“Shut up and do as I say, boy!” Buck snarled.
“I told you I loved her! You promised me I wouldn’t have to share her!”
Denny’s rage was palpable and I saw Matty close his eyes as even he sensed the rising tension between the two men. Thankfully, Buck’s gun wasn’t aimed at Matty’s head, though the hand holding the weapon was on Matty’s shoulder.
“And I told you what would happen if she told her father about you.”
“Not me!” Denny screamed. “You! She loved me! She never would have told him about us, but you! Did you fucking rape her you sick fuck?”
“Enough!” Buck roared and Denny actually fell silent, though I could feel his fury wafting off of him as he stood next to me. Buck’s rage filled eyes shifted to me and then he aimed his gun at me.
Panic went through me as I realized I had nothing left to delay the inevitable and I looked down at Matty and whispered, “Close your eyes, buddy.” I was glad when Matty did as I said and when the gunshot rang out a second later, I tried to call up an image of him and Hawke from earlier in the day to mind.
A weight hit me hard and knocked me to the ground and it took me a second to realize it hadn’t been a bullet tearing through my flesh that had been the cause. I heard a terrible gasping sound and I scrambled to my knees as my fear for Matty overruled everything else. But it wasn’t Matty who’d been shot either.
It was Denny who was lying next to me, a bloom of bright red blood staining the front of his shirt. Shock tore through me as I realized my brother had pushed me out of the way, putting himself in the path of the bullet that had been meant for me.
“Denny?!” I shouted and then my instincts took over and I pressed my hands down on his chest. I looked up at Buck in disbelief and saw that he actually seemed to be in a state of shock himself. Matty still had his eyes squeezed shut.
“Denny, hold on, okay?” I said desperately as blood seeped through my fingers. Denny’s shocked eyes held mine as he struggled to breathe.
“I’m sorry,” he choked out.
I shook my head. “It’s okay, just hang on.”
“Should have protected you,” Denny managed to say, though his last words faded out as his pupils grew larger and then he lowered his head to the floor and his body jerked several times before finally stilling beneath my hands.
I pulled my bloody hands from Denny’s chest and stared at them for several long seconds before wiping them on my pants. “Why?” I asked, though I wasn’t expecting an answer. When I turned my attention to Buck, I saw that his gun was once again pointed at me.
“Put it down.”
The sound of Hawke’s voice behind me went through me like a wave and I actually let out a sob when I heard it. I wanted so badly to look over my shoulder at him, but I didn’t dare move because the second Hawke spoke, Buck’s gun went from me to Matty.
“Daddy?” Matty whispered, his eyes still closed.
“I’m here, buddy,” I managed to get out as I kept my eyes trained on my son. The puppy who’d been quiet throughout the entire ordeal began to lick Matty’s chin. “Just keep holding onto Storm, okay? It’s going to be over soon.”
Matty nodded.
“Drop your weapon,” Buck snapped. “I’ve already killed one son. Don’t think for a second I won’t kill another,” he warned.
“Hawke,” I pleaded.
“It’s okay, Tate,” was all Hawke said and I could hear hisfootsteps getting closer and I sensed he was only inches from me. But I didn’t give a shit about me.
“Remember your promise,” I whispered. “No matter what happens to me,” I said, hoping like hell he would remember his promise to always put Matty first.
“I remember,” Hawke said.
“Put the fucking gun down,” Buck said, his voice ice cold. I couldn’t see Hawke, but I heard the sound of metal on wood and I knew he’d put the gun down on the floor.
“Kick it away.”
A part of me wanted to die when I heard the gun slide across the wooden floor.
“Matty,” Hawke said calmly. “I need you to do something for me, okay?”
Matty nodded, his eyes still closed.
