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Only then will the police come and clean up our mess. Not a moment sooner.
Jaxon is back to standing upright, but he’s bleeding from his side and there’s a pinched expression on his face. I grab his arm and push back. “Get the fuck out of here.” My eyes glance down to his wound. “That’s too much blood.”
He jerks out of my hold and sneers at me. “I’m not leaving until you do.”
Stubborn fucking prick strides back to the front line and keeps shooting. I should force him out of the house, but I would be the same way. We both know that if it’s our time to die, this is the only way we’d want to go out.
Protecting our family.
A glimpse of something catches my attention, but by the time I move my focus, it’s gone. I slip behind a wall, moving toward the hallway, and see what I hope is the same shadow.
Someone is on the move, and they’re doing their best not to be seen.
There are more of my men down this hallway than there are Titan’s, so I push forward, gesturing for some of them to head back toward the front of the house where the numbers aren’t as even. I continue past them, though. My gut tells me that Titan is the shadow, and if he’s not, it’s someone who will know where he is.
As I pass by Bryson’s old room, I see a body being dragged out. It’s his son. One of my men is pulling him by the arms, the young man’s limp body hitting every bit of rubble on the way out. He’s going to feel like shit later, but at least he’ll be alive. Or so I assume.
Continuing on, I get to a stairwell and start to go up. None of the lights are on up here, and when I find a switch, it doesn’t work. Great. Night vision wasn’t something I intended on needing.
A bullet whizzes past my head, nearly taking me out. I stay quiet and lower myself to the ground, unsure if the shooter can see me when I can’t see them. Either way, I’m not backing down. This must end tonight.
I race up the stairs, knowing that the longer I stay in the dark, the more of a target I am. I’m almost to the top when a bullet hits my gut, the vest protecting me from bleeding out, but I still fall to my knees. Agony pulses through my body. A shot that close still does considerable damage, even with the added protection.
When my eyes close and see Olivia’s face, I know I need to push through whatever inner torment I have and get my ass to the second floor. She needs me to find Titan, and that’s what I’m going to do. No matter what it costs me, as long as it’s not her, I will end him.
Now that I’m closer to the top, I can hear the breathing of whoever is waiting for me up top, and my plan changes. I thump my head against the nearest stair and groan as if I’ve truly been shot, not making a move to get up.
It’s a risk to lay here, but considering what I know about Titan, I believe that if he has the chance to see me suffer, he’s not going to miss the opportunity.
I roll to my back and use the blood from my arm where I was shot earlier to rub on my stomach, hoping it will have them believing I’m more seriously injured. Just as I smear the crimson over the spot beneath my vest, someone steps onto the stairs.
“He’s bleeding,” the voice says, quiet yet firmly.
“Bring him to me.”
Mother fucking bingo.
I knew Titan wouldn’t be able to pass up the opportunity to rub his victory in my face, which I eagerly await just so I can prove him wrong.
Allowing myself to be dragged by my vest up the stairs and tossed onto the floor isn’t my finest moment. It takes every ounce of self-control for me to not fight back, but the moment I see Titan sitting there in the black wingback chair placed within the middle of a secondary living area and with his smug smile, I know I’ve made the right move.
It’s only him and the one who brought me up. There’s no one else to protect him. He’s sent everyone else downstairs. What a fucking idiot.
He places his hands on the velvet armrests and pushes himself up and out of the chair. He’s dressed in a dark silver suit, white dress shirt, and no tie, trying to be someone he’s never been.
Titan stands over me as the other guy, dressed more like me and prepared to fight, removes the weapons I carry. Well, almost all of them.
With me on my back, he misses the knife I have there. It’s the one I always carry with me into a fight and hasn’t ever let me down. Let’s hope today is no different.
“All these years, and you had no clue who I was,” Titan begins, the smug look on his face grating on my nerves. “Your father was like a brother to me. I loved him and even you when you were a boy, but I’d been forgotten, cast aside. As if all the sacrifices I’d made over the years meant nothing.”
His eyes darken as he bends closer, lifting me up by my vest. “That wasn’t something I could let your father get away with.”
“So, you’re punishing me for his mistakes?” I ask, forcing my voice to sound weaker than I am.
He chuckles and shoves me back to the ground before standing again. “No, I’m ruining you just like you ruined me.”
“I didn’t even know who—”
