AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Shutup.” He enunciated the word with another push on the gun. “Shut the fuck up.”
His expression was flickering between conflicting emotions, and I knew that look. I knew it because that used to be me, and maybe still was—perhaps I simply denied it. Maybe my imagined connection to Emrick was my internal monologue telling me it was sick of hiding, and I needed to be who I really was. Civil society wasn’t for me. I was all shades of messed up. Emrick watched me with haunted eyes, eyes of someone who simply wanted the world to burn and go down screaming with it, taking pleasure in knowing he was part of the downfall. What exactly he was struggling with, I couldn’t be sure, but his face read of a man who was falling apart inside.
He was me. I’d been there. I was there. Maybe I never quite escaped from that dark place.
These people may have been the final straw, or whatever they had been involved in, but they were far from the cause of his anger. He was holding so many things inside. I’d like to say I knew what it was like because I had done it and come through the other side, but the truth was I was still stuck there too. Hell, I had thrown myself into the middle of a situation which could have, and still might, kill me, all because I saw pain in the eyes of someone and hoped their darkness matched mine. I was begging for a connection with someone like me, so I knew I wasn’t alone in this world.
“Emrick…” I tried not to sigh too loudly when the gun was removed from my head, and he pointed it toward the three he had dragged from the van. They immediately started pleading and begging for their lives.
“What did they do?” I whispered, finding my voice. “Why do they deserve this?”
“They are just pawns.” He was staring past me as though I was no longer there but simply a voice in his head. “But they destroyed what was mine.”
“Will they do it again?”
The woman moved to step forward, halting when the gun shifted to her. “Please…” She looked at me. “We were paid to do a job. We won’t do it again… we needed the money. Please, you have to believe us.”
Pressing my lips into a thin line, I watched her face. She wasn’t crying, but she looked close to snapping the thread of control she had left. I still didn’t know why I was here, perhaps Emrickwantedto be talked out of it.
Or maybe he wanted a witness.
He didn’t have to grab me at the club, what I had seen had hardly been incriminating, but why that should bother him, I don’t know. They could have knocked me out, fired me, or simply shoved me back into the crowd and told me to get back to work. But he didn’t, he brought me with him.
What do you see?
What had he been hoping I would see?
Maybe there was a flicker of light left in him yet. Lord knows I was hardly the person to bring someone back onto the right path, but right here and now, he needed help. Maybe I could offer that help.
“Emrick…” I whispered. “Let them go.” He said nothing and didn’t move. I wished I could tell what was going on in his head. “You don’t have to do this, you’re better than this.”
Finally, his eyes shifted to mine, and the gun lowered, only slightly. His would-be victims were still wary of the weapon as they should be. We weren’t out of this yet.
“I’m not better than this.”
“You are.” Moving in front of him, I placed a hand on his and pushed until the gun was pointing at the ground. “You’re the sort of man who kicks someone out of a club for hitting a woman.” I kept my voice quiet, so only he could hear me. I knew the importance of his reputation, and despite how he had been treating me, he obviously needed help. All I could do was hope him bringing me along was his way of asking for it and pray I wasn’t reading the situation wrong and would pay for my error in judgment with my life.
Assuming it wasn’t already his plan to kill me tonight, maybe he wanted to fuck again first.
A shudder moved down my spine, excited when I shouldn’t be.
“They can’t get away with what they’ve done,” he growled out.
He was protecting his own in the most messed-up way possible. He was protecting what was important to him—his business and his empire—the only things he had in this world. He’s putting everything on the line to protect it as I had done with my family.
Where I failed, maybe I can help him succeed.
I know why he needed to kill these people, but perhaps there’s another way, a way where he can protect his and keep what was left of his soul.
All I kept thinking was I was doing a terrible job of abiding by the city’s rules—keep to yourself, keep your head down, and trust no one.
I had thrown myself into the firing line with him.
Maybeforhim.
“I know they can’t…” I said. “But maybe a warning instead of death.” Turning, I looked at them. They were all watching me intently, trying to figure out how I fit into this equation. “They are pawns as you said. They’re not the ones who need punishment.”
The corner of his lip twitched, and I thought he was going to smile. “You could get a job doing this.”
