“Oh, I can’t do that Rowan. At least not until Declan comes with me.” She slowly pushes Calvin away from her, revealing his uncuffed hands holding a gun. Yuri stands unwavering to her right.Fuck.
I hear Kieran cock his gun as he lifts it and aims it directly at her head. “I’m an impatient man with an impeccable shot. Where thefuckis my wife?”
Yuri raises his gun, but before he can even take aim, Kieran’s fired off a shot. The guard stumbles back as he grabs his chest. Before he even hits the ground, Mac quickly takes aim and lands the kill shot in his forehead. They’re done with this shit, and as best friends since birth, they’re able to move as one so smoothly one would think they’ve practiced that exact sequence of shots for years. They haven’t really, they’re just fed up and ready to kill everyone in this state until they find their wives.
“I said,where the fuck is my wife?”He growls out at a now pale faced Natasha. It’s jarring, really. She’s tormented me for years. She always seemed unbreakable, but now she looks every bit of the twenty-nine year old woman that she is. She doesn’t radiate power and dominance anymore. No, she looks weak and terrified. .
“I don’t know. They were gone when I got here. I just want my husband. Come on, baby. Tell your brothers to let us leave together.” She practically begs me, like I’ll ever go with her electively.
I shake my head in disbelief. “I’ve been terrified of you because of the shit you put me through for five years. You held all this power, and though you were smaller than me, you still controlled me. I’m not marrying you. I wouldn’t marry you if someone held a gun to my head and told me I had to. If I’m not marrying Jakob Emmett Fischer, then I’m not marrying anyone.”
She somehow musters the inner strength to laugh in disbelief, “Seriously? Do you have any idea what I’ve done to get these idiots out of our way over the years?”
She gestures to Rowan as disdain makes her lips curl. “Who the hell do you think whispered to Kellum that Clara wasPreston’s ex and he should notify him of her whereabouts? My Papa’s untimely demise? You can’t possibly believe that Nolan was behind that on his own? That was all me! I needed Rowan out of the way so you could step up and run the BOCG. So that when we inevitably ended up together we had all the power!”
My stomach falls to my feet. That was five years ago? She’s been hurting the people I love for five years?
She then points to Kieran, who has to be physically restrained by Rowan on one side and Mac on the other, holding him back by the shoulders. “Him? Oh, he was the most fun to fuck with. Phoenix’s dad finding her? We didn’t really think that was a coincidence, now did we? Kieran’s near death at the ring after his fight against James, I sent Trip directly to him. If we’re going to be honest so that we can start this relationship with a clean slate, I sent him the damn tape of your parents’ murders!”
Natasha’s more vile than we could have ever given her credit for. My stomach threatens to empty itself right here as I process the shit she’s put my family through.
When her head tips in Mac’s direction, a deep growl rolls up from somewhere in his chest as he vibrates with rage. They’re only doing this for me, and they need to know what else she’s fucked up in our lives. “Lee’s name never coming up for matches? Can’t have them be the happy couple that swoops in and saves the lineage, now can we? Damn, I even made sure that there was alcohol at Mac’s every turn all those times he tried to get sober. If you wouldn’t have gone off grid with him he would still be wasted all day every day.”
I think I’m in shock. Not the kind where people are just surprised and say it either. I mean real, entire body in flight,fight, flee, or fawn, adrenaline dumping into my nervous system, shock.
“I did all of that so we could be together and run our empires side by side, and you just throw it all away?” She’s screaming by the time she’s done, but I can’t focus on that while her confession leaves my jaw unhinged and my brain trying to trek through what she’s saying. She’s been behind everything that’s fucked with my family for half of a goddamn decade.
I’m so shell shocked that when I hear the gunfire it actually startles me. It makes Natasha jump as well. Snapping out of it, I realize I don’t have much of a window, but it’s enough for me to get a shot off. So many things happen at once. I aim and fire, killing Natasha instantly. She fires at the same time and a bullet lodges into my vest, knocking me on my ass. I hear two more shots, and everything goes eerily silent just before what can only be described as the sound of a wounded animal wailing rings throughout the space.
I push myself up just in time to watch the scene play out in front of me. Natasha and Calvin are dead on the floor, blood soaking the space underneath them. Clara’s going to be pissed. She loves that carpet. Surveying the rest of the room, I notice that my brothers are all crowded around near the piano in a circle. I can see blood seeping onto the floor and running under their shoes. Now that I’m back on my feet and have my bearings a little better, I move closer to them to see what they’re looking at. The closer I get, the louder the pained wails become. It isn’t until I’m standing beside Mac, who has tears streaming down his face, that I see Flynn leaning over someone, holding them in his arms and rocking slightly.
I kneel down across from him and realize that Sully isbehind Flynn with his back to us. I lean over to see what he’s looking at. Tears sting my eyes as I see one of their best friends lying on the ground, eyes wide open but vacant. Sully reaches out with a shaky hand and shuts Zach’s eyes.
Zach has been friends with the twins since preschool. He was always quiet, but the rest of them didn’t mind. They made sure he was never left behind. Zach was the shy kid surrounded by obnoxious extroverts constantly. He’d smirk at their antics, but aside from that, he was just along for the ride. He always showed up for them. When our parents died he was over every day, making sure the twins ate and had someone to talk to, and when his mom passed a few years ago, all of their friends camped over at his house for two weeks. It’s just his younger sister and his Da now. I’m sure Rowan will go over and tell Big Zach what happened just as soon as he can, and if possible, I’ll go with him.
The ‘lucky ones’, as they’ve been dubbed, hold each other up and help each other through the shit life throws at them. Now they’re going to have to go through this without one of their own. This is either going to make them stronger or tear them apart. It’s all I can do to hope it’s the former instead of the latter.
It’s then that I notice that Sul has someone in his arms. The curly brown hair cascading over his arm has my blood freezing in my veins. When he shifts slightly, I can see her face as clear as day.
Elle.
Turning to Rowan, I can’t help the high pitched panic in my voice. “Get her to my office and pack whatever wound she has. I’ll be right behind you.”
With no more than a chin dip of acknowledgment, he helpsSullivan to his feet and leads him out of the destruction. Everyone who isn’t the six of us or works for us is fucking dead, there’s not another threat here. So I allow them to go where I need them without fear of them being followed or attacked.
Pulling my gaze back to Flynn and the mystery person, I know that I have to get him to let them go so I can try to help. His grip on them is so tight that I can see the bulge of his muscles through his shirt. I don’t know if he’s trying to keep pressure on a wound or what he’s doing. I gentle my voice the way I did when he was a little boy and try to catch his watery eyes with my own.
“Hey, F?” It’s a weird phase we all went through when we were younger. When we thought it was cool to shorten anything and everything. We stopped doing it forever ago. Well, everyone but Mac and Kieran. But something tells me this will at least get his attention on me. It works. His light eyes come to mine as I take him in. His eyes are bloodshot and tears are flooding down his face. His chin wobbles as recognition then devastation covers his still boyish features. He’s a man at twenty-two, but right now he looks every bit the fifteen year old who just found out that he lost his parents.
With his attention on me, I try again. “Flynn, come on, I want to help. You have to move so I can see who it is and help them.”
At that, Mac kneels behind Flynn. He wraps his arms around Flynn’s shoulders, and with tears streaming down his face he leans back, pulling Flynn with him. Automatically, I tune out his sobs so I can focus while covering the wound in her stomach and making sure she still has a pulse. All the while my heart and stomach fall to my feet.
It’s Annie.
45
Chapter Forty-Five
