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“You’re the key to my cousin’s cooperation. Once we’re sure Everett is loyal, Charles here can do anything he pleases with you. But until then, we need the leverage.”
My eyes dart to Storm who’s already looking at me, an inkling of doubt appearing in the gray. He knows Everett will do anything to keep me safe, including betray the family.
“That wasn’t the deal,” Charles growls, charging toward Elijah despite the obvious height difference.
Elijah stares down at him with amusement dancing on his lips. “You need to remember your place, Charlie boy. You came tousneeding help. And while all the information you’ve provided us has been very useful, you’ve officially run out of your usefulness. I’m willing to keep our deal, but not until I can ensure Everett is who he says he is.”
I tug at the ropes again, breathing through the pain and biting back the cry stuck in my throat. This is our best chance. They’re distracted, and if I can just get out of these ropes, there’s a gun under the side table a few feet away. If I can get to the gun, I will not hesitate to shoot both these assholes square between the eyes like Rayne taught me and at the time, hoped I would never have to do.
The rope slips, and my eyes widen as the other pulls free, but I don’t move immediately. I remain still as the two men in front of us face-off, waiting for my chance to make my move.
Storm’s eyes drop behind me and he shakes his head ever so slightly, telling me not to make a move, but I have to end this. This has gone on for too long, and the more time that passes, the more chance Charles is going to get sick of waiting and at the very least, hurt me.
The sound of tires on the gravel of the driveway pulls all our attention and I take a deep breath. It’s now or never. Gunshots fill the quiet night and Charles and Elijah both move to the window to see what the commotion is about.
Now,Storm mouths to me.
I drop to the ground silently and crawl behind Storm’s chair, slipping the gun from its hiding place and standing the same way I have every time I’ve ever held a gun. The cool metal is heavy in my hands as I widen my stance, my legs shoulder width apart, my arms extended out in front of me as I take deep, steadying breaths. The first thing my brothers ever taught me about guns is that the worst thing you can do is shoot while panicked.
But I don’t feel panic. My chest and heart are filled with nothing but peace.
64
Everett
Rayne takes another corner without slowing down and my body hits the side of the car harshly, knocking the wind from my lungs.
“Can you quit that?” I choke. The agony from the gunshot radiates from the wound itself throughout my abdomen and down my thighs. This is fortunately my first, and I hope to fuck it’s my last because holy fucking shit does it hurt.
Rayne glares at me out of the corner of his eye and purposely does the same thing again at the next bend. “Get into the fucking security system and check on Storm and Wynter and leave the driving to me.”
I sigh. I’m trying to hack into the cameras with the laptop Rayne keeps in his car, but they’ve shut the system down completely and it doesn’t matter which way I try to sneak in, the only cameras I can get into are the safe room.
Snow holds Emerson as she shakes in her arms, her phone clutched to her chest, but the room is completely dark, the cameras that usually fill the wall behind them gray and fuzzy. It doesn’t matter what I do, I can’t get the cameras on, and I can’t check if Wynter is okay. For all I know, they’ve already taken her and Storm, I just have to hope if that is the case, that they take them to the club because that’s where they think they’re safe.
“She’s fine, Ev,” Rayne says a moment before we take another bend, but this time I brace myself for the blow.
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes I do. I know my sister. There’s no way she’s going down without one hell of a fucking fight. She saved Emerson and Snow, got them both into the safe room and sacrificed herself. She’s the strongest fucking woman I’ve ever met, and there’s not a chance in hell she’s going out like this.” I’ve never heard Rayne talk about his sisters with so much pride, or sound so sure of their abilities.
“She fucking hates me, Rayne. You didn’t see the way she looked at me at Frost today. I’ve never seen her look at someone with so much hatred and disgust as she did me today.”
“She only had one side of the story.”
“Does that really matter? I’ve lied to her over and over again. I’ve broken her heart, hurt her, and now she finds out I’ve been working with my uncles. I can’t see how she’s going to look past that.” A wave of agony crashes down on me, and I hold the old blanket I have pressed to the wound closer, a hiss whistling through my teeth. I can succumb to the pain as soon as I’m sure my girl is safe, and not a moment sooner.
“How far away are we?” I ask, finally looking out the window. The roads are quiet for this time of night, the highway is usually bumper to bumper at this time, but maybe some god somewhere is looking down on us. Maybe they know how pure Wynter is, and that we’re her only hope.
“A few minutes at most,” he tells me, taking another turn but this time I brace myself for the pain. I need it.
The closer we get to the estate, the deeper the sinking feeling in my chest seems to get. What if she’s not there? What if they’ve taken her?
Rayne skids into the driveway, the rear of the car spinning out as I grab a hold of the door to keep myself in place if we spin out of control, but he quickly pulls the car back in line and guns down the driveway.
“There’s a gun under your seat. I think we’re going to need it,” Rayne says, nodding toward the gate where a line of Russo’s men stand. I hate to think of how many people we’ve lost tonight, but it’s nowhere near the number they’re going to lose, including their fearless leaders. The longer we wait to hear how the hit went, the more nervous I’m getting. Tommy may trust The Legion but I sure as hell don’t.
Bullets hit the car in loud dings, but I designed this car myself for Rayne knowing the shit he gets himself into. There won’t be a dent no matter how many bullets they fire. He presses the button and both windows open as I quickly pull the gun from beneath me and aim it out the window. “You know you’re going to have to get a dad car when you knock up Emerson.”
