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“Ryder, down,” I yelled as I fired the first shot, hoping he listened to me. If not, we might wind up with matching shoulder wounds.
The entire room had heeded my warning, well, except for Hunter, so my second shot wound up hitting the man in the middle of his chest. Shit. While everyone was still down, and slightly confused, I fired again, this time silencing the man rolling around on the ground beside Ryder.
A man roared as he stood, leveling his gun at me, but Hunter got to him before I could even fire. From behind me, I heard Delilah’s startled cry. Which meant so did Stel. Fuck. Sorry guys, you’d just have to handle shit from here without me.
Using the couch as cover, I hunched down, searching the room for Stel. I found her over by the pool table, shooting over the top of it, inching her way closer to the doorway. There was a lot of open room between the pool table and the doorway, so she’d have to run for it.
When she sprang into action, I laid down cover fire until she made it through the doorway, then followed her, shooting behind me as I ran.
Out in the hallway, I saw a flash of Stel’s blond ponytail as she ran out the front door. Mateo must be planning to use Delilah as a human shield so he could escape. Little did he know we had reinforcements outside. We just had to give them a clear shot because Gunner would never risk hitting Delilah, even if it meant letting Mateo go.
Using the shrubs that surrounded the house to camouflage my presence, I watched as Stel yelled Mateo’s name. He stopped dragging Delilah across the lawn and turned, pulling her by the hair until she was flush against his body.
“Stella,” he purred her name like a caress. Oh, yeah, this fucker wasn’t leaving here alive. “I knew you were going to be a challenge, but I must admit, you’ve far surpassed my expectations.”
Delilah didn’t struggle in his hold, or even move. But her voice was clear and sure as she told Stel, “Kill him for me.”
Stel had her gun trained on him, but I knew she’d never listen to Delilah. Even if Delilah didn’t care if she died, Stel did.
“She won’t risk killing her protégé, love,” he hissed. “What do you think, Stella? Can I still get at least fifty thousand for her?”
He was trying to goad Stel into shooting. He probably figured she’d kill Delilah and then he’d kill her. There was only one thing for me to do, and I hoped like hell Stel would forgive me for it.
I fired, watching as Delilah’s body jerked. She could no longer hold herself upright and slumped in Mateo’s arms, becoming dead weight.
“No,” Stel screamed, falling to her knees on the ground.
A second shot rang out in the darkness and Mateo dropped to the ground, landing on top of Delilah. It wasn’t the justice Delilah had envisioned, but she’d gotten what she wanted. Mateo was dead.
CHAPTER 32
STELLA
Delilah’s dark eyes followed my jerky movements as I unraveled the gauze covering her thigh.
“You look pretty pissed for a girl who insists she’s not.”
Her assessment was fair, which only pissed me off even more.
“I’m fine,” I huffed, pasting on a fake smile. “See.”
“Why do you care so much if I live or die, anyway?”
That was a good question. Why did I care? She started out as nothing more than a guilty obligation. If I could do right byher, then Jules wouldn’t have died in vain. His death might not have been my fault, or by my hand, but the nagging guilt had stayed with me, anyway.
Was it because I’d given him so much shit in life? Was it because I felt like a shitty person for hating him while I talked to his corpse to stay sane? Or was it because I’d always wonder if I hadn’t opened my big mouth if he’d have made it until the boys came?
Fuck if I knew. No matter what the reason, Jules’s death had changed me. The vengeance I sought wasn’t just for me. It was for all those who’d been taken and sold. And yes, when it came to his sister, I was a stage five clinger. So what? There were worse things I could be doing with my time than saving women. Even the ones who didn’t want to be saved.
But she didn’t need to know all that, especially the part about me talking to her brother’s corpse.
“Because if you die, then the bad guys win, and nothing pisses me the fuck off more than that.”
It might not have been pretty or elegant, but then again, neither was I. My mom always said people didn’t know how to take me because I was honest and raw in a world of polished gems. And I figured she ought to know. There never lived a more polished or proper old lady than my mother.
Her brow furrowed. “I can’t decide if you’re smart or crazier than me.”
The funny thing was, at this moment I couldn’t either. When I stepped out of her room, I was going to war with a powerful man who stood to lose everything. The safer option would be to kill him and then set all the girls free, but somehow, I just couldn’t do it. Death was too easy for a man like him.
