Yet, Brent is the one who fucked up by leaving Lucky alive. He underestimated her the same way everyone in her life had until she came to McBride Mountain. And that mistake is going to be what assures his failure now.
I crane my head back to look at him more fully, to gauge his size and what he might be capable of physically while I buy myself a moment for my head to stop spinning and to gather my strength. “You shouldn’t have underestimated her.”
He recoils slightly at my comment.
“That was your first mistake.”
His dark laugh fills the barn. “Believe me, I’m regretting it more and more every day. I let myself get sentimental for a split-second, but it won’t happen again, believe me.”
“It won’t matter. Because you fucked up even worse than leaving her alive. It’s the second mistake that’s going to end you.”
Lorell sneers. “Oh, yeah.” He tilts his head, leaning in closer, pushing the barrel to my cheek. “What was my second?”
“Fucking with the McBrides.”
The moment the words are out of my mouth, I spin my left arm back against his rifle, knocking him slightly off balance as he tries to maintain his grip on it.
Get up.
My body protests the rapid movement, the damage to my head making my thoughts sluggish and cloudy. Acid roils in my stomach, the pain threatening to make me gag as I manage to push myself up onto my knees before he regains control, but the barn spins around me, my already narrow vision in the dark blurring, making it impossible to focus.
Fuck…
I press my left hand against the blood pulsing from my temple, hoping it might help me get my bearings, but he drives the butt of the gun into my ribs to get more space between us so he can use it.
It doubles me over, the searing pain and loss of all the air in my lungs enough to make everything go black, but I refuse to go down again, kicking out blindly toward him.
My boot connects with his leg, and I hear him stumble as I force myself to my unsteady feet.
Everything spins, a cascade of agony and terror combining into a volatile mix that has my body battling between giving up and going under and digging to find the last few shreds of strength I have left.
Lucky…
Giving in to the darkness isn’t an option.
I have to stop him.
My unsteady legs wobble as I prepare to lunge for him to try to disarm him before he regains his footing, but rushed footsteps sound behind me.
I roll toward the sound, but it’s too late.
Searing-hot pain hits me, knocking me backward at the same time the sound of the gunshot shatters the ominous quiet of the night.
20
LIAM
I slam against the floor, agony exploding through my shoulder, and it takes a second for me to process what just happened.
That I’m bleeding.
That I was shot.
Fuck!
I clamp my hand over the wound in my left shoulder and try to struggle to my feet, but Lorell is right in front of me, pointing his gun at me again. The goon who shot me stands behind him with a smug look on his face.
Maybe with reason.
