I turn around, back to him, reaching for the reddest apple I’ve ever seen.
When I turn back around to put the apple in the basket, Ezra is down on one knee, and there’s a gold ring in his hand with a shining diamond in the middle.
I drop the apple, and it hits my toe before rolling away.
“Jade, I’ve loved you since the first argument we had about Hemingway, and I know I’m going to love you long after I’m gone. And I’ll be honest. I thought about reading you some poetry. Some people do that sappy shit, but I think you’d take me to get my head checked then.”
I laugh, hand coming up to cover my mouth as tears blur the edges of my vision.
And then the gunfire starts.
Bullet after bullet ricochets off the trees.
Ezra throws himself in front of me, using his body as a shield as he ushers me behind one of the big oak trees at the edge of the orchard.
Screams echo from around us, and people start running.
Bodies drop to the ground, blood running and staining the grass.
One of the guards Aiden likes to keep close rounds the tree only to fall at my feet.
I suck in a sharp breath.
Blood oozes out of the bullet wound in the back of his head.
Ezra looks down at me, panic wild in his eyes. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
“We’re okay.”
He gives a sharp nod and crouches down, ripping the gun from the dead man.
Someone runs by, but they slow when they pass us, turning to face us.
Noah looks at us with an evil glint in his eyes. “Did I hear that right, cousin? You’re going to have a baby?”
Ezra aims the gun at Noah’s head, his finger wrapping around the trigger.
As Ezra takes aim, he moves in front of me, keeping my body shielded between his and the tree.
He squeezes the trigger, but nothing happens.
Instead of wasting time being shocked, he throws the gun as hard as he can at Noah.
Noah darts to the side, but Ezra is quick, driving his shoulder into Noah’s chest and taking him to the ground.
Ezra gets the upper hand, his hands closing around Noah’s throat.
I want to help him, but I don’t know how. I didn’t grab my gun on the way out the door, and I can’t get in the middle of the fight and risk something happening to the baby.
Noah laughs, but it turns into a cough, his face turning red. “You’re not going to want to leave me alive, Ezra. If you do, I’m going to take that baby of yours and turn it into the good little soldier you were never going to be.”
Ezra squeezes tighter, the veins in his forearms standing out.
He’s not pressing hard enough to collapse Noah’s throat, though. It looks like he’s holding himself back, torn between killing his old family and killing the man who just threatened his child.
Ezra looks over his shoulder at me. “You should be the one to do this. Your family’s been the one feuding with him. He tortured your family.”
I look around for anything I can use to kill him. If Ezra isn’t going to be able to finish the job, I need to. Ezra wants me to, and though he says it’s because I should be the one to kill him, I really think it’s because Ezra can’t.
