Dark Guardian (Black Hoods MC #3) - Avelyn Paige Page 0,52
backside, while Kevin tries to push in front of me, but I shove him back. He’s been a hero for his sister long enough. He needs a hero to take care of him too. This is my fight now.
Setting his eyes on Natalie, Henry reaches out his hand, beckoning her. “You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you? A looker like your mama.”
“Leave her alone,” Kevin snarls.
Henry’s lips pull back, baring his rotting teeth. “You shut your fucking mouth!”
He charges toward us, and I shift in response, moving us closer to the open kitchen entry. If I could just get us a little closer, I can distract him and get the kids out that way. It’s the only shot we have with him blocking the front door.
I thrust out my hands in front of us. “Take me,” I beg him.
Screeching to a halt, he tilts his head to the side. “What the hell am I going to do with an old bitch like you? My buyers want young, pretty little things like her.”
I gape at him. “You don’t mean... You’re her father!”
Sell her. Oh my God. He doesn’t want them back to take care of them. He’s a trafficker, just like their uncle.
His words from our first conversation pops into my head. I lost my business when she left. That’s what he meant. She took his cash cow when she took the kids. He’s been planning to sell Natalie since the day she was born.
“Why the fuck do you think I want her? I never wanted kids in the first 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