At least one more person has entered through the back door. From where I’m braced against the wall in the kitchen, I can get a glimpse down the hallway that leads to the back of the house. As I peer out cautiously, I catch sight of the man I clipped in the shoulder shoving open the bedroom door where we left Dominic bound on the bed.
Fuck.
My heart lurches in my chest, a wave of fear crashing through me. I fire at the man again, but I miss this time, and he slips into the room before I can try again. Two muffled shots ring out, and then there’s a yell and a heavy thud.
My stomach feels like someone pumped it full of battery acid. A bitter taste coats my tongue, and the pops and pings of gunshots around me sound muffled, as if we’re all underwater.
I don’t know Dominic, not really. But the idea that he might be dead makes something shrivel inside me.
No.
No.
With a harsh yell, I lean around the kitchen doorway slightly and take aim at the front door. I may not be able to shoot into the bedroom, but I can at least do something.
My heart pounds as I take aim and fire at the small expanse of someone’s shoulder that’s visible outside the front door. It’s either blind luck or blind rage, but my bullet finds its mark this time. Droplets of blood spray, and when the man staggers sideways a little, I fire again, piercing his chest. He falls through the open frame of the doorway, dead before he even hits the ground.
Ryland glances at me, looking a little impressed, but I don’t have time to think about it. I don’t have time to think about the fact that I just killed a man. Adrian is still staked out in the front, and the men who took up positions in the back hallway are still there, boxing us into the living room like cats chasing mice.
Suddenly, two pinging gunshots ring out.
I look over in time to see two of the men who took cover in the hallway topple.
Dominic leans heavily on the bedroom door frame as he swings his weapon around. His hands are still bound, but he’s managed to undo the tape that was wound around his ankles. He must’ve gotten the gun from the man who broke into the room.
The two men at the front of the house—Adrian and one other—turn their fire on Dom, and he stumbles backward.
But his shots gave us the opening we need.
The men in the back hallway are all down, and Dominic has drawn Adrian and his buddy’s fire.
Theo and Marcus don’t waste the opportunity. They both burst out from behind the bookshelf they had angled in one corner as cover, bullets flying as they race across the room.
Adrian and his man shift their attack to the men rushing toward them, but they’re too late. Marcus shoots the man whose shoulder I clipped, catching him in the neck, and he goes down with a gurgling grunt.
Adrian Reyes steps around the door frame, his face set in a mask of anger. He raises his gun, aiming it at Marcus, but a shot rings out like a clap of thunder.
He staggers slightly, taking a few steps inside the house, and Ryland shoots again, sending him sprawling back against the wall just inside the door.
Adrian’s body hits the wall and slides down, toppling over to lie in a crumpled heap.
For a moment, my mind can’t quite comprehend that the shooting has stopped. The silence seems to roar in my ears like avenging thunder, and only now, after it all, does nausea coil in my stomach.
“Fuck,” I whisper.
“Yeah.”
Ryland extends his hand to me, helping me up from my knees. My dress is in even worse shape than before, and it occurs to me that if shit keeps going the way it has been, I should really do myself a favor and just tear most of the skirt off. I need room to move, and the fabric keeps tripping me up.
None of us put our weapons away as we slowly assess the state of the room. When a scuffling sound comes from the hallway, all four of us raise our guns. It’s Dom, leaning stiffly against the doorframe of the bedroom again. He’s still holding his stolen weapon, and I can see that his wrists are red and raw looking where the tape binds them.
For a moment, the five of us stand in a silent face-off. Then he grimaces, making a show of lowering his gun.
“If I wanted to shoot you, I would’ve done it while everyone else was shooting at you too,” he mutters, looking a little sullen. The bruise on his head is getting steadily uglier, and his eyes are bloodshot. He looks like shit, and I don’t know how to feel about that.
About him.
So I just drag my gaze away, letting the men deal with him. As Theo walks over and takes the gun, I survey the space around me.
There are spatters of blood on the walls and floor, and the bodies strewn around the room are a macabre sight. It didn’t all register in the heat of the shootout, but the vacant eyes and bullet wounds turn my stomach.
Slowly, I move toward Adrian’s body. There’s no fucking chance he’s still alive, but I cautiously nudge his form with my toe anyway.
“Can you untie me? I’d be able to help better if I could move my hands independently,” Dominic comments from behind me.
“You’d be able to help better if you sit down and shut the fuck up,” Theo shoots back, and Dom lets out an annoyed noise.
I look up from Adrian’s body, turning to face the others. “How close are the nearest neighbors? What are the odds anybody heard this and called the cops?”
If the cops are on the way, we’ll need to get out of here as fast as we can. The last thing any of us need is to get hauled in to jail. We’d be sitting ducks.
“Nobody close. That’s part of why we picked this location,” Ryland tells me.
I nod. “Good. We should still—”
Before I can finish the sentence, cool metal presses against my temple. A slender arm wraps around my torso from behind, pinning me against a feminine body as the gun digs harder into the side of my head.
“Hey, guys,” Victoria drawls. “Did I miss the party?”
Chapter 15
My heart lurches, jumping into my throat.
All four of the men’s heads whip toward us. Dominic looks startled, but the other three? They look pissed.
Furious.
“Drop the gun,” Victoria tells me, and her voice has already dropped the teasing drawl. She jams the barrel of her own weapon against my temple, her grip on me tightening.
I hesitate for a second, but Ryland speaks, his jaw tight. “Do it.”
Carefully, I toss the gun aside. It lands on the hardwood with a dull thunk, and I instantly feel naked and exposed without its heavy weight in my hand.
“Good.” Victoria nods. I catch the movement out of the corner of my eye. Her head is close to mine, her body angled behind mine so that I provide a convenient shield for her.
“What the fuck are you doing, Victoria?” Marcus growls, rage burning in his eyes.
“What the fuck do you think I’m doing?” she spits back, an edge to her voice that I’ve never heard before. “I’m trying to end this fucking thing. To win.”
“Yeah?” Theo’s voice is hard. “How you gonna do that? Huh? We’ve got you outnumbered. Unless you brought backup like Adrian did.”
She scoffs. “No, I don’t have backup like him. I followed him alone.” She glances around the room. “Not like his backup did him a whole lot of fucking good. Besides, I don’t need it. Because I’ve got your girl.”