Page 47 of Ruin

I hadn’t thought about this from my point of view before. I’d been thinking only of keeping Devil away from Knight and making sure that war didn’t happen. But now that I was here, now that I was moments away from facing him down, I realized that there was an angle I hadn’t even thought of before.

I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill the man who’d nearly killed me.

I took strength from that thought, took a deep breath, and shot out of the doorway, my legs and arms pumping as I sprinted right to where I knew Devil and Deon were still waiting in the car. Sure, I’d thought at first that I might turn myself in, count on Devil’s good graces, but that was a fool’s errand.

He’d never let me live, and I’d never get the chance to kill him once I was under his control.

Right now, with the element of surprise on my side, I had my chance. And I was going to take it.

I jerked the gun out of my pocket and held it up, one hand supporting the barrel and the other grasping the stock. My hands were shaking and the nose of the gun was bouncing all over the place, though, and that wasn’t the way to shoot a gun. It was too big and too heavy for me to support or aim with it while I was running.

So I ran until I was 25 feet from Devil, then came to a skidding stop, pointed the gun right at his chest, and started pulling the trigger.

Devil went down right away, and I nearly jumped for joy, amazed that I’d actually hit him. I turned the gun toward him, intent on shooting him again, but then paused, shocked.

Devil was getting right back up again. I’d shot him in the chest and I knew I’d hit him, because he’d gone down. But now, when he should be lying on the ground bleeding out, he was...

Standing up and glaring at me, his fury bleeding out of him and his hands twisted into fists in front of him.

I lifted the gun and pulled the trigger again, but missed. I did it again... and missed.

I took a deep breath and steadied myself, trying very hard to remember everything I’d ever learned about shooting, and was just about to pull the trigger again when a massive hand came down on the gun, throwing it to the ground. Another hand wrapped itself around my mouth and jaw, cutting off the scream that was trying to break loose, and a moment later the hand that had knocked the gun away was grabbing me by the waist and yanking me up. My back hit something hard and enormous, and then I started moving.

Someone had me, I realized. Someone enormous.

Dion. And he was walking right for Devil.

No. No, no, no!

I kicked and squirmed with all my might, fighting and biting and doing my damnedest to get away from the man, but it was no use. Dion was even bigger than Brock and had no problem hurting a girl. He squeezed so hard that I thought my ribs might be breaking. Still I fought. If he got to Devil, if Devil had me, terrible things would happen.

I would rather be dead than experience those things again. I wanted nothing to do with Devil.

As I kicked and screamed, though, my gaze passed over Devil again and again, and on the last pass I saw him walking toward us, all menace and fury, a cold, calculating smile on his face. Catching my gaze on him, he winked and ripped open his shirt.

He was wearing a bulletproof vest.

He had been expecting me.

And now he was laughing maniacally, horribly amused at the idea that I’d walked right into his trap.

CHAPTER 26

KNIGHT

I WENT SWERVING ONTO the street where the bank was, my bike very nearly out of control with how fast I was going. Part of me was screaming that I probably looked like a fucking bank robber, the bandana still tied around my face and my driving reckless at best. I’d be lucky if the cops didn’t happen to be sitting right here, just waiting for someone to do something that required arresting. If they saw it was me, it would be even worse.

And I didn’t give a fuck. Because Saraya was on this street, about to turn herself over to Devil, and I knew in my gut that if she did that, I’d never get her back. I might never even see her again, because I was guessing Devil was going to kill her for having walked out on him.

And if I did see her, it would be her on Devil’s arm rather than mine.

I couldn’t stand the thought of losing her, and I couldn’t stand the thought of her putting herself in danger—or being killed. The idea of it had my heart racing and my blood boiling so that it was hard to think.

I was, in short, freaking the fuck out.

And I never freaked out.

I skidded to a stop about a block from the bank, still rational enough to realize that going tearing up the street on a bike would be the worst possible idea. If Saraya was here, it meant Devil was here somewhere. It was the only reason she would have come to this spot. And if Devil was here, he had men with guns with him.