We weren’t going to make it…I knew that with one look in Nick’s eyes as he unleashed a savage roar and kept shooting. Crack…crack…crackcrackcrack…
I didn’t flinch at the sounds, just kept pulling the trigger until a resounding empty click came. Tobias jerked his gaze to mine and handed me another magazine…
I lowered my gaze to his belt, to the last magazine tucked in the waistband of his pants, and shook my head. “Save it.” I looked at him. “You’ll hit more.”
Crack!
Crack.
He kept firing…
Click.
Desperation gleamed in his eyes as he replaced his own spent clip, tossing the empty magazine to the ground. My ears were ringing so loud I didn’t even hear the steel hit the asphalt.
“I’m almost out, T,” Caleb groaned. Crack! Crack! Crack…click.
Caleb stepped backwards as three of The Order’s men hiding behind the corner of the building returned fire.
Crack!
Shots came behind us. I stumbled to the side and pressed my spine against the side of an empty building. I scanned the others, searching, desperately thinking. If we went in there, we’d be cornered in an instant. But if we stayed here, we’d be dead in the street—not me, though, right? Not me.
I turned to Nick as he snarled and trained his sight on movement before he pulled the trigger.
All The Order had to do was wait.
Wait for us to run out of bullets.
Wait for us to fall.
My stomach clenched tight.
We…weren’t…going…to…make…it.
“Tobias,” I whispered. I’d never spoken his name like that, not with so much desperation.
He shook his head. “No, little mouse.” His jaw clenched with savage ferocity as he aimed and squeezed the trigger. “Not…gonna…fucking…happen.”
But it had to.
There was no way out.
And a life locked away in Hell, knowing they still drew breath, was better than a world without them. My tears blurred the gray concrete buildings across the road.
I’d give myself up, knowing they were still out there, knowing that while they drew breath, there was still a chance we’d all be together.
“I have to.” Didn’t he see that? I took a step out from the side of the building, but with a brutal growl, he lunged, slammed his arm across my body, and flattened me to the wall beside him once more.
“That’s not going to happen. DO YOU HEAR ME?” His eyes were wild with fear, that quickly turned to desperation as his roar softened. “I’d rather die.”
I shook my head, tears flowing silently down my cheeks. I turned to my father. “Can’t you do something? ANYTHING!”
He just shook his head. “I can’t. King is too far away and more of The Order are coming.”
There were more coming?
So we were trapped.
Like rats.
I spun and unleashed a scream that burned like acid in the back of my throat. There had to be away. There had to be something. But I knew. I knew that was a lie.
Click.
Movement came from the corner of my eye as the door next to Nick opened…and two men stepped out.
“What the fuck?” Nick growled, freezing for a second before he realized they weren’t with us.
Then he flung back his fist and lunged. Until one of them lifted a gun and aimed it point blank at his head. “Try it and none of you will get out of this alive.”
Nick froze. I looked from one to the other. They were identical, except for stark white bleached hair on one of them. It was the white-haired guy who spoke, still aiming his gun at Nick’s head. “You want a way out of this, then follow us, or you can stay out here and die.” He lowered his gun and took a step back in the darker doorway as the dark-haired twin turned and disappeared into the building.
Nick glanced at Caleb, then Tobias, and me before he stepped forward, grabbed me by the arm, and dragged me with him. We plunged into the darkness of the building, leaving the crack of gunfire behind.
“We have to hurry,” Blondie growled, and lifted his phone. He pressed an icon and said one word. “Now.”
There was a second…
A second where Tobias, dad, and Caleb rushed in behind us. BOOM! I jerked, then spun, staring at the now closed door behind us.
“Don’t worry, it’s one of ours,” he announced, then kept walking, leaving us behind.
“Ours?” Nick barked. “Who the fuck is ‘ours’?”
The blonde man came to stop in the middle of the warehouse in front of a dark tarpaulin. “Those who are here to save your asses.”
I sucked in hard breaths, looking at one twin, then the other, as Caleb strode forward. “Who the fuck do you work for?”
“I know you,” Dad murmured. “I’ve seen you before.”
“Impossible,” the blonde warned. “Now do you want to talk, or get out of this alive?”
“How?” Nick swung his hand in an arc. “We’re fucking surrounded.”
BOOM! I flinched as another explosion rocked the air. The blonde asshole didn’t even blink, instead he answered, “That’s how. So, are we going to do this, or what?”
“Do what, exactly?” Caleb growled.
Blondie bent down, grabbed one corner of the tarpaulin, and yanked it backwards. I flinched and sucked in hard breaths as I stared at the pile of dead bodies, three men and a woman.
“What the fuck is this?” Nick barked, jerking his gaze to the pale-haired twin standing in front of us.
“Let’s call this a contract, shall we?” A deep, resounding voice came from behind us.
I spun, then froze as I saw the same man who’d had Vivienne pressed against the wall the last time I saw her, striding toward us, and behind him was… “Vivienne?”
She was pale, and strange, giving me just a ghost of a smile as she followed him. I lunged across the warehouse, scrambling toward her.
“Ryth, NO!” my father roared.
But he was too late. I was already opening my arms as she broke away from the man’s side to grab me and pull me close.
“Jesus, Ryth.” She wrapped her arms around me, then pushed me back, scanning my body. “Are you hurt? Did they hit you?”
“No, they didn’t fucking hit her,” Tobias snarled. “Who the fuck are you?”
I just couldn’t stop looking at her, at the desperation in her eyes or her beautiful clothes. “Are you okay?” I gripped her arm, feeling the warmth of her flesh. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
“Me, too,” she smiled, then pulled me close again to whisper in my ear. “You need to be careful.”
Need to be careful? I pulled back, searching her eyes.
“London St. James,” my father stated coldly.
“Jack Castlemaine,” the man responded.
The deep snarl in my father’s tone made me turn and look at the bodies again, then the rest of them.
“What the fuck is this?” Nick snapped.
“Let’s call this an agreement.” London started looking over his shoulder at me, then Vivienne. “One that needs to be made rather quickly, I’m afraid. I’m sure you already know there are more of The Order coming. They’ll be here in a matter of minutes to capture their asset and return to the compound.”
Capture their asset…he meant me. Me, I’m their asset.
“That’s never going to happen,” Dad growled as he shook his head.
“I’m glad you agree,” St. James answered. “My men will keep them at bay while we assist with the escape.” He turned to Tobias and Nick when he said that.
Nick scowled. “You’ll help us get out?”
“I will,” he nodded, meeting Nick’s glare. “For a price.”
Caleb grew still. Under the cracks of gunfire that still sounded outside the building, he asked quietly. “And what price is that?”
“I think a fair one is a life for a life.”
I grew cold, then stepped closer until I stopped in front of those bodies. I couldn’t look away. Three men that looked nothing like my stepbrothers, and a woman who was supposed to be me. But there were only three men—I glanced at dad—there were five of us.
“A life for a life,” London repeated as he looked at my father. “Is a fair price.”
Dad shook his head, his face turning ashen.
“You didn’t think you’d just be able to walk away, Jack. Not with everything you know.”
Dad shot me a panicked look. You need to be careful…not with everything you know. “What do you know, Dad?”
He looked sickened.
“A life for a life,” London continued. “I get Ryth and her brothers out of the city, and in return, you’ll stay with me.”
“Locked away, you mean?” dad met the bastard’s gaze.
Crack…crack…crack! Gunfire intruded again from outside.
“Time’s running out,” London said coldly. “In a minute, not even I will be able to help.”
“Do they know?” Dad’s tone was unsteady. “Do they know you plot and scheme behind their backs?”
London’s answer was a slow, chilling smile.
The blonde twin lifted his phone and answered. “Yeah?” He looked at London.
“Time is up,” London declared. “I need an answer, Jack, your life for your daughter’s.”
I shook my head as my chest tightened and my throat clenched. “No, Dad. No.”
We’d already done this before, already traded his life for mine. We couldn’t do it again. Not with this man…because I had the terrifying feeling there was no getting out of this, not this time, not with him.
But Dad met my gaze. “My little lioness.”
Movement happened so fast all around me.
Like the world, with its brutal orchestra of death and violence and loss, just…carried on.
While a black hole opened up under my feet…and swallowed me whole.
