Dark Guardian (Black Hoods MC #3) - Avelyn Paige Page 0,52

place. That bitch started pumping them out like a fucking vending machine. Randall fucked me over big time when he didn’t make his sale at the border, and now they’re coming after me to collect. She’s my only fucking option.”

“You can’t have her!” Kevin screams. “I won’t let you do it!”

“Who’s going to stop me, boy? You? Her?” He presses the gun into my chest. “I’m going to kill your friend Grace, and then I’ll sell you to someone who likes pretty little boys.”

“Henry, listen to me. These are your children. This is just the drugs talking.”

He digs the barrel of the gun in deeper. “Shut the fuck up! You’re just like their whore mother, always trying to tell me what to fucking do.”

“I’m sorry. I know what she did was wrong. She should have never taken the kids away from you,” I lie, but the words still burn like acid on my tongue.

“She deserved what she got. I’d have done it if Randall hadn’t beaten me to it.”

That’s how their uncle got them. He killed their mom to get them, just like their father has done here. There’s no way out of this. Death means nothing to this man. The only way these kids will make it out of here alive is if I do something drastic. The plan forms in my mind. The kitchen has a back exit, and we’re only a few feet away from the entrance. If I could only get us closer, I could charge him, and the kids could escape out the back. I have to keep him talking, keep him focused on me while I enact my plan.

“I know she did. She was a horrible person.” With each word, I take a small step back, inching us closer to the doorway. Kevin tugs hard on my shirt, but I can’t answer him. I can’t acknowledge him. The second Henry’s focus slips from me, it’s all over for us. So I do the only thing that I can. I ignore it.

“He should’ve let me kill her!” he bellows, dropping to his knees and clutching his head between his hands, screaming into the floorboards. With his focus turned away from us, I take two big steps, herding the kids behind me until both slip into the opening of the kitchen.

Reaching back, I grab Kevin’s hand, giving it a hard squeeze before I scream, “Run!”

The next few seconds are a blur. Kevin and Natalie slip out of the room as I charge Henry. His eyes raise from the floor just before I tackle him.

He shoves at me, trying to get to his feet, but I keep fighting. I claw at him, bite him, doing anything I can to keep him down long enough for the kids to get away. The gun slips from his grasp with a clank next to my head, and I scramble for it on my hands and knees.

Just as I’m about to close my hands around the butt, Henry’s on me. His foot slams into my chest, kicking me back as he reaches for the gun.

I gasp for air, but I know that if he gets that gun before I do, it’s over. With as much strength as I can muster, I reach for him again, but he moves so fast. The gun is at my temple before I can get to my feet, and the hammer clicks back.

“You stupid bitch,” he spits, his finger dancing on the trigger in slow motion. I close my eyes, waiting for the world to disappear around me, finding peace because my sacrifice won’t be in vain. The kids got away. They’ll live on.

A heavy thunk echoes through the room, followed by the thud of Henry’s body hitting the ground beside me. I whip around in shock to find Kevin shaking like a leaf, a cast iron pan clutched in his hands.

“Holy shit,” he whispers.

Sirens wail in the distance as I stare at the carnage around us.

Judge

“Just stitch it up. I’ll be fine.”

The doctor rolls his eyes. “Sir, I get it, you’re tough, but you have a severe concussion, three fractured ribs, and a deep laceration on your scalp.”

I glare at him. “So stitch the laceration, and I’ll be careful with the rest. My family is out there with worse injuries than mine, and I need to be there for them.”

“I’ll take care of him,” Grace assures the frustrated doctor.

Nodding, he sets out to stitch the wound left on my forehead by the butt of Henry’s