Then again, he’s done more damage to me than anyone else on this earth.I would have to be stupid to expect him to save me now.
I jump to my feet and pull Beau with me, though, mind flying through our options.Getting outside is still the best choice.It’ll give us more space to run and hide, and we’re less likely to be trapped if we get out there.I turn and start running for the door again, though part of my brain already knows we’re not going to make it.
The men behind us have guns, and we can’t outrun bullets, no matter how hard we try.
God, I wish I had my gun.
We start running, ducked low to the ground and trying to avoid the bullets flying around us, but within seconds my brother grunts and falls to the ground.I drop next to him, breathless with fear, and put my hands to his back, searching for the hole that will tell me if he’s been shot.I find it quickly in his right shoulder, near where his arm joins his shoulder, and quickly turn him over.The bullet has come out the other side, so so it’s not in there still, but my God, there’s a lot of blood.He’s bleeding like it hit a main artery, and I reach through my memory, searching desperately for what the major arteries are in that area of the body.
I don’t come up with anything, but I’ve also never tried to remember anatomy while I’m being shot at.
I look up and meet the eyes of one my father’s men as he lifts his gun and points it at me, and I realize that this is more what I’d expect of death.A fight with the bad guys.Men who are trying to kill me for no good reason.A bullet right to the head.
I’m furious that I haven’t had the chance to take my father down, and even more furious that he and that Russian asshole are going to win.
But there’s something deeply satisfactory about having my brother next to me right now.
I reach out and take his hand, squeezing it hard in the Morse Code we learned when we were kids.I love you, I love you, I love you,I squeeze to him, putting everything I have into that simple motion.Christ, I should have come home sooner.I should have called him.Written.Sent a fucking carrier pigeon.
Instead, I’d deserted him here because I was too angry at my father to come back.
He squeezes me back, then, and I grin when I realize he’s telling me the same thing he’s always told me.
It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay.
Suddenly the man who was running at us slides to a stop, his eyes wide with fear, and then turns and runs the other way.I watch him, confused, and then turn around, trying to figure out what he’s running from.
Which is when I see Lucien and Luke standing in the doorway.
Luke is holding a semiautomatic rifle, aimed at the men in front of me.And Lucien has a fucking rocket launcher resting casually over his shoulder.
And it’s so ridiculous, so very like him, that I start laughing.
This is evidently against the rules, though, because Lucien immediately frowns at me, then darts forward and picks me up off the ground.
“Are you insane?”he asks.“What are you doing sitting on the ground laughing when a man is about to shoot you?”
I have a number of answers for that, but none of them seems as important as the one I give.
“Beau’s already been shot.”
He curses softly and looks over at Luke, who’s got Beau thrown over his shoulders and is somehow still keeping pace with us.
“Careful with him,,” he mutters.“He’s been shot, evidently.Brooks, how many men are in the house?”
“I have no idea,” I say honestly.“I thought they’d left and don’t have a count on them.”
“Helpful,” he mutters.
“Excuse me, I wasn’t expecting a battle tonight,” I clap back.
His mouth quirks at that, but he immediately grows more serious.“Right.Out the service entrance, then.We have a car in the back.Let’s get the fuck out of here while no one is looking and hope no one comes after us.”
Lucien
Of course, we’re not lucky enough to get away without them finding us.
We’re too valuable for that.
