Page 55 of At The End Of The Day

Bristling, a cold wave washed over my system, prickling every nerve in my body. A fucking semi-automatic? Where the fuck did he get one of those? Me and Dash knew his stash, we knew every type of gun he had. When had he gotten that and why had he been hiding it from us?

It was all the more proof that Jackyl couldn’t be trusted and we were doing the right thing. A man didn’t hide a goddamn semi-automatic from his so-called best friends unless he thought they were a threat. Until Tyler Warren came back into town, none of the Serpents had ever given him a reason to doubt our loyalty, but somewhere in his brain, he must have thought otherwise.

“Ah, fuck!”

My stomach sank, a heavy sense of dread hitting like a steel fist to the gut. That was Dash. Did he get shot? Oh, shit.

My first instinct to run to him, I forced my feet to skid to a halt. Looking around the room, I shoved open the closet door and hid inside, just in case he brought that goddamn gun into the house.

The shooting stopped and silence rang through the air. Sweat coating my body, I blinked it away from my eyes, holding my pistol, ready to fire. Nearly a full minute passed, but there was no sound. When chaos erupted again, it sent bile shooting up my throat, my knees nearly giving out.

A second rapid series of shots went off, and Violetta started screaming at the top of her lungs, not in fear, but in pain.

A burst of adrenaline hit so hard, I grew dizzy, my body refusing to move at first. The spell breaking, I barged through the closet door and ran from the room, crossing the hallway to the master suite. The walls were littered with bullet holes, the door hanging off the hinge with a dirty footprint in the center. Stumbling into the room, my sister was curled on her side just outside the closet, blood pooling on the floor, staining the carpet red.

The entire world stopped and my heart quit beating. Dropping to my knees, I no longer gave a damn what Jackyl did. If my sister was dead, he could kill me, too.

Edoardo Jackson “Jackyl” Bianchi

My sight was zeroed in on the main enemy, a sense of satisfaction lifting my foul mood. Tyler was on the floor, writhing in agony, bullet holes scattered about his body. Staring at the ceiling, his elbows bent, his hands were on his stomach, his spine arching with pain. Sweat seeping through his shirt, one leg was straight with two red stains, the lame leg lifted at the knee. He was attempting to push himself away from me, but kept coughing, his head rolling side to side. For a second, his eyes rolled to whites, and I thought he was dead, but he coughed and gagged, blood sputtering down his chin and across his cheeks.

I snickered and swiftly kicked him in the ribs. He oofed and curled onto his side, his face in the carpet, smearing blood everywhere.

“You stupid, son of a bitch. I fucking warned you, didn’t I? I told you to stay away from Tiny.”

His arms wrapped over his gut, but it wasn’t slowing the bleeding. This bastard was a dead man, it just depended on my mood. Did I want to drag this out and torture him a bit, or was I ready to just be done with this shit for good?

“Hurt, don’t it?”

He groaned, his hips lifting in the air a bit before he crumbled to the floor. “Fuck.”

I laughed, extending my arm to nudge him with the barrel of my rifle. Shoving him to his back, I pointed it at the center of his forehead. “You fucked with the wrong man, motherfucker. She was mine. I made her mine!” I shouted, shaking with rage. “You was just a puny little fucking kid. I was the goddamn man who made her a woman. That was mine!”

He glared at me, his lips curling around his blood stained teeth. “She ain’t a piece of property, asshole,” he wheezed, his body jerking and convulsing uncontrollably. “She’s a human being, and she loves me.”

“Shut up!” I bellowed, pressing the tip to his skull. “She don’t love you, she loves me. She loves me because I told her to, goddammit! I made her mine!”

He smirked and snickered, but that resulted in another fit of coughing that had more blood oozing from his mouth. “You brainwashed her. She never would have wanted anything to do with you otherwise, and you know it. That’s why you did it, you knew she was too good for you.”

Snarling, a growl rumbled up my chest from the pit of my stomach as I pulled the trigger. Tyler grimaced, his face scrunching, but nothing happened. I was out of bullets. Heaving in frustration, I flung the gun aside, lifted the front of my shirt, and swiped the Glock, aiming it at his head.

“Sis? Oh, shit, Letta? Oh, my god, stay with me, honey. Open your eyes. Look at me.”

My heart turned over and I twisted my waist to look back at Vincent. Violetta was in here? Where?

He was sitting on the floor, one leg bent, my wife in his arms. Rocking her back and forth, he was petting her hair, the front of her tank top drenched in blood, more trickling down her face, between her eyes.

Shock hit like a boulder to my gut and the gun slipped from my fingers, thumping to the thick carpet. My jaw gaping, I crept to the front of the room, vomit rising up my throat. “Tiny?” I croaked, horrified at her grave appearance. “Baby, what happened?”

“You fucking shot her, you son of a bitch!” Vincent screamed through a sob, tears streaking his face. “How could you, Jackyl? How could you shoot her? Letta, please!” he shouted, shaking her by her shoulders. “Please, honey, open your eyes again and look at me.”

I shook my head in denial, my breaths coming in short, ragged pants. Her head was rattling around, her arms flailing. Lunging forward, I shoved him off. “Stop it, you’re hurting her!”

“Don’t fucking touch her!”

She slumped to the floor, her head lolling to the side, her arms splayed out awkwardly. My sight raking over her several times, panic was erupting inside, clouding my thoughts as I instantly dropped to my knees. “She’s not breathing. Oh, shit, she’s not breathing. Tiny!” I boomed, cupping her cheeks. “Oh, my god, Tiny, wake up.”

Vincent pounced on me, knocking me away. “Don’t fucking touch her, you bastard. You did this! You fucking killed her. You killed my goddamn sister!”