“You’re not going to shoot me, princess,” he gritted out.
Hearing him call meprincessstoked my anger. Princess was Declan’s pet name for me. How dare Marku use it! Pointing agun at someone felt all kinds of wrong, but I refused to let this monster win.
I’d rolled over and played possum too many times in the past.
No more.
“Pixie girl, let me handle him.” Ronan’s voice in my ear brought me back. “You don’t deserve to let that piece of shit leave a stain on your sweet soul.”
“He’s a people trafficking monster!” A tear slid down my cheek.
“I’m an entrepreneur!” Marku argued because, hey, even when facing imminent death, he still didn’t know when to shut the fuck up.
“Give me the gun, Pixie.”
“Let me go and I’ll never go near her again! Fuck the deal with her father!”
“I need to do this,” I insisted, ignoring Marku’s bullshit. Thea wouldn’t lose sleep over killing this scumbag, so why should I?
“No, sweetheart, you don’t.” Conal nudged my wrist down as Ronan kicked Marku back. “It’s our job to take out the trash. Not yours.”
“He’s right.” Declan removed the gun from my hand and tucked it into his waistband.
“You came for me,” I said, almost to myself.
“Princess, we’ll always find you.” He pulled me into his arms, holding me tight. “Now look away. You don’t need to see this.” I pressed my face into his chest before a gunshot echoed through the trees, followed by blessed silence.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here before we’re overrun,” Declan ordered over my head.
“How?” The SUV they’d arrived in wasn’t in any fit state to drive.
“Connor.”
Another SUV skidded to a halt a minute later. Connor jumped out of the driver’s seat holding two semi-automatic rifles. Ash joined him from the other side.
“Someone called for backup?” Ash winked in my direction before scowling at the sight of three dead bodies. “Well, shit, I’m fucking late to the party. Looks like you won’t be getting your security deposit back on that car, either.”
“My father’s back there,” I told them, pointing vaguely through the trees. “He did a deal with that man.” The now dead man lying in the mud, leaking blood everywhere.
“Yeah, we figured.” Declan pulled his phone out of his pocket and frowned as he read a message. “Fuck, we definitely need to get out of here. The DIA are on their way with a fucking task force to arrest your father. We have 20 minutes to reach the village before we cross their path. We’ll need to take a detour to avoid them.”
“But won’t my father have heard the gunshots and have left already?” Papa was a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.
“This is the only way out unless he wants to go for a hike and try crossing a gorge.” Declan replied with a dry laugh.
“What about that?” I pointed to the wrecked SUV wrapped around the tree.
“Don’t worry, Pixie girl,” Ronan reassured me. “They’ll never connect it to us.” He pulled a lighter from his pocket, flicked it to produce a flame, and tossed it into the wrecked vehicle.
As the fire took hold, Ronan bundled me into the second car and we were off, only this time, instead of lying drugged in the back, I sat on Ronan’s knee with his arm tight around my waist while Conal gripped my hand like he worried I might vanish at any moment.
54
Verity
It felt like a lifetime ago when I’d woken up on the Kelly private jet with a headache and a collection of lovely bruises from Anton.
This time around, I had more bruises. Lots of bruises. But at least I wasn’t suffering the ill effects of a sedative. Although part of me wished I was out of it so I didn’t have to face my brooding demons.
