“Fuck. Leave me here. Go after her.”
“Let me get you to safety, and I’ll do just that. Fuck. There are bodies everywhere.” He takes a whiff, and that’s when I smell the scent of charring flesh. Parker shakes his head. “Fuck. I’m here. I'm not there,” he mutters to himself. “I’m not there.”
"You're here, Savage.”
He nods. “I’m here,” he parrots, chest rising and falling in quick succession. “Let’s go.”
We make the trek, more sensation flows back to me, and I'm able to pick up my feet faster, moving with him quicker. “Give me your gun.”
“You shoot to my right; I’ll shoot to your left.” He hands me his gun and pulls out another from his waistband. “Just don’t let go,” he commands. Even if I could, my legs are barely working. I wouldn’t have the strength to let go of him. Parker is… Fuck me, Parker’s my new partner.
More of the fuckers that were supposed to hunt this morning are crawling all over the place, using bows and arrows, hunting knives, and guns. I raise my good arm and shoot, missing the first target, but shoot again and hit between the eyes.
Over and over again screams and shots ring out. Parker chants to himself that he’s here with me, but our pace is quickening into a scurried, limping jog. Furniture has been overturned, and there’s glass and debris everywhere. I hear my name being called out. I turn and look over to see Aleksi waving at us.
Parker shoots someone to my left before they’re five feet from reaching him, and I grunt out a ‘thanks.’ Aleksi shoves his arm around my torso and helps me get off of Parker. “Go, find her.”
Mismatched eyes, wild and alert, search mine before nodding once. And then he’s gone.
“Glad to have you back, Pakhan.”
“Give me more ammo.” I refill the magazine, take a few steps, and raise my arm, taking out as many motherfuckers in Parker's way as I can before he disappears up the stairs and I lose sight of him.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Sabrina.
Parker was right—it’s absolute mayhem.
I keep to the walls, finding the small hidden panels that Alice taught me to look for the night I went to find my husband. I take a deep breath, grimacing at the long, dangling cobwebs hanging in every corner. It’s dark, and I’m having to feel around for the other flight of stairs that will take me up to the second floor. I pass a panel left slightly askew and peek through to see Mr. Ainsworth in his office, not exactly hiding but not doing much to prevent what’s happening outside of his office.
I don’t know why, but I feel this sense of urgency to go to him.
So I do.
I move the panel lightly, making sure not to make too much noise, and climb out, leg first, then torso, then my other leg. I don’t close the panel behind me. I don’t feel the need to. I feel as though whatever is about to happen will not be the death of me… although I cannot say the same for him. This? This is kismet.
He turns in his office chair when he senses me, dark eyes full of… something. A kind of wisdom that seems too much to bear. Like the crown of being king of an underground secret society has finally worn him down. He looks at me with a type of understanding. He knows why I’m here. He knows when I leave here, I’ll be taking his life with me. Only I can bear that weight. “I take it you’ve killed him?” he asks, getting up and striding to the sidebar holding all kinds of decanters full of different kinds of liquor. He pours amber liquid into two tumblers and brings me one.
Booms outside of his door are louder, and the chandelier in his office sways above us.
I take the tumbler and eye it, then him. With a grin, he takes a sip then winks at me. “If I wanted to poison you, I wouldhave the second you stepped foot in my kitchen. The night I offered you a slice of cake. Sweets were always your weakness,” he hums. “I do remember that of you.”
“I’m more of a white wine kind of woman.”
He dips his chin with a smile on his face. “Ah, yes, so was my first wife. You know, you remind me of her very much. Which is how I knew you’d be the death of Kanedrew.”
“I’m guessing she tried to kill you?”
“I woke up to the barrel of a gun shoved under my neck a few times.”
I swallow thickly, then take in a deep breath. “Did she survive you?”
He frowns. “Me? Yes. Them—” He points with his chin to the door only seven paces to my right. “No.”
“You know he had to die, don’t you? You know what he did to me?”
Mr. Ainsworth glances away for just a moment, to the pounding now at the door, the scream just beyond it. “Not until a few evenings ago. There were very few things Kane could truly ever hide from me. His…proclivitieswere one of those things. Granted, I suppose I did teach him how to get away with murder. Leave no trail behind. In a way, what he did to you… may as well have been my fault. I suppose this is my penance for all of my misdeeds.”
