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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 fiv
e 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.
