"Easy, Storm," Digger muttered.
"Ten brothers have reached your back yard," SL whispered softly behind me.
"You will be mine. Once this bitch is dead!" Kendra snarled, pushing the gun harder into Keira’s temple. "I should have killed you years ago, you sanctimonious bitch," she spat at her. "You should have left him alone. He’s mine. Mine, do you fucking hear me?"
I caught Keira’s eyes, urging her to… Jesus. I didn’t know what. I’d never taught her fucking self-defense, had always relied on brothers to protect her for me.
Sweet fuck.
She needed to do Krav as well.
If we made it out of this hell, she’d be joining Cyan and me at those classes too.
I clung to that hope with every fiber of my being. Praying that’d happen, pleading with whoever the hell would listen to make it so.
When Keira’s knees buckled, Kendra’s attention split a bare second and I took the opportunity to rush closer to the window while her focus was shot, but I didn’t get there fast enough.
Kendra shoved Keira against the window, using the glass to prop her up. With her face shoved into it, I knew it had to be hard to breathe, but this close, I could smell Kendra’s godawful perfume and knew that if I was fast enough, I could shoot her, but that was only one-fifth of the problem resolved.
"What’s the end game here, Kendra?" I rumbled, close enough now that I saw the beads of sweat on her temple, little droplets that rolled down into her eyes, making her blink double time. Those godawful beetle eyelashes fluttered as fast as the pulse in her throat and prompted me to continue, "You’re just pussy, Kendra. Just pussy. You don’t have a clue what you got yourself wrapped up in."
Her knuckles blanched under the pressure of her grip on the gun. "I know they wanted you to hand yourself over. I knew that the only way you’d do that was if this fucking cunt was in danger. Why the hell did you have to be so predictable, Storm?"
"If love’s made me predictable, then so be it."
"You don’t love her. You’re obsessed with her—"
"Like you’re obsessed with me?" I scanned a look behind her, trying to see if there was any movement.
This was Keira’s bedroom, our room more recently, so I had to pray that Cyan was tucked up in the safe room.
"I love you, Storm. I’ve always goddamn loved you and you never saw me once you clapped eyes on this bitch."
"Want to know a secret, Kendra?" I rasped, taking a step closer to the window, so close that we were almost within touching distance.
Our room wasn’t on ground level, it was like a half floor up, so I stared up at her with about four feet of height difference. It meant I couldn’t launch myself into the room without Keira getting hurt, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t mess with Kendra’s head.
"I want to know anything you’ve got to tell me," she whispered, the puppy voice making me want to hurl.
"You stuck to me like superglue because you thought I was the weakest of my brothers—"
"No," she whined.
"Yes," I drawled. "Do you remember that day you rolled into town?"
"No. ‘Course I don’t. That was years ago. And baby, that’s a lie, I never thought you were weak—"
My skin crawled at her term of endearment. "I know you saw them dragging my ass off to the Fridge. I know because I saw you watching me." I tapped my nose. "Not gonna lie, I checked you out. But you saw an easy ride, and when I never rolled over, you got more and more hooked on the idea of an easy score. But there’s nothing easy about me, Kendra, and the biggest secret of all?
"I hate you," I told her softly, letting my hatred for her filter into the words like venom, wanting it to kill her, hoping it choked her. "I’ve always fucking hated you. Every last goddamn thing about you.
"It’s why the only way I tapped your ass is when I was so fucking high I’d mistake you for the only goddamn woman I’ve ever truly wanted."
"No, no, no," she warbled, punctuating every word I uttered with one of her own. "You love me, you just don’t understand what we mean to each other."
"I understand that you’re fucking insane," I retorted, which was when I heard a crash and the shattering of glass at the other end of the house which told me my brothers were storming in through the family room.
Kendra twisted around at the noise, I grabbed one of my guns, but before I could do anything, Keira swept her arms to the side, using her bundled fists to slam them into Kendra’s temple.
The move jolted Kendra, pushing her over just as Doc rolled in. Without even a second’s thought, I pulled back so I could get a better aim, then depressed the trigger, watching with satisfaction as blood spurted from his forehead and he froze in space and time, hovering endlessly before he dropped to his knees.
When another brother rolled in, Sticky, spying Doc’s fallen body, yelled, "You motherfucker!" That was when I took aim again, getting the fucker in the throat. As he choked on blood, his body flopping around like a dying fish, I heard Keira’s war cry when she started hammering into Kendra who was fighting back with tooth and claw.
Needing to get in there, I hurled myself at the window, grabbing the sill and throwing my body through the space. It was a tight fit, and I almost bit a bullet for it when Keira knocked the gun out of Kendra’s hands and it went off.
The blast was excruciatingly loud because the shot went wide, hitting the brickwork beneath the window while the weapon landed near the closet. Dust plumed and exploded, and I swallowed a fuck ton of it, hacking it off my chest.
Before I could stop the ringing in my ears and get the dust out of my eyes, out of nowhere, Cyan appeared.
Coughing, I stared at her in shock, not having seen her leave the safe room, but the doors to it and the closet were wide open.
"We got two down here," a brother hollered from the other end of the house.
"Grim and Hook," another shouted, confirming that everyone was accounted for.
That was when Cyan clicked the safety on the gun she was holding, and that was when Keira and Kendra froze in place.
"Ladybug, what are you doing?" I rasped, determined that I’d kill Giulia the next time I was back home. She’d taught my kid how to hold a fucking gun? Who the fuck did that? "Put the gun down, baby."
Her eyes were surprisingly calm, and what was worse, her hands weren’t shaking.
It looked obscene.
My fairy-like daughter holding a weapon that butchered men.
That slayed them.
I gritted my teeth, managing to grate out, "Put it down, Cyan."
I heard a soft curse as Keira reached up and tugged at the duct tape on her mouth. "Baby, do as your daddy says," she slurred, half of the tape still stuck to her lips.
Cyan shook her head. "She killed Fraction, Mommy."
My jaw tensed just as Keira’s brow puckered.
"She didn’t have to do that. She didn’t have to." Her head swayed from side to side, then her bottom lip trembled. "Why would you do that?" she screamed at Kendra, bouncing on the balls of her feet like she had too much energy to contain.
But still, her goddamn arms didn’t waver.