I was so sick of these men.
Sick of these monsters.
Sick of the way they hide behind these perfect faces.
“You’re wrong,” he hissed, a manic smile curling the corners of his mouth. “Because I’m about to decide your fate right now.” He pulled the knife back, and I knew this time he wasn’t going to stop at one slice.
He was going to attack and attack until he was done.
Until he felt like he had achieved his goal.
To take my life.
SHOTGUN
“Avery! Goddammit,” I cursed, looking at the way the flames climbed and climbed so fucking quickly.
Mix suddenly appeared beside the house, a young girl in his arms who I recognized instantly. “Thayleah jumped. Avery was climbing out after her, but she was pulled bac—”
I didn’t need to hear the rest.
“She’s on the second floor!”
I was already running, rushing around the side of the house, desperately searching for another entrance with the front door looking like the gates to hell.
“This way,” Holly called, gun in her hand, as she ducked past me and disappeared around a corner. I didn’t hesitate, jerking to a stop at a large wooden door.
She tried the handle, jiggling it for about two seconds, before I tugged her out of the way and drove my fucking boot through the lock, chips of wood spraying off it as it flew open, and slammed back against the wall.
I rushed in, instantly being smacked in the face by a wave of fucking smoke.
We kept low, trying to stay below the rising toxins, my face feeling like it might melt off as we got closer to the front foyer where Garrett had started this shitshow. The entire room was almost alight, but I wasn’t about to stop.
I wasn’t about to lose Avery.
This bastard wasn’t going to take another person from my life.
I held my breath, running into the inferno and around the banister at the bottom of the stairs. Holly was close behind me, the both of us taking two steps at a time up to the second floor, hitting the top just as Garrett pulled a sparkling knife back over his head, his aim on my old lady as she lay on the ground beneath him.
My body moved on its own, leaning in, and driving my shoulder straight into his side, the knife clattering onto the floor. We both hit the ground hard, me on top of him. Rage coursed through me, and I didn’t bother to fight it. Instead, I used it as fuel. Garrett tried to escape, wiggling and squirming underneath me like the little fucking bug he was.
I grabbed a fist full of the front of his shirt and drew back, driving punch after punch through his face.
Bones were cracking.
And I’m pretty sure some of them are mine, but it didn’t stop me.
All I could see was the blood sprayed across Emma’s ceiling above her bed. All I could hear were the conversations in my head I was going to have to have with Gage when he got older, telling him how this bastard stole his mom from him. And when I did, I wanted him to know he got what he deserved. I wanted him to know I did what I had to do to make sure his mom could rest peacefully.
I welcomed the pain that came with knowing Garrett wasn’t going to walk out of here. That he was going to bleed and burn. That he wasn’t going to hurt anyone else.
This was for Emma.
It was for Avery.
And it was for Gage.
“Shotgun! We need to go!” I couldn’t stop, the blood clouding my vision. “Shotgun!”
A body hit my back, arms curling around my neck.
I knew her body anywhere.
I knew its shape, its warmth, the feel of her heart as it raced.
“Gage needs us,” she murmured, her words making my hand uncurl from Garrett’s shirt, his body falling limp to the floor. “We need to get out of here and go home to him.” Emotion choked her, each word sounding like it was hard to get out through the tears that dampened my skin.
She slipped back, and I turned around, not waiting another second before I gathered her in my arms and lifted her off the floor. Her legs circled my waist, her body clung to mine like a monkey. “Let’s go home to him.”
The three of us headed for the stairs as two firemen in full protective suits appeared. “Come on. Come on!” they urged, ushering us through the small space they’d created in the flames. “Is there anyone else up there? This place is old and unstable.”
The perfect resting place for a man who wanted to be infamous—a pile of fucking ashes that would be swept aside like it didn’t even exist.
Like it was fucking nothing.
Like he was fucking no one.
Which is exactly who he would be from now on.
“No,” I answered, my voice raw and raspy. “No one.” I placed Avery on the ground, the both of us falling to our knees trying to suck in as much fresh air as we possibly could to clear out clogged lungs. My brothers crowded around us, ushering over EMTs who offered us oxygen and tried to check our injuries.
“Are you sure there’s no one in there?” a policeman asked, crouching down beside Holly as she choked and heaved. Her eyes met mine over his shoulder, and I watched as she shook her head back and forth. “No. No one else.”
“Avery?” I looked up at the sweet voice that hovered over us, a young girl who I instantly recognized appearing with Mix and Kid hovering protectively around her.
Avery rolled over on the grass, sitting up and opening her arms. Thayleah dove into her, sobbing softly into my old lady’s chest. The pain on Avery’s face was obvious, but she wouldn’t say a single fucking word, her only mission to soothe the broken girl in her arms.
“Thayleah, this is Shotgun.” She turned toward me, her eyes sparkling, the same color as Emma’s. “I promised her she wouldn’t be alone when we escaped. That I wouldn’t let her end up with no one.”
Avery thought she was subtle, but I could already see the bond these two had formed, and I knew it was only going to get stronger.
Avery was born to be a mother figure. She was born to care, to protect, and to love harder than I’d ever seen someone fucking love.
It was why I needed her by my side.
It was why the club needed her.
Why Gage and Thayleah needed her.
And God help it if another motherfucker tries to take her from me.
From us.
“Well, Thayleah,” I rasped with a grin. “Welcome to the family.”
The tightness in her body eased, and she sank into Avery’s arms, the smile on my old lady’s face bright and warm.
“And by family, I mean shitshow.”
AVERY
One Month Later
Watching Shotgun and Gage lay sleeping in bed together in the mornings had quickly become my favorite thing, the two of them becoming more and more like twins each and every damn day. And today, I needed that vision of them more so than ever.
I thought maybe I’d feel differently this time. Maybe now I’d found people who cared about me and loved me just like Micah did, that it wouldn’t hurt so much not having her here with me. And yet, I still woke up today feeling like there was a piece of me missing. A chip in my heart that I could live the rest of my life without, but that I still kept trying to fill.
Would my birthday always be this way?
A day I’m not sure I’ll ever claim back for me. How could I? Me getting older every year wasn’t exactly something to be celebrated when my beautiful big sister will never get that same experience ever again.