“What’s up?”
“Help me, will you?” I indicate my dress, and he wordlessly walks over to hold it out of the way for me while I squat over the toilet.
“How did they even expect you to go in this thing?”
“They didn’t,” I answer dryly while I pee.
Once I’m done, Seth carefully rearranges my gown around me and then backs out of the stall. I follow, and he hangs around while I wash my hands and check my makeup. As I’m reapplying my lipstick, I hear the creak of the door opening and look toward the one I came through only to see that it’s still firmly shut.
I’m still frowning at it in confusion when I hear a thud and grunt and turn in time to see Seth slumping to the ground and my uncle standing behind him with the gun he used to knock out Seth pointed at me.
The look in his bloodshot eyes tells me that Uncle Mars is long past familial bonds, and frankly, so am I. I open my mouth to scream, and he aims the gun at the back of Seth’s head. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“What do you want?” I ask coldly.
“Lock the door.” When I don’t move, he fires off a shot into the tile an inch from Seth’s head, and I hurry over to the door to lock it before Khalil and Thorin have a chance to burst through. I hear them pounding on it and calling my name as soon as I turn the lock. “Now come over here. Get over here!” he roars when I don’t move fast enough.
“You look like shit, Uncle Mars. Is something wrong?”
“I know it was you who told the Feds.” Before I can deny it, he grabs my hair the moment I’m close enough and forces me through the door he came in.
The door I assumed was a supply closet.
Thorin will scold me about that later after he tortures himself for not checking out the bathroom and all entry and exit points before letting me inside.
Right now, I stumble into what looks like another hallway, and the first thing I notice is the red exit sign at the end of itmarking my doom. If he gets me through it, I’m toast. He’ll likely have a car waiting close by.
My uncle presses the gun to my spine to get me moving faster since it’s only a matter of time before Thorin and Khalil break through the bathroom door.
“There’s no point in killing me, Uncle. If I die, my son inherits everything.”
“And who do you think will inherit your son after your boyfriends are in prison where they belong?”
A cold fury sweeps through me, but there’s nothing I can do with a gun pressed to my spine, so I do what I do best.
I keep poking the bear.
“Maybe one of them will be your cellmate since I hear that’s where you’re heading too.”
“You think I’m worried about that?” Uncle Mars snaps back. “I have the best lawyers money can buy.”
“Oof.” I feign a wince. “I sure hope you didn’t buy those fancy lawyers with my stolen funds too. I’m told bymyfancy lawyers that each count is worth a pretty good chunk of time.”
“Shut the fuck up already!”
There.
That’s it.
The opening that I’ve been waiting for when he lifts the gun to strike me. I spin using the speed Khalil drilled into me and grab his raised arm before he can bring the gun down on my head. It goes off during our struggle for control, and when Uncle Mars tries to slap me down with his free hand, I block the blow and send the heel of my palm into his nose, feeling it break.
He shouts as he stumbles back, and the shocked expression on his face would be comical if he weren’t still holding the gun. My uncle seems to remember that it’s in his hand a moment later, and he swipes his bleeding nose as he regains his composure. “I see you weren’t just out there lying on your back.Too bad it won’t do you a damn bit of good.” He raises the gun again.
Behind him, I see the door to the bathroom open slowly and a figure cast in shadow filling the entrance. The utter stillness is a dead giveaway, and I take one last look at my father’s twin, memorizing the lines of his face since it will be the last time I ever see it.
“I think,” I say slowly as I back away, “that you should really rethink hurting me.”
“The only thing I regret is telling my brother’s enemy where to find him,” he says. “If I’d known what a fucking headache you’d turn out to be, I never would have had him killed.”
