Cole laughs. “Seems you were too busy fucking some other guy to worry about my needs.”
“I told you I was done. We don’t belong together.”
He reaches forward and grips my chin hard. “No, Vienna.Youwill always belong tome. You promised me til death do us part, and that’s what you’ll get.” When he pushes me back, he presses the gun to the center of my forehead.
Ellis screams. “No!”
“Shut up, kid!”
“My daddy has a gun. He’ll shoot you!”
“Yeah, well, your daddy isn’t here, now is he?” Cole cocks the gun and then leans down slightly so our eyes meet. “You went and got yourself a family here, didn’t you, Vienna? Just like you fucking wanted but wouldn’t give me.”
I want to scream at him that he’s not necessarily demonstrating his fatherly abilities right now, but I refrain. He has a gun resting against my head. The last thing I should be doing is making him angrier. “This isn’t going to fix anything, Cole,” I grate out instead.
“I’m Cole Cassidy. You thinking you could leave me is laughable, but at least you got to whore it around for a while before I take you back where you belong.”
“Let Ellis go and I’ll go home with you,” I say through gritted teeth. “She doesn’t deserve this. She’s five, Cole.”
“I don’t give a shit how old she is. What am I gonna do? Release her into the fucking woods?”
“Have your minion take her back to her house. As long as she’s safe, I don’t care what you do with me.”
Noise outside pulls his attention to the window, and for one split second, I debate reaching for the gun and attempting to take it from him, but I also don’t want to risk him firing a shot and hurting the little girl that I love more than life itself.
Cole turns back to me, his eyes wide, yet dilated. “Stay put! Both of you. One wrong move, and I’ll shoot you both.” He heads toward the front door and steps outside, and as soon as the gun isn’t pointing at me anymore, I let out the breath I was holding.
“It’s okay, Ellis.” I pull her into my side. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I want my daddy.” Tears fall from her eyes as she squeezes me.
“I know. You’ll be back with him soon, okay?”
There’s a soft creak behind us and then the sound of a pebble bouncing across the floor draws our attention to the side.
But it’s not just any pebble—it’s a rock, one that Ellis and I both recognize instantly.
Ellis leaps from the couch to grab it. “It’s Daddy’s lucky rock!”
“What the fuck?” Cole calls out from the front of the house as he walks back through the front door far too quickly.
I turn my eyes back to him just in time to see him raise the gun and point it in Ellis’s direction.
And I don’t even think as I jump from the couch and leap in front of her.
Shots ring out, but I don’t care.
Pain slices through my shoulder, screams echo around me, and I land on the floor with a thud before everything goes black.
And then, I see a rainbow.
Chapter 29
Rhonan
Pleas and Surprises
“Fuck!” I race over to Vienna and Ellis as blood pools on the hardwood floor beneath them. “Girls! Girls!”
