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Kane steps up to her and grabs her around the throat. She recoils—or tries to. She doesn’t move far because of the grip he has on her. Pulling her towards him, he snarls in her face.
“You really are a despicable piece of shit, aren’t you?”
“I carried you in my body, Kane. You think I don’t love you? You think everything I have done hasn’t been to give you a better life?”
“I think everything you did was to keep power and keep your crown. No more. Your reign is done.”
Her eyes dart between her sons before coming to rest on Anthony, who is barely conscious.
“Kane, wait…”
“No.”
Zeke raises his gun and fires. The bullet slams into Anthony’s head. He jerks and then slumps, his body boneless. There is a moment of silence, before Charlotte starts screaming. It’s a curdling shriek that chills my blood. I’ve never seen so much pain and anguish from a person in my life.
She tries to get to Anthony, but Kane holds her in place.
“You fucking cunts!” she screams. “You fucking shit heads!”
I glance at Zeke, who lowers the gun. “Your first mistake, Mother, was thinking we would allow you to keep coming for Aurelia.”
“You chose your sister, over me?”
“Every time,” Luke says.
“That man I set her up with is literally a lord! What could you possibly object to about that?”
“He wasn’t her choice.”
“And who was?”
“Me,” I say, speaking for the first time since stepping into the room.
Her eyes slide towards me, and I see the disdain in them. “You let your sister marry him? Over a lord?” She glances back at Anthony. “You have destroyed our family. I’m going to murder you all for this.”
She half turns, and as she does, Kane shoots. The bullet hits her shoulder, but she doesn’t go down. Instead, she rushes for the patio doors and into the garden. I start after her first. No way in fuck am I letting this bitch go, not when Aurelia’s life is at risk.
Charlotte tears across the lawn. Her strides are long, fuelled no doubt by adrenaline, and fast. I pump faster to catch up to her.
I’m not sure if her sons are following. I don’t care. My focus is on keeping my wife safe. I realise they are when gunshots pepper the grass behind Charlotte.
She reaches the perimeter wall. It’s not tall, only a couple of feet high, dry stone. Charlotte vaults over it and staggers onto the road. She twists to look back as I leap over the wall myself.
It happens fast. There’s a flash of movement on the road. A car. It hits her, tossing her into the air. The squeal of brakes punches through the otherwise silence of the countryside, the wheels locking as the driver tries to stop. The car skids across the tarmac for over two hundred feet before screaming to a halt.
My breath rips out of me as I try to register what the fuck just happened.
Zeke and his brothers jump over the wall, coming to stand with me at the side of the road.
“Fuck,” Zeke mutters, his eyes gravitating to the downed body of Charlotte.
She hasn’t moved. The driver hasn’t either. The car is sitting in the middle of the road, the smell of burning rubber filling the air.
“Handle the driver,” Kane says to Luke.
He starts to move towards the car, but it suddenly revs and peels out of there. “Fuck,” Luke snaps. “Anyone catch the reg?”
“No. It doesn’t matter.” Kane steps towards the downed body of Charlotte. We follow him. “We need to drag her off the road.”
