A thought slams into my mind. “Conrad said something weird to Louisa when they were in my cell.”
Saint angles his head towards me, keeping his gaze straight ahead. “Like what?”
My finger glides down the rifle lying flat to my side. “He said he punished her before, something about burying family members as a lesson.”
His head whips towards me. “What?”
I nod. “Then he said, all those warnings…looking at me. That he’ll always get his way.”
My mind being more clear, I can read between those lines. The Omnia was responsible for my dad’s death.
And Louisa knew about it.
What I don’t get is why, and the next sucker punch comes to my gut involving my sister. My rape was because of whatever she did, or didn’t do, going by his words.
There’s no way she’s walked around all these years with all this on her shoulders. Either that or she’s been so deeply conditioned, her empathy left the minute she met Barry.
Saint’s jaw grinds. Whatever he was going to say gets lost when guns open fire, heavily.
Bullets shatter the silence of the woodland, hitting the trees and splitting the bark like fireworks erupting in the air, covering us in its residue.
Saint grips the neck of my jacket. “Get behind that tree and hide.”
He shoves me to go, but I don’t move, flicking up the sight of the gun. “I’m not leaving you, Saint,” I snap back.
Both our heads duck as a bullet cracks right above us. “Darling—”
“No. Saint. Together, remember?” I keep my voice firm and steady, despite the fact I’m terrified, but if he thinks I’m going to cower whilst he does the work, he’s sorely mistaken.
Defeat washes over his face. “Fuck. Get behind the fucking tree and shoot from there. Do not leave it.”
He wets his bottom lip, eyes tracing my face whilst cupping my nape, and our lips crash together. “I fucking love you.”
Then he’s pulling away just as quickly.
Crawling over to the thick trunk, I slam my back against it. We’re taking heavy fire, and vibrations travel through my spine as bullets keep unloading into it.
Something catches the corner of my eye, someone with their gun aimed right at Holly. My finger rests over the trigger as I look down the scope, taking them out with a slight tug of the metal groove.
It feels like it never ends.
Greg and Holly move between ducking behind trees, to dropping low on the ground. Saint is the closest to me, lying flaton the ground as his gun yields no mercy, shooting until empty then seamlessly reloads.
But it’s not enough; the cracks increase, and the hidden bodies that shoot at us thicken through the woods.
There’s too many of them, and only four of us.
A large bang ruptures the forest. I drop to my knees and throw my hands over my ears as the ringing pierces through my ear drums. My stinging eyes fight to remain open. A white fog rolls over the forest, filling in the pockets of greenery that peek through the snow, casting it like a clouded blanket.
I can’t see Saint anymore, can’t see anyone. The whistling air-like sound still bleeds in my hearing.
It all moves in slow motion.
Holly breaks through the smoke, dropping when she’s only a few inches away from me, speckles of blood bursting through her neck as bullets pierce through her skin. I rush to her, dropping to my knees and hovering my hands over the wound. There’s so much blood, I can’t figure out where to prioritise the pressure.
She can’t speak as it clogs her throat, making her gurgle. Shots fire again as I scream, a heavy weight falling onto my side and almost knocking me over as a man drops dead beside me.
When I glance wildly at Holly, her hand is still wrapped around her gun, life finally leaving her eyes.
