Surprised, she quickly holds on to the baby, looks up at me, a protest ready to go on her tongue, but I move back and then quickly shove Cole. He spins around faster than I anticipated, a sharp retort on his tongue but I ignore him and then pull the door shut, right in his handsome, anxious face.
“Forgive me, Cole.” I call from behind the door. “Please go.”
I don’t wait to hear what he says, but I do catch the curses as I run back to where Julian is, clutching the big knife in my hands, whispering only two prayers that I can manage at the moment.
First, I pray that Cole gets Kristine and her baby at medical facility on time. And the other, well, to make sure Julian makes it out of this hell alive. I don’t even factor myself in that prayer. I’m already half-dead.
I secure the bloody sheet wrapped around me, tugging it under my arms as tightly as possible. I’m a sight of utter stupidity. Diving into a war with nothing but this, and at minimal capacity.
Shane sees me first. He hasn’t almost made it to the bag, blood pouring from his nose and his temples, his legs lying listlessly on the floor and he starts looking around.
“Where is she?” he roars, seeing the blood all over me. I know he’s asking about Kristine and I know he heard the baby cry.
“Where the fuck is she?”
Without thinking, run towards the freaky black bag and snatch it out of his reach then with all my strength, I toss it as far away as possible. With grim satisfaction, I watch as it goes straight into the fire.
“No! You stupid bitch! I’m going to kill you!”
Running purely on instinct, I swivel around, rush back to where Shane lies on the floor and then I kick the motherfucker as hard as I can across the face, unloading all my frustration and embarrassment for what he and his brother did to me.
A sort of unshakable haze falls over me as I kick him.
Hos screams fade into the background, hell everything fades away as I kick every inch of him that I can.
“That’s for Kristine, you sonofabitch!” I kick him with the back of my heels, relying on my reflexes from all the years I did ballet. “You’ll never get to her,” I seethe.
I have no idea how many times I kick him. I don’t even remember where I kick him but when I come to, I hear Julian shouting my name with urgency. I grow still, my chest heaving up and down so fast. I hadn’t realized I was screaming and crying until I feel the tears streaming down my face. The noise I thought was in the distance dies down as soon as I stop.
“It’s okay, baby,” Julian says softly, his voice strong and sure reaching past my heart and into my chaotic soul and troubled mind. “It’s okay.”
I cling to his voice with a wild panic that’s blooming in my chest and suddenly I want to see him. I want to look into his eyes especially now, in the middle of this hell.
I step back from where Shane is groaning and crying on the floor, blood everywhere and then swivel around, desperately searching for Julian with my heart in my throat only to come to a painful stop as all the relief drains out of my system, replaced by pure and unadulterated fear.
I look at Julian, his beautiful, brilliant eyes looking at me with desperation and horror and I realize why when I see a bloody and panting Sean who’s a few feet behind Julian, holding something in his hand.
A gun. Pointed directly at Julian.
Jesus Christ.
I’m so shocked at the image in front of me that I stand there frozen, my heart and lungs both constricting tighter as I stare, unaware that behind me, just outside, there’s a fire now blazing.
“Say goodbye to your little whore, Fitz!” Sean spits, his mouth full of blood. Julian beat him up so bad that between all of us here, Julian looks otherwise untouched, a god of vengeance who watches me laser focused eyes, trying to tame the fear I can see sneaking into his green eyes.
“Julian!” I scream.
When I blink and things change.
Julian has knocked the gun out of Sean’s grip, and I see it fly across the room as if in slow motion and then, like a sick twist of fate, it lands on the floor with a clutter…. right beside Shane.
I see it.
Julian sees it.
But Shane, splattering and gasping, sees it too and before I can move to snatch it out of his grasp, Shane has the gun in his hand, and I watch helplessly as he flips on his back and points the gun at Julian.
It doesn’t even cross my mind. The decision doesn’t even register. All I know is, there’s no way Julian gets taken from this world. I launch myself in front of the gun.
“Mia! No!”
Everything fades to grey. It all happens in perfect slow motion, with brilliant color and everything.
I see the fear in Julian’s eyes as clear as day. I see his face erupt into a look of stunned anger so intense, I can only stare, committing it to memory.
The fire is raging, I start to feel it all my back. It’s then that I realize Cole must have doused this place with gasoline and struck a match way before he got in to get us.
I blink and the next thing I hear is a gunshot that rings in my head. Then I hear three more shots.
Before I can do anything, or feel anything, I look at Julian, and mouth the only words I’m capable of at the moment, right before another new, intense pain sets in.
“Julian, I love you.”
And thank you for everything.
Chapter Seventeen
Julian
All it takes is three shots.
Three fucking shots to bring my world down to its knees, broken and bleeding.
I’m fucking sure two of those shots were meant for me, but instead the asshole behind me screamed like a little bitch and dropped down to the floor, shot by his own brother.
The last shot should’ve been mine. The fucker was aiming for me and fuck me, I was ready but…
“Mia!” Her name tears out of my lips like a tortured litany, one without hope of absolution. “Mia!”
Nothing.
She doesn’t even make a sound.
The thing in my chest seizes to work, as shock electrifies my system. There’s smoke filling up this fucking warehouse and I just stand there, hardly able to remain standing upright, my eyes wide as fucking saucers as horror mercilessly grips me by the fucking balls and in all that, time suspends into nothing.
I watch her gasp in shock.
I watch her watch me back, a look of pure agony crossing her face as she mouths tacred I read the words she mouths at me and I think I die inside.
I watch, helplessly stunned, as she goes down like a fucking bag of potatoes, blood all over her, the knife she held clutched in her hands cluttering beside her as the blaze of fire grows wilder in the background, getting closer to her.
“Mia!” I roar, as raw, primitive anguish shreds me to unrecognizable pieces. Adrenaline spikes in my veins in a new wave of fury.
No, no, no!
Suddenly, everything is tainted in red. All I see is red. Everything flips in just one breath.
I don’t feel the broken bones in my body or the damage these fucking assholes inflicted. I don’t care that my right arm hangs useless at my side and my fucked-up leg is screaming in pain, I stumble my way to her, shock and rage flushing in my system.
I see the blood pooling on the floor. White hot branding rage rips out of me and without even thinking about it, I charge for Shane but the fucker isn’t there anymore.