Highest Bidder Collection - Lauren Landish Page 0,254

an eye. I feel the urge to reach up and grab the wound, but I can’t. I won’t let it stop me from strengthening my hold on the gun. Nothing will stop me.

“Lilly!” I call for her. I can’t hear her. “Lilly!”

My fingertips slip against the gun as the bastard kicks me in the gut. Both of us wrestling on the ground, trying to rip the gun out from each other’s grip. The pain from the shot in my arm shoots up and down my shoulder. I ignore it. Merely clenching my teeth from the screaming pain as I continue to fight.

His head is close to the thick front leg of the foyer table. I could take a risk and stop fighting for the gun, going for his chin instead and try to slam his head into the hardwood. But that would mean letting go of the gun that I almost had a grip on. His fingertips fumble at the trigger again, a bullet whizzing through the air and landing into the plaster wall. He flinches from the sudden shot.

I take advantage of the moment, hurling my body upwards. Using my forearm instead of my hand and smash the back of his head against the leg of the table. It doesn’t do any real damage, but it makes him close his eyes. I’m able to jump forward and sink my teeth into his forearm and grab the gun the second he loosens his grip on it. In a swift moment, the gun is in my hands and I don’t hesitate to put a bullet through his skull. Bang!

My heart races as I quickly raise the gun in my hands and prepare to shoot the other bastard. But instead I find Lilly, staring at the man lying still on the floor. Three gunshot wounds visible from the blood staining on his shirt.

Lilly doesn’t look at me when I call her name, still gripping the gun in both of her hands. She shaking.

I stand slowly with my hands up, looking between the two men dead on the floor. There’s blood spilling from their open wounds and pooling on the marble floor beside them. At least it happened out here. Where I can easily clean up this mess.

I can hardly look at Lilly. I’m full of shame. It’s because of me that she had to fight for her life. I couldn’t protect her. I brought this pain to her. It’s my fault.

She drops the gun to the ground, it hits the marble hard with a loud thud, and she collapses into my open arms. The moment I close my arms around her, she sobs into my chest trembling uncontrollably. As if my touch broke the trance.

I’ve put up with my brother and father for years. But they brought Lilly into this and that firms my resolve.

I kiss Lilly’s hair softly, rubbing soothing circles on her back. But I stare straight ahead at the blank wall, knowing I need to kill them. Tonight.

Chapter 27

Lilly

I’m a ball of nerves as I sit in Madam Lynn’s office, my mind on what just happened.

I killed a man.

I still can’t believe it. It’s nearly impossible for me to process. I keep thinking that I’m going to wake up and find out this was all some horrible nightmare. I pull my legs up into the chair, wrapping my arms around my knees.

But it’s too fucking real.

Never in a million years, would I have thought I’d wind up in a situation like this. It’s like a real life action movie. Hell, it’s even like one of my romance novels. Except there might not be a happy ending for this one.

The thought chills my blood.

Even worse, I thought Joseph was going to die. I saw him die. I know I did. I couldn’t pull the trigger as the man came after me. But I saw Joseph. I saw the bullet. My chest tightens as I remember the gun pointed at his head. God, I can hardly breathe remembering it. My heart felt like it was ripped from my chest. Even now I get cold sweats thinking about it. He was so close to death.

Had I not walked in right at that moment, he would’ve died. They were going to kill him.

I’m glad I shot that asshole. I’m glad he’s dead. I’ll never tell a soul. But I don’t regret it. Not for a single moment.

And now I’m here. Stranded in an office in Club X. Joseph left me here, shoving cash