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"You," I growl. It's the same bastard from the warehouse.
"Motherfu—"
I pull the trigger.
He goes limp, his insult fading to silence.
I toss my gun and take off running, racing back to the SUV.
"Snow!" I shout, praying to God that she's safe and unhurt. Please, God, let her be alive. I won't survive if she isn't. No one will.
Constantine's moving in the backseat, groaning. He's alive.
Snow's slumped over.
I roar in fury, grabbing for the door handle. The fucking thing resists me, trying to keep me away from her. I roar again, yanking as hard as I can. Dented metal groans as it slowly opens.
"Snow!" I practically sob her name, my hands shaking as I reach for her seat belt. She's too pale, too still. "Please, God. Oh, fuck. Please."
People shout in the distance and doors slam, but I ignore it, focused on Snow. I lift her carefully out of her seat, cradling her in my arms as I jog toward the grass with her. Someone tries to take her from me, but I growl a warning. No one is touching her. No one is taking her. She's mine, goddammit. Mine.
"Please, little one," I whisper, laying her carefully in the grass a few feet from the wreckage. "Please." I drop to my knees beside her, running my hands all over her body, carefully checking her for gunshot wounds or injuries. I sob in relief when I find none. They didn't hit her. Thank God, they didn't hit her.
She has a knot on her head, but she's alive. She's breathing.
"Come back to me, Snow," I plead quietly, leaning down to press my lips to hers. "Please, Magic. I need you." I kiss her warm lips, dripping tears onto her face. Breathing my air into her lungs. "I love you."
She stirs beneath me, sighing softly. "Dimitri. I had the strangest dream. I got lost in the woods and I couldn't find you."
"I'm right here, Magic," I breathe, dragging her into my arms as my heart cracks in half and fills at the same time. "You're right here with me and you're safe."
Christ. She's safe.
I rain kisses across her face, silently thanking God as tears drip down my face, unchecked.
"I love you, Snow. My God, how I love you, little one."
We ride to the hospital in an ambulance together, with Dante following behind with Constantine. He's banged up but fine. We all got lucky. The motherfuckers who tried to ambush us didn't.
Jude and Dillon meet us at the hospital.
"What the fuck happened?" Dillon growls, storming into Snow's room while they're doing CT scans. "You shot four people?"
"You're welcome," I snap. My head is pounding where I hit it. They stitched me up and left me alone. Mostly because I refused to allow them to do anything else. I don't need treatment. I just need to know that Snow is going to be okay.
"Easy, Dimitri," Jude says quietly. "He's on your side. He's just stressed the fuck out right now." He shoots Dillon a hard look.
Dillon curses, scrubbing a hand down his face. "He's right. I'm being an asshole. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I mutter.
"Is Aneira okay?"
"Her name is Snow."
He nods. "Is she all right?"
"She will be if you arrest her bitch of a stepmother," I say. "All of this is her doing. She's been trying to kill Snow for months. This was just the latest attempt." I meet his gaze, mine unyielding. "There won't be a sixth, Armstrong."
I don't have to spell it out for him. He knows exactly what I mean. If she tries again, I'll kill her. I don't care if she's a woman. I don't care if she's Snow's stepmother. I don't care if it blackens my soul beyond redemption. The only thing I care about is Snow. I almost lost her today. For a few minutes, I thought I had lost her. I will never allow that bitch to take her from me or harm her again. Ever.
"Jude filled me in already," Dillon says, shaking his head. "I've already requested a warrant for her arrest. She'll be in handcuffs by the end of the day, Arakas."
"Good." I lean back in my chair, mollified.
"What happened out there?"
"They ambushed us," I say quietly. "I had a choice between letting them shoot us or running them down. I ran them down."
"And then shot them?" He quirks a brow.
"Stand your ground is still the law in Texas, Armstrong. I stood my fucking ground. Just like I stood it at The Falls. If you want to arrest me for it, so be it. The charges will never stick, and you know it."
He sighs. "Does everything have to be a fight with you?"
"You're the one who told Delilah where to find her," I say with a shrug. "When I decide I'm done being pissed about it, you'll be the first to know. Until then, yeah, everything is going to be a fight with me."
