Xavier joined Franco, squatting down as he placed the phone back inside his jacket, done with his conversation with Gabe. He pulled the gag out of my mouth roughly, ripping strands of hair from my scalp and I looked between both men trying to find the words to say.
“I trusted you!” I settled my gaze on Franco. The words were raw and raspy from all my efforts. “I let you into my home. Around my family. You took a bullet for me!”
Franco’s face remained blank as Xavier responded, “Ah, yes. Franco’s little heroic stunt didn’t exactly go to plan. We didn’t expect for him to wind up in hospital.”
The blood drained from my face. “What?”
“I’ll give you both a minute to discuss,” Xavier said, pulling himself back to his feet, knees cracking as he went. He stepped aside to allow us some privacy.
“You took a bullet for me,” I repeated. “It was an act? Are you insane?! You would have died just because you wanted to follow his orders?”
“You’re not the only one with ambitions,” Franco spat. The strange, serene nature he’d held at the house had dissolved to reveal his usual abrasiveness. All of the steps I’d thought we’d taken towards building a better relationship had been swiped away.
“You could have died!” I was struggling to wrap my head around the insanity that was unfolding in front of me.
“Yes, that’s what we get for trusting Paulo with something more than babysitting,” he replied, looking unimpressed. My guts twisted at hearing the familiar names that were involved. Paulo. The panic on his face every time I turned up at the door was less to do with Gabe and more to do with the fact I was the reminder of a botched job. “It wasn’t meant to be shot in the side. It was meant to be more of a graze. We just needed to gain your trust.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It had been a planned attack. We’d known that all along, but we assumed it was for me. And it was, just not in the way we’d thought. Not staged for Franco to be the target. To play off my good nature and have me feel indebted to Franco. My eyes burned at how much of an idiot I was. “I thought you and Paulo answered to Gabriel.”
“Gabe’s a chump,” Franco told me. “He has no clue what he’s doing. It was amusing to hear you thought he was behind it. We were hoping Luc would have just taken him out, but you have him wrapped around your finger.”
“I trusted you.” I hated the fact that my voice broke at the words.
“That was all I needed. That and to find an opening and this was the perfect one. We didn’t expect it to be so soon.”
“Why?” The question was directed at Franco, but my eyes weren’t on him. Instead, they followed Xavier as he walked calmly behind Franco, circling behind me until I couldn’t see him anymore and making me uneasy.
“You think Luc would have kept me under your employment if he got the role?” Franco laughed bitterly. The burner phone suddenly made sense. Franco kept in contact with Xavier in a way that could be hidden from Luc doing any spot checks. “Even Gabe palmed me off on you. Everyone’s selective of their inner circle and I’ll go where I know there’s a spot for me. We’re all chasing after what makes life easiest.”
It happened quicker than I could register. The shots echoed loudly in the empty stables and Franco dropped to the ground on his knees, clutching his chest. His body tipped and draped over my legs as the blood began to run, staining his clothes and pooling on the floor. The gurgling sound that came from him was masked by the scream I let out, legs kicking out in an attempt to put some distance between us.
“What have you done?” I asked, horrified at the scene in front of me.
“He had a valid point,” Xavier said, unfazed by the brutality of having shot someone at point blank. “He’ll go where there’s a spot for him. There’s no guarantee that he won’t find someone else to work for. Ambitious, but I’m not sure I could trust him for long. I solved a problem before it became one.” He walked around to face me and refreshed the clip in his gun. When he looked at me, the glint in his eye was almost manic and made my stomach knot uncomfortably. “Just like I should have done with you.”
“He didn’t do anything wrong!” I told him, goosebumps prickling my flesh and nausea souring my taste buds. Franco writhed weakly on the floor, pressing down on his wounds but the blood spilled too fast and the pain was too much, and he’d grown too weak.
“And now he won’t get a chance to,” Xavier replied, stepping over Franco’s body as if it were a minor inconvenience and came towards me. The rope bit into the skin at my wrists as I pulled against them, trying to free my hands. “I should have let it all come out years ago. It would have put Lucas in his proper place. Stopped him from having all these illusions of grandeur. It’s only out of respect for Charlie—"
“Respecting Charlie?” I cut across him, unable to stop myself. “You call sleeping with his wife and getting her pregnant, respect?”
He stopped in front of me and hauled me up to my feet, fingers sinking painfully into the back of my arms. “You knew nothing of Charlie. He’s not the martyr Luc makes him out to be. He was as twisted as the rest of us.”
I may not have had the honour of meeting Charlie Foster, but I knew he was no saint. No one in this life would be canonised and prayed to but sinful was a scale Charlie wasn’t quite at the tail-end of.
“I thought you were a blessing to start with, Mia.” One of his hands let go of my arm and reached out to stroke my cheek. I pulled back as far as I could from his touch, but he managed to brush it, fingers ghosting along the small cuts I’d obtained at home. “Lucas lost his way for a while after Charlie left us and then you walked in and he was willing to step back into the fold—”
Behind Xavier, I could see the doors at the back doors of the stables. If I could get through them, if I could just keep running there might be a chance. Taking in a deep breath through my nose, I drove my knee straight up into his crotch. Xavier doubled over in pain, his sentence cut short by a yell as I took off unsteadily towards the door. The ground beneath my feet felt slick, like it had no grip, and I would fall flat on my face at any moment.
BANG!
There was a searing pain that ripped through my left shoulder blade and I screamed, falling forward onto the ground. Tears dripped down my face. I thought being stabbed had been bad but being shot was worse. The burning pain, hot and angry, pulsed through my shoulder blade. I was rolled over onto my back and Xavier straddled me before I let out another scream, a mixture of pain and frustration. Between the gunshot and the way my hands were bound, my shoulder was in unbearable agony.
“Get off me!” I hissed through my teeth, tears running down my face.
“That wasn’t a smart move.”
My legs kicked wildly, attempting to free myself from him. “Your aim is shit.”
