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CHAPTER46
Ethan
Boom.
Kat. Oh no, no, no. Kat.
Wait. Wait. It took a shocked, timeless second to realize what had not happened.
Huh? The man up on the screen who was giving the keynote address at that conference was still talking. The speaker had reacted to the sound of the bomb, had made a comment about it. He looked worried. There had been a nervous murmuring from the crowd. They had all heard the explosion, but from afar.
Kat had been in the hotel garage. They had shown her to me there. But the hotel was not reduced to rubble. Owen Halliwell, CEO of Halliwell Enterprises, was talking, smiling. If Halliwell was alive, Kat was, too. Terrified joy almost overcame me.
Nicole and Vincent exchanged horrified glances. “What the hell?” Vincent sputtered. “What happened?”
Nicole walked over to me, and slapped me hard, making the wire bite even deeper. “What the fuck did you assholes do?” she yelled.Slap, slap.“How did you do that? You fuckers! Fuck you!”
Gunfire, outside. Then muffled pops of a silenced pistol, and then return fire, not silenced. “Holly, get down!” I yelled.
I did not have that option. The length of the chain didn’t give me that kind of range.
The first through the door was Freya, screaming bloody murder, her face spattered with blood. Nicole shot at her, but she just stumbled and came on. Holly leaped up, flinging random objects at Nicole and Vincent, screaming like a tin whistle.
I grabbed my chain and leaped up onto the desk, aiming a kick at Vincent’s head. I was too far to land it, the chain held me back, so it was just a glancing blow, but he yelled in outrage, and lunged for the remote. He hit the button that started to reel me up into the rafters, and I grabbed the chain, in an effort to keep the pressure of that wire from cutting my throat as it yanked me up—and up, my feet dangling…
Bam. Bam.
I crashed right back down among the scattered office furniture. Frey had shot through the chain. My little sister was a crack shot. Who the fuck knew.
Vincent realized I was loose, and pounced on Holly, putting her in a chokehold. She wiggled, struggled, and he howled in fury as she bit him, startling him. She broke free and ran. He gave chase, and I leaped up and followed, chain trailing and rattling behind me. No way was that shithead troll going to touch my little girl.
Holly darted into the machine room, slithering into some opening between two big metal vats, where Vincent couldn’t fit, cowering behind them.
The turd lifted a gun, aiming at Holly. I leaped for him, knocking the gun out of his hand, wrapping the broken end of the chain around his throat. Wrenching it tight.
He made coughing, gurgling sounds. His eyes bulged. He clawed at my hands.
I wanted to kill this bastard so badly, but he knew where Shane was, goddammit, so I flung him down to the ground.
“You and I are going to talk,” I said. “About my brother.”
Vincent pulled his hand out of his pocket, his bloody teeth showing in a big, grin. “You won’t be talking to anyone ever again, idiot.” He pushed the button, just as I realized he was holding the small white remote. Ohfuck.
The wire tightened…and tightened. Blood started to flow. Shit. I was done.
Bam.Vincent went limp, but I was down, crumpled to the floor now, barely able to breathe. Freya skidded up to me sideways, on her knees. She’d shot him.
“Jesus, Ethan,” she babbled. “Your throat. That thing is cutting your throat. How do I get it off?”
“Remote,” I whispered. “Vincent…holding it.”
She leaped for Vincent, scrabbling around his motionless body. I was weak from blood loss, but the wire hadn’t severed an artery yet, or I’d be dead already.
Freya dropped to her knees beside me again. “Fuck!” she wailed. “There are three buttons, and nothing is written on them! It’s like, the lady and the fucking tiger! How do we know which one tightens and which one loosens?”
“We don’t,” I whispered, taking it from her hand. It was smeared with blood. Hers, mine, Vincent’s.
“What are you doing?” she shrilled.
