I turned and ran down the hallway with the shotgun in my hands, sticking to the edge of the hallway and glancing out the window. There were SUVs all over the property, and I couldsee all of our men on their knees with their hands behind their heads, like they’d been overpowered or they’d surrendered.
And I didn’t see any way Wolfe could get through all of that to me.
Gunfire sounded behind me, and I ran into the nearest room, a guest bedroom that no one had ever used. I crossed the room to the window and yanked it open before I poked my head outside. There was nothing to grab on to to climb up, not even a drainage pipe that collected water in the gutters and directed it to the soil on the ground.
I left the window and was about to run into the hallway when I stopped at the sound of more gunfire echoing in the hallway and shattering my eardrums. I wasn’t sure if my father was taking his last stand…or if he was already dead.
Stay alive until I get to you.Wolfe’s voice played in my head, and I gripped the gun in my hands. I was cornered with nowhere to run, and if I jumped out the window, I would break one or both of my legs in the fall.
“Where is she?” The man I assumed to be Warren spoke from down the hallway.
“Frankie left for lunch?—”
I heard the distinct thud, like someone hit my father in the face with a gun.
“Lie to me again and see what happens. Leo?”
Leo?
“She’s here.” I recognized his voice, clear and recognizable…without a doubt. “She’s hiding in one of these rooms.” WhenI heard his voice again, I nearly gasped in surprise and heartbreak. My hands loosened on my gun, and I nearly dropped it on the floor as the shock rippled through me in waves.
The rat…
The rat was…my brother?
All this time?
My father didn’t speak again. That meant he was unconscious…or in as much shock as I was.
Warren issued another order. “Find her, boys.”
Instead of a surge of terror, I felt a tsunami of rage.
I was so fucking mad.
So mad that I would blow all these assholes to hell—my brother included.
Footsteps sounded as they moved down the hall. Doors opened and closed as they started their sweep. Instead of waiting for them to come to me, I stepped out and fired at whoever was outside my door, killing without prejudice, not caring if that bullet hit a stranger or my own flesh and blood.
The shotgun blasted the man in the chest, and he flew back and hit the floor. Before he landed, I turned my gun to the asshole across the hallway, and I fired, hitting him in the face.
I ducked back into the room and reloaded my gun. “Come and get me yourself, you fucking coward!” I cocked the gun and straightened. “Let me put a bullet right between your goddamn eyes, you son of a bitch.” I leaned against the doorway and listened for footsteps, knowing some of the men were nearby from their previous checks.
Leo shouted back down the hallway. “Frankie, surrender! They aren’t going to kill you.”
“Come down here yourself and watch me surrender, asshole.” I’d been angry with my brother before, over small things and big things, and despite his questionable character at times, I’d never imagined, not even for a fucking second, he would be capable of this kind of depravity. That he would betray his own flesh and blood for money and power. “Come on!” The second I heard steps outside my room, I stepped out and fired once and then turned the gun and fired again, downing two guys in a split second because my focus was razor-sharp. The adrenaline gave me second sight, the ability of a hunter, channeled the rage I’d witnessed Wolfe possess during times like these.
“Frankie, there’s four—”Thud.
I reloaded my gun quicker than I ever had and stepped out, felling the man closest to the door before ducking back in and grabbing my pistol from the back of my jeans. I knew they wouldn’t expect it, so I came around the corner and shot one and then the other, both head shots. I ducked back around and pulled out my knife, squatting down by the door while I waited. There was one more out there.
He stepped into the doorway then fired his automatic and sprayed the room.
“Don’t shoot, idiot!” Leo yelled.
I dropped on my side and then stabbed my knife right through his Achilles just like Wolfe taught me, and he screamed and dropped down to the floor before I got my knife in his neck. He choked on his own blood and then died a second later.
I took his gun off his body and dropped the strap over my shoulder. “Is that all you got?”
