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It was a low blow, one that made more of an impact than it should have.
She couldn’t kill her daughter’s father. Could she?
“You’re trying to kill me!” she screamed at him.
“You’re being hysterical.” His voice was filled with false calm. It was the voice he used when he wanted her to come out of a locked bathroom only to hit her again, the voice he used when he convinced her not to file charges against him, not to report him to his commanding officer. “You always take things too far.”
“Just leave, Adam. Just leave and we’ll sort things out with Olivia later.”
“I’m notleaving, Ruby. Not until I teach you a lesson. Not until I get Olivia,” he said.
It was the last part that steeled her resolve. She’d been taught plenty of lessons by Adam, but she wouldnotlet this monster raise their daughter.
“You’re not taking Olivia, Adam. I won’t let you.”
“You won’t let me?” He walked toward her, unfazed by the gun in her hand. “Try and stop me, Ruby.”
He was only a few feet away now. The gun wasn’t raised but she knew what would happen when he reached her.
He would either beat her to death or beat her then shoot her.
Either way, she wasn’t getting out alive.
Not this time.
She remembered what they’d taught her at the shooting range.
He was only two feet away, his face an ugly mask of hatred.
Aim for the widest expanse — the chest — so you don’t miss.
Breathe… exhale…
Squeeze.
He stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide with shock. He looked down at the hole in his chest, the blood seeping through his dirty T-shirt.
“You… shot me?”
She held her breath, half expecting him to raise the gun, to shoot her anyway.
He crumpled to the floor.
39
ROMAN
He tried to be quiet on the old stairs. He didn’t know if there were more guards in the house, although he assumed from the lack of gunfire that Lyon and his men had taken out the guards patrolling the front, including Dima.
The music still played from the study downstairs, but it was muffled on the second floor, and Roman hit the top of the staircase and stopped at the end of a long hall lined with doors.
Fuck.
He would have to clear every room, one by one.
He took one step and stilled when one of the doors near the end of the hall opened.
He raised his weapon, expecting to see his father. His mother emerged instead, wearing a nightgown and clutching a glass filled with ice cubes.
