She tries to smile, but it’s weak. “It isn’t your fault. You kept me safe for as long as you could.”
Not long enough. As the bodies are moved, I keep Ella pressed to my front, and Z tries desperately to speak to Silence. She continues to ignore him, before finally addressing Ella.
“I’m Silence, by the way. His wife.” She throws her thumb in Z’s direction. “Do you have a first aid kit? I’m a nurse; I can look at that cut, if you like?”
Ella nods, glancing up at me before limping away with Silence to sit on the couch.
Z watches his wife with a tortured expression.
“I’m guessing she knows what you do now,” I say.
Z groans. “I’ll be lucky if she speaks to me again.”
“You’ll be lucky if she doesn’t kill you,” I say, watching Ella. She winces as Silence inspects her thigh, and a fresh burst of anger erupts within me. As Z checks in with his men, I walk through the remaining bodies, turning them over one by one until I find Ty.
Alive.
Barely, but still breathing. “Lucky fucking me,” I say, gripping his shirt and yanking him to his feet. I chuck him into Ella’s writing chair and he gasps, his hand pressed to a wound in his stomach that’s gushing blood. His face is shining with sweat, and he rests his head back to look at me. I reach for his belt, yanking it free from the loops.
“You wanna know why you know me, and I don’t know you?” I ask as I fasten it around his neck. He winces as I tighten it. “Because you’re a fucking amateur. Pricks like you are lucky to crawl in my fucking shadow.” I pull, and his face reddens as he tries and fails to pull in air.
He hurt Ella.
He tried to rape Ella.
He deserves this, and so much more.
But Ella is also watching, and she doesn’t need to see more death.
I relax the belt. “Who hired you?”
Ty pulls in a ragged breath and laughs. “He’ll hunt you both down. He won’t stop.”
“Who?” I tighten the belt and he chokes, his eyes bulging until I loosen it again.
A deep breath, but slower than the last.
He stares at me with half-lidded eyes. “You … you have no idea how entirely fucked you are, Flynn.” He laughs again, a rattling, painful sound. His breaths slow.
Until they stop entirely.
Ty’s face becomes expressionless, his eyes vacant.
I release the belt and step back.
I’m not accustomed to feeling fear. I’ve only ever experienced it on the few occasions I worried about Asher, and recently, with Ella. But right now, it’s coursing through my veins.
We came so close to dying.
For what? Revenge?
I reach into Ty’s pocket and take out the hard drive. It’s so small, so seemingly harmless, but it’s almost taken everything from me.
I head for the stairs. “Ella, I’m packing your things. Be in the car in ten.”
“Wait,” she says, and I face her. “Where are we going?”
The only place left that’s safe.
