I lunge for him. He anticipates and pulls Livia in front of him. I go for his wrist. He twists, and the gun barks, hitting the driver’s side window. Glass shards bite my cheek. He shoves Livia back into the van and slams the door behind her. She pounds the glass with tiny fists, and the sound spears straight through me.
“It’s okay, baby. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Drop the gun,” he shouts, back pressed to the door, leveling his weapon at Cat. “Or the mammy gets a second hole.”
Cat sets her gun down slowly, palms high, and fury trembling in her fingers.
“Good girl,” he croons. “Now both of you step back.”
We do, three steps, four. He grins and pivots, sliding into the driver seat.
Cat moves first. She circles around to the passenger side with the edge of the lake to our backs and the quarry yard to our left. That van is too damned close to the pit for my liking. She toes her pistol across the gravel and slides it under the van so it wedges against the front passenger tire where the axle meets the frame.
Sean must throw the car in drive, then curses when it doesn’t move and jumps out once again. Dropping to a knee, he shoves his arm under the bumper to grope for it. I drive into him from the side, shoulder to ribs, and knock him off the van and flat to the ground. He fights dirty, getting a forearm across my throat, and bouncing the back of my skull on the gravel. White sparks shoot off across my vision. He twists, trying to bring his gun up over my shoulder.
The van lurches forward, Cat’s gun somehow loosened from the gravel. “Livia!” I cry. Cat slides across the hood of the van, climbs into the open driver door, and slams the shifter into park. The rear wheels bite, the whole chassis lurches, and Sean’s aim snaps wide. His shot punches through the back window instead of me.
But the damn van keeps moving with Cat and Livia inside. It bumps over the gravel, hops once, and then pitches nose-first toward the edge of the pit.
“Cat!” I cry out as the van rocks on the ledge.
She hauls the wheel left and slams on the emergency brake. The slide stops with both front tires hanging in space, rear tiresslipping on loose gravel and chewing at the edge. The body wobbles on the lip while Livia sobs in the cab.
“Papà!” Livia’s voice tears at the hinge of my heart.
Cat climbs across the front seat, struggling with Livia’s seatbelt.
I sprint. Sean catches my ankle, but I kick him off. I reach the passenger door and yank. Locked. I slam my elbow through the glass. ThankDio, it gives. I bleed all over and do not care.
“Matteo, get her out!” Cat cries.
I reach for her belt, but the buckle has spun and jammed. The van shudders again. The front wheels grind stones, and the lake waits below.
“Knife,” I gasp.
Cat finds the small folding blade she wears beneath her shirt and tosses it to me. I catch it and cut the belt. Livia tumbles into my arms like she was made to, then I pull Cat along with us. I back away, crouched, shielding both of them. The van’s nose dips an inch. Then another before sliding into the lake with a crash.
My heart lurches up my throat.
Sean is up, limping. Rage and something worse darken his eyes. I pull out my gun and level it at the asshole. Sidestepping an excavator, he snatches a length of rebar from the rubble and comes at me. He swings and I pivot, my shot going wide trying to protect my girls and taking the hit on my forearm. My nerves scream upon impact and the gun slips through my fingers, but I clench my teeth and breathe through the pain. He swings again using the excavator’s handrail for maximum impact. I duck and shove Livia and Cat behind my back, and the rebar cracks off the door with a church bell clang.
“Run with Mammy,” I say into her hair. “Now.” I shove her toward Cat, her bright eyes meeting mine before she bolts, fists up like a tiny prizefighter.
“No, I won’t leave you,” Cat hisses.
“You will. For her. Just like I did all those years ago.”
Steel settles across her expressive orbs, and her chin dips once. Then I watch as the pair vanishes behind a mountain of boulders.
Sean grins, bleeding and bright. “You should have stayed dead.”
“And you should have stayed the fuck away from my family.”
He feints high and goes low as I scramble to reach my gun buried in the gravel just a yard away. The rebar smashes into my knee, and pain blanks the world. He bull-rushes me against the excavator. Then shoves me toward the ledge of the quarry, knocking the air from my lungs. There is nothing behind my heels but black.
He leans all his weight and all his father’s hatred into my throat. My vision narrows. Cat screams something I can’t process. Then Livia sobs a word that pulls me back from the edge.Papà.
I glance past Sean. Cat has her pistol again. I have no idea how she saved it from going into the lake with the van. She sights down her good arm, jaw set, and pupils blown. Blood drips from her shoulder onto the gravel.
