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make the journey in half the time. It’s my fault she’s in danger this time. Her dad was one thing, but this is all on me, and I’ll do anything I can to get her out of it.
My mind runs rampant playing the call over and over in my head. He said people so that means there’s more than one. I just saw Kay and I know Eli is in bed asleep, so who else could it be?
I shake my head and clear my mind. I can’t go in this place with a murky brain. I need to be clear-headed, my focus zeroed in on getting Lily out of there.
I come to a screeching halt when the navigation tells me I’ve arrived, and I jump out, not thinking twice about running into the abandoned building with half of the roof not attached.
“He’s here!” Dean shouts, gaining my attention, and when I whip my head toward him, I grit my teeth.
“Let her go.”
Lily’s head lifts, dried blood on her chin and her cheek swollen, but there’s not one bit of terror in her eyes as she stares at me. She nods, and I know she’s okay. She’s stronger than I’ve ever seen her right now.
Dean tuts, coming to stand next to Lily and points at a red circle on the floor between Lily and someone else who I can’t see.
“Take your position,” Dean commands, but I can’t move my gaze from the man with his hand on Lily’s shoulder. I want to rip it off and shove it up his ass while pulling out every single one of his teeth.
“Get your fuckin’ hands off her,” I growl out to which he grins and raises a brow.
The sound of a gunshot goes off, but I don’t flinch unlike Lily who tries to make herself as small as she can.
“I said,” Dean heaves out. “Take your position!”
I take a breath, my hands clenching and unclenching at my sides, my blood boiling to epic proportions as I make my feet move.
My boots echo on the ground, and when I’m standing in the circle, I look over at the other person, my gut sinking.
“Mom?”
“It’s okay, Son,” she says, pushing her shoulders back. “You’ve got this.”
Dean laughs, pacing a large circle around all of us. My finger twitches, wanting to grab my gun and shoot him between the eyes, and had Lily’s dad not been here, that would have been the first thing I did, but I know I have to choose. I don’t have time to get two shots off, not with the way Dean is on edge. I don’t trust that he wouldn’t kill either Mom or Lily without a second thought.
“Let’s have some storytime… we all loved storytime, right?” Dean doesn’t wait for anyone to answer before he continues, “Once upon a time there was a boy.” He looks up at the roof and points at himself. “Now this boy… he had a mom and a dad, both who loved him very much.” He focuses his attention on me, his eyes flaring. “His dad would visit on weekends—taking him to the park, to baseball practice.” He steps toward Mom and smirks at me as he raises his gun and moves her hair off her shoulder. I jerk forward, wanting to kill the bastard, but he pushes the gun further into her neck. “He was the best kind of dad. Kind, gentle.” His eyes spark when he notices me taking a step back. “But then when the boy turned twelve, his dad just… stopped turning up.”
“What’s your fuckin—”
He spins around and points the gun at Lily. “Nobody interrupts storytime, Luke.” He takes two steps toward her and grips her chin making her open her mouth before he pushes the barrel in there. “You keep quiet or I’ll shoot her brains out.”
I bite down on my tongue, willing my mouth to stay closed as silent tears run down Lily’s face.
“Now imagine this boy growing up for the next eight years without his father. He joins the forces, becomes a bodyguard, makes good on the promise he made when he was sixteen to his dying mother that he’d do something good with his life. He was a good man despite everything.” Content with me not interrupting him anymore, he pulls the gun from Lily’s mouth and faces me before taking a step toward me. He cocks back his gun, a click resounding around the building. I desperately want to look over at Lily or my mom, but I know if I take my eyes off him for even a second, everything could turn to shit... fast.
“Then this man decides he wants to find out if he has anymore family. You know, so that he isn’t all alone in this world.” He comes closer, stopping just outside the red circle I’m standing in. “He finds an older brother… but also his dad’s wife. This confuses him.” He tilts his head to the side and scratches his temple with the gun. I wince at the action but also hope he accidentally shoots himself with it. “Because his dad was married to his mom, not this other guy’s mom.” He purses his lips. “He wants answers, and rightly so, eh? But he can’t get answers because his mom is dead… and so is his dad.” He stares at me, growling out, “At the hands of his eldest son.”
I try to even my breathing out, knowing what he’s saying but not fully registering it as he backs away completely, standing opposite me but farther back from where Lily and Mom are sitting.
“So, you see, my brother took something from me—my dad. So now I’m gonna take something from him.” He swings his gun between Mom and Lily. “But I’m a nice person, y’know?” He places his hand on his chest, smiling. “Because I’m gonna let him choose who dies: his mom, or his wife.”
“Wife?” Mom chokes out, but I don’t have time for that right now, not with this psycho on the loose—a psycho who is apparently my brother. Shit. Fuck. How the hell can he idolize a man like my dad? Can he not see how fucked up the whole thing is? Can he not—
“Choose,” he demands.
My gaze swings between my mom and Lily before I look down at the red circle I’m standing in. This is it, I can feel it in every single part of my body. If I’m leaving this world, I’ll do everything I can to protect the people I love.
I have one chance, several seconds to kill him, but when I look back up at Lily and see her dad leaning down, licking the side of her neck and grabbing at her, all my training goes out the window.
Years of learning to keep your emotions in check, to focus on the only way out, to take a look at every angle. It all disappears as I reach for my gun, holding it up and pointing it at her dad, shooting off two rounds directed at his head.
