seed of denial fights through the pessimism and breeds hope.
I pray to anyone and anything listening . . . please let Nathan be okay. Please let him live.
Kyle grabs Nathan with brute strength, pulling him back, and I see the blood, my gorge rising.
No, no, no, no.
What seems like a lifetime later but is probably mere seconds, Nathan moves, his eyes wrinkling as he winces. “I’m good. Got some powder burn, but it didn’t hit me. It must be . . . him.”
I can see it now that there’s space between them. Matt’s belly is half torn open beneath the tight black shirt he’s wearing, the fabric looking wet and slick as the blood gushes out with every slowing heartbeat.
But all I can think of is Nathan.
Now that I know he’s okay, you’d think my heart would slow a bit, but the sight of a shot man bleeding out on the kitchen floor is panic-inducing in a completely different way.
Kyle kicks the gun away from where it fell when their fight took the turn for the worse, and it skitters across the tile.
Nathan doesn’t give Matt a moment’s reprieve, grabbing his collar and demanding, “Who sent you? Why?”
Matt’s look is one of pained anguish, his voice rough and stilted as Nathan drops to his knees, pulling off his shirt and pressing it to Matt’s belly. “I had to. He made me. He’ll send another. Wants it.”
“Who? What does he want?” Nathan shakes Matt, whose eyes are starting to roll in his head.
He slumps under Nathan’s hand, and after a moment, Nathan lets Matt down slowly. I’m not sure how to feel, part of me glad that Nathan survived another assassination attempt but confused, with more questions than answers filling my mind, and horrified that I just watched a man get shot in the stomach.
Maybe it’s just shock that’s overwhelming me.
“When will this nightmare of a night end?”
Fate seems to answer as the back door bursts open, banging against the wall from a powerful kick.
“Hands up! FBI!” Claire moves in, fully engaged in the badass boss mode I always figured she had but have never truly had occasion to see.
Her service weapon is trained on Nathan, who’s still looming over Matt, but her eyes flick to Kyle, who is the only one armed in the room. He’s already raised the pistol, his reactions even faster than I could imagine.
I can see the moment where she has to choose to aim at Kyle, can see the hesitation because though Kyle is armed and the obvious threat, she wants to nail Nathan.
That’s what she wanted all along, why she sent me in to his party in the first place. Maybe not literally like this, but on some level . . . maybe? It’s a dark thought about my sister and I have to hope a false one.
“Claire! It’s okay. It was Matt. He tried to kill Nathan!” I try to explain, but my voice is shrill, laced with hysteria, leading her to dismiss my words.
Nathan suffers no such nerves and calmly holds his hands out wide as he stands and speaks to her. “Claire, Matt was hiding in my kitchen. He tried to shoot me. Hit Kyle in the arm. We fought, his gun went off, and he was shot. I’m trying to find out who sent him.”
He slowly moves back down to Matt, and Claire aims the gun back to Nathan when Kyle lowers his, slowly setting it on the floor and kicking it away.
“Step away from him.”
But Nathan doesn’t back off. He needs answers and is willing to risk Claire shooting him to get them.
“Who?” he demands of Matt.
But it’s no use. In the moment of delay with Claire, he’s died.
Nathan’s eyes go dark as he glares at her. “You cost me time. Time I needed to get information.”
Claire spits back coldly, “You seem awfully calm about just killing an FBI agent, Mr. Stone.”
“The FBI’s using assassins on civilians now?” His words are barbed and laced with venom, but they do give Claire pause.
“Tell me what happened.” She hasn’t lowered her gun, but at least she’s listening.
It’s a step in the right direction because this is such a big clusterfuck I can’t imagine how we’re all going to leave this room alive.
Well, not Matt. But the rest of us.
“Claire,” I start, moving toward her, but she instinctively aims at me.
I see the flash in her eyes at the movement, though, and know it kills her to do it, but her training