Kreed’s grip reinforced around his gun. “You mean you’ve been helping him.”
“You have it twisted.” Donovan stepped slightly behind Rusty. “Hewashelping me, but his use has expired.”
Rusty’s smile faltered for the first time, slipping off his face. His eyes darted slightly over his shoulder to Donovan, and confusion danced across his features. “You can’t be serious,” Rusty warned.
But Donovan didn’t look at him. He looked at me, and a chill slithered down my spine, a silent message I received too loud and clear. My breath caught.
“No one move,” Rusty barked, noticing the look Donovan gave me, and went to raise his weapon but froze.
Donovan didn’t even flinch. “Careful, Rusty.” I couldn’t see what Donovan was doing, but from the fierce expression on Rusty’s features, something was happening.
“Dad…are you working with him or against him?” Kreed asked, expression somber.
“Depends,” Donovan murmured. “On whether you can follow directions for once in your life.”
My fingers curled tighter around the handle of the gun hidden behind my body, thumb finding the safety. Rusty was focused on Kreed, his attention divided. I had no idea what Donovan was up to, but I couldn’t let this moment slip away. I couldn’t falter.
I unsheathed the gun and stepped off to the side, giving me a clear shot of Rusty. My arms lifted, and I pointed the barrel straight ahead, my finger on the trigger, and everyone had a reaction at the same time.
“Kay, holy shit,” Carson choked.
Kreed caught the glint of his gun gripped in my hands from the corner of his eye and whirled toward me.
Rusty cocked his gun with a metallic click that reverberated through the clearing.
Jesse stiffened, his spine going ramrod straight as his eyes widened.
Mason and Maddox cursed while Raine pivoted.
Donovan’s brows lifted, his head cocked in an approving challenge, daring me to pull the trigger.
Everything was about to detonate. The air felt electric, charged, ready to ignite. And I lit the fucking match.
Boom.
Gunfire vibrated in the air, a spark of power flashing through the darkness, a rapid combustion that left my arms quaking, but I had no idea where the bullet was going. Or who it would hit.
Rusty? Donovan? Kreed?
What did I do?
30
KREED
The shot cracked through the night like lightning splitting a tree in half.
Instinct overrode everything…fear, fury, logic, and thought itself. My body moved faster than my brain could process, muscles acting on pure survival programming. I grabbed Kaylor by the waist, my hands locking around her rib cage, and tackled her to the ground. We hit the dirt hard, the impact driving the air from both our lungs. I twisted mid-fall, caging her beneath me, my body becoming her shield as the bullet hissed past my ear, so close I felt the displacement of air against my skin.
Her gasp was swallowed by the explosion still reverberating through the clearing. The smell of gunpowder hit hard and metallic, acrid smoke filling the cold air with a choking thickness. My chest pressed into her back, the rise and fall of her breathing my indicator that she was alive.
The tingle of breaking glass rang out over the trees as her bullet tore through one of the cabin windows, punching a hole through the grimy pane. I held her pinned, one hand splayed across her head, the other braced in the dirt beside her, waiting for the second shot, thethird, the spray of automatic fire. Waiting for the ambush Rusty threatened.
Seconds stretched into eternities.
Carson crouched behind his car, not far from me, and I prayed my brothers had found cover, but when no other shot was discharged, I started to doubt Rusty’s threats.That bluffing fucking prick.
Kaylor rustled underneath me. “D-did I kill him?” Kaylor stammered.
