Lou growls and steps forward. I keep my hand on the door as Lawson throws his body against it. Laws, seriously, it’s not going to open that way.
Lou takes another step, revulsion nestled deep in his eyes. “Move!” he roars. Spittle lands on my arm, making me cringe. Yuck. I don’t swipe it away though. No. Lou here is not getting past me.
“No,” I return firmly, like some kind of badass. If I am going to die, then I am going down with a fight. He will not take my family.
“Commander!” Lawson shouts against the door, his roar damn near vibrating my back. He pleads with me to let him out.
My grip only tightens in response.
“He’ll kill you,” I say sweetly to Lou. He knows I’m referring to Cade. “They all will.”
Lou throws his head back and laughs at the absurdity. “Sweetheart, I will be long gone before your precious five make it here.”
“All the same, good luck. They will not rest until they torture you for days, taking turns administering killing blows. Maybe if you’re lucky, they’ll take you out before they kill your entire family.”
Okay, so we aren’t the mafia. These guys are heroes, not assassins, but Lou doesn’t know that. Fear is healthy.
A flicker of movement catches my attention behind Lou, where Nicole is still out cold. Is that a mirror? What the fuck? And then I see him, Cade is perched behind a stall door, Hayes on the other side of him, his sniper rifle nestled between the wood slats.
Holy shit. Hayes has a gun. He did it! I want to rush him and hug the mess out him for overcoming such a fear but now’s not the time.
Cade puts his finger to his lips, urging me to stay cool and silent. I tear my eyes away so Lou doesn’t catch on.
“You, cunt!” he bellows, raising the gun, the barrel pointing at my forehead. “You stupid, bitch!”
Oh, come on. Bitch? Is that all he can say? That word is such a tired, derogatory slander for women. There are some pretty awesome ones out now, like… eh, now probably isn’t the time to list them.
“You think you can scare me?”
Lou’s fury radiates throughout his body, his arm shaking with nerves.
I look at Hayes, and with every ounce of love and confidence, I order, “Shoot.”
Hayes looks at Cade, who is shaking his head in a panic.
I say it again, this time to Lou. “I said, shoot.”
Lou looks confused for a moment. He lowers the gun and turns around, picking up that we have company.
“Come on, don’t be a pussy, Lou. Shoot me, because you are not getting through this door any other way.” My body is humming with adrenaline as I seal my fate in the barn I grew up in. Where Theo and I played hide-and-seek.
Cade moves out from the shadows, his hands raised in a peaceful gesture. “We can work this out, Lou. Man-to-man. Let’s leave the women out of it.”
Lou sneers and whips around, scanning the entire room until his gaze lands on Hayes, and then… Growls permeate the air, indicating Killer’s arrival. Oh no. This is not good.
Mason, with a tight grip on Killer, moves from his crouch in the dark back of the barn. Vic rises up behind him, gun pointed at Lou. Well, the gang’s all here.
“You think I’m stupid!” he screams at Cade, directing his gun back to me.
Cade’s face is an impassive mask. If I didn’t know that the redness at the base of his ear meant he was seconds away from losing his shit, I would think he didn’t give a fuck what Lou did with me.
Feeling the air crackle around us, I decide it’s now or never. The guys just strengthened my mission. These guys are my family and I will be damned if they die here after the hell they have been through to get this far.
“Take the shot, Hayes.” My order snaps Cade’s head around.
His eyes go wide with fear. “Do not fire, soldier!” he yells, he gruff voice warming my heart like it always does.
“No!” A voice I know all too well echoes throughout the barn. Panic laces his vocal chords, causing the harmonic sound to crack. “What will it take, Lou? How much for you to disappear?” Theo pleads with Lou as Tim comes flying in behind him, grabbing Theo by the arm. If I wasn’t so upset that he’s now in Lou’s shooting range, I would laugh. Theo’s a fast little shit when he wants to be. I bet no one had to offer him a blow job for that sprint.
