“Why aren’t you firing?” If there was ever a time to fire a weapon with abandon, this would be it.
“Because if I do, your boyfriend will meet the wrong end of that,” Ambrose told me through gritted teeth, nodding in the direction of the men.
I followed his gaze to where one of the masked men was holding a sledge hammer above Cash’s head.
“Do I have your attention now, Mina?” Mike asked, his hands nonchalantly in his pockets as if Ambrose hadn’t just opened fire at him and his cronies.
“My name is Daphne,” I hissed, glaring at him.
“Daphne, Mina, whatever, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t want your monster shattered into a million tiny little pieces, I highly suggest you tell your elf to put the gun down,” Mike said before picking a piece of lint off of his suit jacket, like he was in a business meeting rather than a parking lot shootout.
“You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’ll do that,” Ambrose spat, his grip tightening on the gun.
Mike shrugged and turned to the man still holding the hammer, “Donavan?”
“My name is Garth,” the man grumbled.
“Does it really matter?” Mike asked with a scoff. “I’m paying you a lot of fucking money, so if I say your name is Donavan… then it’s fucking Donavan.”
Tension hung in the air, but the man finally just sighed and lifted the hammer high above his head.
“No!” My shout filled the space between us. If they broke him, Cash would be gone forever. I turned back to Ambrose. “Please just drop it, I can’t lose him.”
Ambrose glanced between me and the gun, his hard expression softening with something that I’d never seen on the elf’s face: understanding.
“Fuck, fine,” Ambrose said and dropped the gun to the ground in front of him. Then he put his lips close to my ear. “Pull off my earring,” he whispered, his lips unmoving.
I wanted to question why he wanted me to pull one of the purple dangly earrings he was wearing, but now was not the time for that. As slowly as I could, I lifted my hand from where it was clenched around his shoulder and slid the hook from his ear, dropping the earring behind us.
“Kick the gun towards me, elf,” one of the men barked as they started to approach.
Understanding dawned on me as Ambrose used the tip of his boot to send the black pistol careening across the asphalt. “He has nothing to do with this, leave him alone,” I said to the men as one of them yanked me away from Ambrose and hauled me over his shoulder.
I watched upside down as the other man planted a fist into Ambrose’s stomach, making him drop to the ground with a grunt.
“They can’t,” Ambrose said to me with a groan. “Elves, light, dark, or otherwise fetch a pretty penny on the black market.”
Horror filled me as a white van rolled up and the backdoors opened. The men who’d been shot were loaded in first and then I was dropped unceremoniously onto the metal floor.
I glanced out to where Cash’s stone form still stood. The man with the hammer was lifting it again.
“No, leave him alone! You promised!” The words were a scream that was ripped from my very core.
Mike turned from where he was observing everything like a king overlooking his kingdom. “And you promised until death do us part. Guess we’re both liars, huh?”
He nodded at the man who swung back.
I watched with horror as the hammer started to move forward. The desire to close my eyes and look away filled me, but I couldn’t. I was frozen.
“Hey! What are you doing to him!” someone shouted nearby.
I hadn’t had time to go into the coffee shop over the past few weeks, but I would know that voice anywhere.
Farrow was standing at the entrance to the Wharf, his glamour on as he held his cell phone to his ear. No doubt already calling 9-1-1.
“Shit!” one of the men cursed. “Get in the van!”
They climbed in, practically dragging a still protesting Mike in with them. The sledge hammer that had very nearly killed Cash was left abandoned on the ground as they slammed the doors to the van and squealed out of the parking lot.
