and pressed his hand to his side, trying his best to stanch the flow. I lunged, scrambling to my side, and grabbed that shine of steel. I was past the point of caring for him now as I swung my hand, leveling the sight of my weapon on him. But he didn’t move…not even to aim at me.
Do it….
Just fucking DO IT.
My finger trembled as I curled it around the trigger. In my head, I didn’t see the few good times we’d ever had. No, I saw him drunk, sitting on the edge of his bed with his shirt buttoned wrong and the stale stench of betrayal wafting in the air while our mother wasted away in the bedroom below.
He’d cheated. He’d fucking cheated! I knew that even without Lazarus telling me the truth. That was the moment he changed for me. He wasn’t a father. He wasn’t even a man…
Then I saw him, standing inside the door of our home, his shirt drenched with Nick’s blood. He would’ve let our brother die. Just let him bleed out like he was nothing. When he took her from me.
Ryth.
He’d handed her over.
Gave her to that fucking place.
A wounded sound ripped from the back of my throat. He’d handed her over to them. Let them—he—let—them…
I clenched my jaw, willing my finger to curl tighter until I felt that kick. Doitdoitdoitdoit—
“Tobias,” he called my name, staring at me.
FUCK!
I sucked in hard, panting breaths and lowered my hand. I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t bring myself to pull the fucking trigger. I was pathetic and useless…hating that I was his goddamn son.
His knees trembled, then gave way, sending him crashing to the ground.
I shoved forward, wincing at the agony. But the bullet in my thigh was nothing compared to the stabbing in my chest. One that felt like barbed wire wrapped around my goddamn heart as I grabbed his arm. Squeezing…squeezing…squeezing. “Just.” I pulled him up against me. “Stay the fuck with me.”
“T!” Nick roared in the distance. “For Christ’s sake. TOBIAS!”
I jerked my head toward the sound. Desperation took control, forcing me to call out. “Over here!”
Nick’s steps were thunderous as he rushed from the trees and relief at the sight of him hit me like a blow. My breath escaped, deflating me in an instant.
I needed him…more than I’d ever realized before.
And from the panic shimmering in Nick’s eyes, I realized he needed me just as much. He glanced at the pale-haired guard dead on the ground not far from us, then turned back to me. Sadness. That’s all I saw, sadness and fucking regret. I looked away.
“She’s gone,” Dad groaned. “I’m sorry, Ryth’s gone.”
I forced the words through clenched teeth. “Like hell she is.”
Nick grabbed Dad, fisting his shirt and wrenched him close. “What the fuck do you mean, she’s gone?”
I wasn’t going to lose her, not again—not now—not ever.
“I’m s-sorry,” Dad slurred.
“Save your fucking sorry,” I snapped as the sound of baying dogs came.
Nick glanced my way, then shoved dad backwards. “We have to get out of here.”
“No.” That nauseating agony came alive through my thigh as I stumbled for the trees. “Not without her.”
“T!” Nick barked, stopping me. “You stay here and you’re fucking dead, you understand that?”
I stared at that darkness, listening to the sound of their dogs.
“How the fuck can you help her then?”
“She’s gone,” Dad mumbled. “It’s no use—”
“Shut the fuck up, Dad!” my brother warned. “Or so help me God, I’ll leave you here to die.”
Leave him…but not her…
I turned to Nick and inhaled hard. Cold air carved all the way through my chest. I couldn’t leave…not without—
“Please, T,” he pleaded, his eyes glistening in the night. “I can’t lose you too.”
It was those words that shattered my resolve. I winced, swallowing a moan of agony, and limped back. “Move.” I shoved our father forward.
But he stumbled, then fell, leaving Nick to grab him at the last second.
“Help me,” my brother demanded, trying to hold his weight.
He was going to kill me…he was going to… “Fuck,” I growled, and slid my arm around his other side.
Hate burned inside me as we stumbled along the dugout and back through the trees. Each step we took was one more away from her. But I couldn’t do anything about that now. Stem the bleeding. Patch the wound. Get more guns, then come back. I clung to that as we stumbled for the fenceline, finding a section that’d been cut.
“Can you hold him here while I get the car?” Nick yanked, opening the gap as wide as he could.
I heaved dad forward. But our father’s movements were weak at best. He collapsed against the ground, his face paling in the moonlight as I shoved him through the gap in the fence to the other side. “You better hurry.”
“I will,” Nick said, and was gone in an instant, limping as he hurried back toward the crash site and the old Charger that sat sideways in the middle of the road, next to the dark sedan that had crashed into us.
“I’m sorry,” my father whispered.
Fuck. You.
“Son.”
Son?
I jerked my gaze to the piece of shit, grabbed him by the shirt, and slammed him back against the fence. “Son?” I spat. “You want to call me that now?” I stared at him like the stranger he was. “You came to fucking kill me.”
His eyes widened. There was a tiny shake of his head, but it was all lies. Spineless…cowardly lies.
You were going to fucking kill me! My heart screamed. The words resounded in my head, until it was swallowed by the icy truth. He didn’t care…he’d never cared, not about me, or about Mom. Or about anyone but himself.
In the end, I couldn’t even look at him. I turned away, watching my brother instead. “Save your fucking sorry for someone who gives a shit.”
Nick made it to the car and climbed in.
“Tobias.”
I winced at the rasp in my father’s voice. I didn’t want to listen to his words…didn’t want to hear the rasps in his breaths. I closed my eyes, didn’t want to see the desperation in his stare. No more…no…goddamn more. But I was trapped in his torture, one where I wanted to let my father go, and at the same time cling tight to the painfully thin thread that still tied us together.
It was only blood that tethered me to this man.
Because it sure as hell wasn’t fucking love.
I clenched my fist, keeping my voice low. “Say one more fucking word and I’ll leave you to bleed out on your own.”
I took a step, desperately wanting to just keep going, to leave my father and his betrayal behind. The Charger squealed as Nick started the engine and nosed the busted muscle car around the debris, heading toward us. He pulled up in front and climbed out, cutting through the headlights as he rounded the front.
Only then did I turn around. I grabbed our father as he looked up at me with those pathetic fucking eyes. “Move,” I growled, heaving him to stand.
Nick yanked open the back door, and somehow, we got him inside, leaving him to fall against the seat while we shoved his feet in and slammed the door.
Headlights cut through the trees on the other side of the fence. I hated leaving her…hated leaving them both. But we didn’t have a choice. Goddamn you, Caleb…
Still, it felt like a knife to my chest as I yanked open the front passenger door and climbed in while Nick slipped behind the wheel.
“Nick,” our father whispered from the back seat. “Thank you.”
My brother jerked a savage glare over his shoulder and snarled, “Save it.”
He met my gaze as he turned back. We both knew our father didn’t deserve it, and that sometime in the next few hours he was going to die. The Charger lunged forward as Nick punched the accelerator, heading us down the darkened road that ran alongside the compound then finally back toward the city.
Pain dug in my leg like a damn knife, leaving me to clench my fists and close my eyes. Flashes descended. Fear. Failure. The moment that pale-haired bastard had come for me.
She’ll scream, his words resurfaced. But I like it when she does that.
I turned my head toward the window, keeping my eyes closed.
But I like it when she does that…
I like it when…
I like it…
“T?” Nick called.
I licked my arid lips. “I’m okay.”
I tried to succumb to the darkness, but it wasn’t the vacuum of nothingness that waited—it was Ryth. The last kiss…the last touch…the last time I’d held her. My heart thundered in kind, beating the memory home until she was all I thought about.
Who the fuck was I kidding?
She was all I ever thought about.
Getting her. Keeping her. Craving her.
The Charger slowed, then turned before Nick spoke. “We’re here.”
I opened my eyes, feeling like I’d been down forever, then I blinked and shoved my feet against the floor, driving myself upwards. A look over my shoulder, and I saw the shallow rise and fall of our father’s chest. He was still alive. I held on to that, not because I gave a fucking shit about his life. No. I cared about hers.
Nick pulled the Charger into the driveway and killed the engine before climbing out. I followed, rounding the car to get to our father from the other side. He was weaker, barely able to hold his own weight. We carried him up the stairs of the Rossi warehouse and back inside.
“I’ve got him.” I gripped the old man’s shoulders, taking his weight. “Call Freddy, he’ll know what to do.”
Nick just gave a nod and slipped his arm away, dug into his pocket for his phone instead, and lifted it to his ear.
“Tobias…” Dad’s whisper was hoarse, drawing me away as Nick started to speak.
But I didn’t answer, just fixed my focus on Nick as he stepped closer to the window. My knees trembled as I gripped our father. I couldn’t hold him, not all his weight, and I buckled. We both hit the sink and slid down the cupboard, hitting the floor.
Nick glanced our way as he spoke, then hung up the call.
“I called.” He came toward us. “He said Laz is at some island off Africa. He’s dealing with his own stuff, but he knows a guy who knows a guy.”
He looked at dad. “So just hang on for a little longer, okay?”
“You will hang on,” I warned, turning my gaze to his. Because you need to tell us how to get her out of there.”
Our father licked bloodless lips and closed his eyes. “She’s in there now. Only a dead man can get her free.”
The last words were barely audible, but I still heard them. “What the fuck do you mean, a dead man?”
Silence.
“Dad!” Nick knelt and pulled him up by his shirt. “What the fuck do you mean, a dead man?”
“Dead man…” Dad whispered, and slowly opened his eyes.
“What fucking dead man?” I roared, staring into my father’s eyes. After all he’d done…after all he’d done to me? “No.” I forced the word through clenched teeth and drew back my fist.
“T!” Nick roared.
But he didn’t know…
He didn’t really know…
The true extent of what this man was.
