Another shot rings out, and Rajah yells as he crumples to the floor next to me, clutching his leg.
“Motherfucker.”
Blood is pouring from a hole in his thigh, and I stare at it for a second before the first aid training I took when I was in college kicks in. I need to press something against it to stop the bleeding, but the only thing I have near me are the clothes on my back.
Shit.
Horseman ducks behind the table with us as more shots fill my quaint little coffee shop, and I squeeze my eyes shut as my heart thunders in my chest. Someone is screaming from the back room, and there is a hissing that makes me think someone shot one of my espresso machines but the sound of glass breaking forces my eyes open again just as Horseman ducks behind our little makeshift barrier
“Here,” he says, holding out his t-shirt to me before gesturing to Rajah’s leg. “Make sure he doesn’t bleed out.”
He turns back to the chaos and pops back above the table again to fire a few shots back at Geno and his men. A bullet whips past him and goes clean through the bathroom door at the back of the shop, leaving a perfect little hole in its wake. Turning my attention back to Rajah, I wad up Horseman’s shirt and press it to his wound. He hisses, gnashing his teeth together as he squeezes his eyes closed and grips his leg so hard his knuckles turn white.
“I’m sorry, Rajah,” I whisper, and with his teeth still clenched, he shakes his head and tries his best to flash me a grin.
“What? Like I’ve never been shot before? Besides, it doesn’t even hurt that bad.”
I lean forward and gently pat his cheek. “Okay, tough guy.”
“That’s enough,” Geno yells, his voice rising above the hail of gunfire decimating my little coffee shop, and everything goes silent. “Now, I would like to speak to Hermoine.”
Horseman snorts. “Yeah, that’s not gonna fucking happen.”
“Like you can stop me, you little pissant,” Geno laughs, his men joining him, and it takes every ounce of restraint I have to not grab the gun in Rajah’s hand and deal with this myself.
I fucking hate Geno.
I hate his goddamn men.
But more than anything, I hate everything they stole from me in that motel room.
“Listen up, daughter,” Geno yells. “I have a few things I want to say to you.”
I don’t know what comes over me as the moment the word “daughter” leaves his lips, I spring to my feet and spin to face him. Horseman grabs my hand and pulls me back down, pinning me with a glare.
“Jesus Christ, woman. Are you trying to get shot?”
“He won’t shoot me.” I don’t know how I know this, but I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. If Geno were going to kill me, he wouldn’t want it to be quick. He’d want to draw out the pain and make me regret the choice to deny him as my father as much as he possibly could.
“Okay,” Horseman shoots back, glaring at me. “Well, what about my life, then? Do you not care about that? Cause Falcon will murder me slowly if I let anything happen to you.”
“Oh, Hermoine,” Geno calls, and I roll my eyes before flashing Horseman an apologetic expression.
“I’m sorry.”
He studies me for a second before nodding. “Apology accepted.”
“Thank God,” Rajah whispers, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he wipes away a few fake tears. “That was beautiful, truly. Now, what the fuck are we going to do about the three douchebags by the door?”
“He won’t shoot me,” I tell them again, glancing back and forth between the two of them. Both of them stare back at me, bewildered.
“And how the hell do you know that?” Rajah asks.
I sigh, memories from my time in the motel room coming back to me. “Shooting me would be too quick for Geno. If he wanted to kill me, he’d want to take his time, draw it out and make it hurt as much as possible. He’d want to break me mentally before he ever gave me the reprieve of death.”
“What the fuck?” Horseman breathes, looking even more baffled than before.
“Uh, also . . . did I hear him right when he called you his daughter?” Rajah asks, and I nod. I wasn’t ready to talk about all this with anyone but Falcon. Geno forced my hand, though, and it made me hate him even more.
“He’s your father?”
I shrug, glancing between the two of them. “Seems like it.”
“So . . .” Rajah draws out, arching a brow in question. “Do you want to talk to him?”
“Hermoine!” Geno bellows, the rage in his voice making my stomach sink as I turn to Rajah and shake my head.
“Not really, but I don’t see what choice we have.”
Horseman sits up a little straighter. “I’ll go with you. Rajah, you stay down here and try to get ahold of Falcon or anyone else that can come give us some backup.”
Rajah nods and digs his phone out of his pocket. As he begins scrolling through his recently called numbers to find Falcon’s, Horseman turns to me and nods.
“Let’s do this.”
We stand at the same time and turn to face Geno and his men. As soon as he sees my face, that grin I hate with every ounce of my being makes an appearance.
“Ah, there she is.”
“Go fuck yourself, Geno,” I tell him, not giving one single shit if he decides to shoot me. Well, okay, maybe one shit because if he did that, I would never see Falcon again, and that would be unbearable.
“Hermoine,” he sighs, waving his gun in front of his face. “What did I say about respecting your father?”
I cross my arms over my chest, remembering the way he backhanded me again and again. “And what did I tell you when you kidnapped me? You are nothing more than a sperm donor.”
“Seems she needs another lesson in respect, boys,” he says, chuckling to himself as he looks over at his men. I meet Coe’s gaze as he watches me with a predatory stare, but I ignore the shiver that snakes down my spine as I look back at Geno.
“You can beat me as many times as you like and have your men rape me until I take my last breath, but I will never acknowledge you as anything more than that.”
Horseman turns to look at me. I can feel his gaze on the side of my face as he processes the new information he just received, but I refuse to look away from Geno and let him win.
Never again.
Geno grins. “We’ll see about that, daughter.”
In my peripheral vision, I see something move and glance over as Falcon, and the rest of his men creep up to the front of the coffee shop. Geno hasn’t noticed them yet with his back to the door, and I need to keep them distracted for as long as I can. Turning back to Geno, I flash him the same smile he’s so fond of showing me.
“You don’t really think that will work, do you? Honestly, you did your worst to try and make me submit to you. It didn’t work, so to keep pushing at this point is just pathetic.”
He takes a menacing step forward. “Watch your tone, bitch.”
“Or what?” I ask. Horseman is staring at me like I’m absolutely insane, meaning he hasn’t seen his brothers making their move yet either, but I can’t do anything to alert him, or Geno might notice. Geno raises his gun and aims it at Horseman. My heart leaps into my throat.