Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,232

the door and smacking my head hard enough to make it spin.

I pushed myself up onto the chairs, keeping low out of Kyan’s way as the car swerved over the icy tarmac.

Father whirled around in his seat, lifting his own gun, aiming right for my brother's head and I lunged towards Kyan. My shoulder collided with him, knocking his grip loose and making him fall back onto the drive as the shot was fired and missed him by next to nothing.

I leapt after him, diving headfirst out of the rear window and closing my eyes as I hit the ground hard, tumbling over and over as pain ricocheted through my body and the car slammed to a halt ahead of me.

My pulse thundered as I tried to scramble back to my feet, but I was unarmed, tied up and stuck here like a sitting duck.

Kyan groaned where he’d fallen, his gun nowhere in sight as he half pushed himself up while clutching a wound on his side and it was easy to remember that he’d come damn close to death already tonight.

And unless the tide suddenly turned in our favour, I had the horrible feeling that my father was about to win this part of the game.

“T roy! Wait for me!” Karen’s voice reached me from up ahead as we sprinted around the castle, hugging the wall to give us cover from any guns that might be pointed our way.

Panic tugged at my lungs and I ran faster through the mounting snow beneath my feet, my breaths misting before me as I carved through the bloody trail ahead of us.

We made it around to the front of the house where Troy was stepping out of a Bentley, raising a gun to point at two people on the paved driveway while Karen staggered toward him.

“Troy!” she cried and he looked up in surprise.

My gaze focused on the men on the ground. Saint. Kyan.

My world slowed, my head spinning, my heart swelling as I felt my connection to my husband more assuredly than ever before. My beautiful, dark sinner, pale and bloody but alive. Totally fucking alive. I was so overwhelmed by the sight of them and the love in my heart for both of those boys that I was momentarily frozen to the spot. But I had one task left to fulfil. I couldn’t let Karen or Troy get away. They were the last pieces of this horrible puzzle. Their deaths would fill the final slots and we could all finally wake up from this nightmare.

I raised my gun, aiming it at Troy with a sneer before pulling the trigger. He lurched sideways and the bullet went fucking wide. He turned his gun on me and Saint kicked his shins hard as his weapon went off. Strong hands pulled me back, dragging me behind the cover of the wall and I found Blake there, giving me an anxious look.

“Jesus, Cinders,” he cursed. “That was too close.”

“You’re dead – our fucking queen is here!” Saint snarled and I struggled my way free of Blake to look around the wall.

Troy was back in the car, pulling away down the drive, clearly deciding he’d rather save his own ass than risk it going up against us in a shoot out. Karen had ducked down behind a boulder that flanked the drive and I growled as she darted out from behind it, clasping her side with one hand, blood oozing through her fingers as she ran as fast as she could to catch him.

“Wait!” she shrieked as the Bentley accelerated away.

Saint tried to get up, but his hands were bound behind his back and Kyan was struggling too, clearly in agony as he pressed his hands to the ground to push himself up onto his hands and knees.

A shot cut through the air and Nash suddenly threw his weight at me and Blake, flattening us to the wall once more as the bullet narrowly missed us. I turned back to see where it had come from as frantic breaths left me, finding a guard following us, panicking as he struggled to reload his gun.

Nash drew away from me and he and Blake ran at the guy full speed, firing their guns and taking the man down in a spray of bullets. But as the guard hit the ground, he started rising once more, clearly wearing a goddamn bulletproof vest as he raised his own gun to fire. My boys collided with him before he could,