The villain of my story shifted his grip, and I coiled my leg muscles. No fucking way was I going to kneel there like a good little girl while I get shot in the head. He wanted to kill me? He was gonna work for it.
Before he could pull the trigger, I launched straight at him. My body stayed low as my shoulder slammed into his gut with my full weight, knocking him off his feet. A gunshot ripped through the night, deafening me momentarily, but his shot had gone wide.
He got no time to recover either. One second I was tackling him into the ground, and the next we were smack in the middle of a full-blown gun fight.
Kruger sat up slightly, his eyes wide as several of his men dropped from perfect headshots. "No!" he shrieked.
I wasn't hanging around to chat, though. I rolled like a damn alligator to get away from him, aiming for one of the freshly dead guys and praying he'd have a knife on his body somewhere. Anything sharp to cut my hands loose so I could fight back properly.
Kruger recovered faster than I'd expected, though. He grabbed my arm in a biting grip and hauled me against his body like a human shield. Motherfucker, that's exactly what he was using me as.
"Stop!" he shrieked, pressing his gun to my head. Ah fuck. "Stop, or the bitch gets it!"
The gunfire died down, and my heart raced. Surely the guys weren't falling for that bullshit; he was about to kill me regardless. He was only keeping me alive now to try and guarantee his own exit.
"Let her go!" Archer shouted from across the parking lot. The high beams from the cars made it hard to see exactly where he was, but I had no doubt my guys had the important players in their sights: Zane and Kruger.
Forcing myself to take calming breaths, I let my gaze track around us, hunting for someone in particular. Someone who would need a good line of sight, and—there.
About a hundred feet away, I made out the vague shadow of Steele on top of a shipping container. Only the reflection from his scope and my knowledge of his habits clued me in to him being there, but once I found him, my relief was tangible.
"Not a chance," Kruger yelled back at Archer. "If you're invested in keeping her brains inside her pretty head, then you'll let me leave here unharmed."
I locked my eyes on that shadow that I was sure was Steele. I couldn't make out his features, but I knew he was watching us through his scope. I knew he could read my lips as I mouthed Do it at him.
"Let her go, and we'll make it a quick death," Archer countered, not even bothering to pretend Kruger could leave this scene alive.
Kruger barked a bitter laugh, but I blocked him out. My focus was all on Steele, and I glared harder, silently yelling at him to quit fucking around.
Shoot him. I mouthed the words as clearly as I could. I trust you.
My heart thudded hard. Once. Twice.
Crack.
The sound of a rifle shot echoed through the parking lot, and Kruger jerked like he'd been electrocuted. A sharp flash of pain burned across my temple, and I collapsed to the gravel as Kruger's grip on me loosened.
He hit the ground a fraction of a second after me, his dead eyes staring into mine and the perfect hole in his forehead seeping blood down his face.
Commotion and gunfire exploded around me again, but this time I was too shocked to move. It was only a few seconds, though, until a blade sliced through my wrist restraints, and Kody dragged me behind one of the parked cars for protection.
"Babe, are you okay?" he asked in a panicked gasp. His hand pushed my hair back from my face but froze when I hissed in pain. "Shit. Motherfucker."
"I'm okay," I replied through gritted teeth, fresh blood pouring down my face from my newest injury. "Just a graze. Give me a gun."
Kody's eyes widened, then a grin curved his lips. "Yes, ma'am." He pulled a spare from his ankle holster and helped me wrap my stiff fingers around the grip. "Let's finish this, babe."
He rolled out of our protection, popping off three shots before he found his feet once more, and I followed somewhat slower. My ribs hurt more with every passing second, and the blood running down my face was starting to get in my eye. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally kill the wrong person.
Luckily, though, the fight was already over.
I spotted Cass across the parking lot, standing over the bearded Reaper who'd punched me. He seemed to say something to the man, then shot him straight in the face.
That left just one enemy alive, and he was on his knees with his brother's gun to his head.
"You're a fucking traitor," Zane spat at Cass, who sauntered over to stand beside Archer with his gun held ever so casually in his hand. "You think you can just take my place? My family created the Reapers. They'll never follow a snake like you."
Cass just arched a scarred brow and shrugged. "Well, that's not really your problem, is it? You signed away your life the second you made a move against Archer, and you knew it."
Zane snarled. "Fuck you, Cass. Fuck you."
"You're boring me," Archer commented, his voice dry and devoid of any human emotions. "And you broke the rules."
Bang.
Just like that, the Shadow Grove Reapers saw a change of leadership.
37
There was no question about it, I was in rough shape. James had arrived with the guys and firmly insisted on patching me up before I was allowed to do anything else.
The tally of my injuries was enough to make me cringe from just listening to James mutter under his breath. So far, he’d decided two of my ribs were most probably broken for which he gave me a dose of a decent analgesia to dull the pain. I also had a sprained wrist, and an absolute shitload of bruising. My entire torso from bra to jeans was already darkening with blackish purple, and every movement ached.
Then there was the bullet graze. Steele's shot had been flawless, and the cut it'd opened from the edge of my hairline really wasn't that bad. James cursed about needing to stitch it, but a second opinion from Cass confirmed what I was saying, that it wasn’t that bad. So a bit of surgical glue was as good as it was going to get.
"Archer!" I shouted out as I spotted him swing a punch at Steele.
Snatching the wet cloth from James—he'd been trying to wipe some of the blood off my face—I rushed over to break up their fight.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" I demanded, putting myself physically between them. Kody just stood back, watching with his arms folded across his chest. Unhelpful shithead.
"He shot you!" Archer roared back, his face a mask of fury.
"He saved me," I corrected him in a hard voice. "It's a fucking graze, Arch. You know better than anyone how minor a bullet graze is, and I for one was happy there was no fucking around with Kruger in that situation."
Archer's jaw clenched, his temple throbbing as he glared down at me. "If he'd missed—"
"He didn't. So quit throwing your big dick energy around and focus on this cleanup. I don’t know about you, but I want to go the fuck home and not worry that cops will be arresting us all for multiple murders." I held his gaze steady, even though one of my eyes was throbbing painfully. "Now, Archer."
He scowled back at me another moment, then shot Steele a narrow-eyed glare before storming away to help Sampson's guys clean up the bodies.