Shit. Fucking shit, we needed to get out.
I needed to get Claire out.
Get her out of harm’s way. She was just so far away from me.
“Bravo, bravo!” Boomed a voice I knew all too well.
Balthazar Kane came from the other side of the room where Claire was.
The Spades stopped to give him access but Claire and the guys rushed him.
“No!” I yelled, but it was too late. One of the men grabbed Claire from behind and held a gun to her head. She couldn’t even fight back.
John and Lucas stopped in their tracks when they saw that, keeping their guns low.
Balthazar and two men came forward, humor on their evil faces.
I stopped too and Balthazar looked to me with a vibrant smile.
“Got your woman, Xander Cage,” he chanted in a sing song voice. He walked up to Claire, took her from the guy and lifted her into the air by her throat. “I got her good this time.”
“Put her down!” I roared, glaring on in complete horror.
It was a fruitless attempt.
“Yeah, you want me to put her down? Sure.”
When he set her down I knew that wasn’t going to be the end of it. He wouldn’t just let her go.
I was ten feet away from them, so close but too far away.
She looked to me. It was in her eyes.
Goodbye.
Goodbye was in her eyes.
“Please don’t –” the shot that rippled through the air stole my words away.
It was like having an out-of-body experience. Watching something that didn’t seem real.
It couldn’t be.
How?
I’d just seen a bullet rip into Claire’s head and blood splatter everywhere.
Everywhere.
My girl.
We met when we were sixteen. We did everything together. I followed her everywhere and she followed me.
I was going to ask her to marry me.
We were going to…
A bullet tore through my chest… and then another.
