crushing him to the ground. And I knew they’d win that fight as the man started screaming beneath them and they worked together to pin him down and finish him.
I turned back to face Karen as she stumbled down the drive toward the car and Troy slowed to a halt for her. Kyan was on his knees, reloading his weapon as Saint fought against his restraints.
“Fuck,” I spat, taking chase after Karen and raising my gun.
The passenger door was shoved open and Karen grasped the side of the vehicle, staggering toward her only chance of escape.
I stopped running and raised the handgun, levelling it on her, aiming down the sights and not moving a single inch as I held my breath. I had to do this right. Aim well and hit my target dead on. And for that, I had to remain still.
She kept moving jerkily as she grasped the door of the car, her head bobbing in and out of my shot as I growled under my breath.
I pictured my dad and Jess, I pictured the people she’d hurt, the chained and caged men and women I’d seen at Royaume D’élite. I pictured that virus sweeping through the world killing innocents without mercy. I pictured Blake’s mom meeting her end and Kyan lying in his bed at The Temple barely able to draw breath.
An emotion welled in me so fiercely that it was all I could feel. One single defining emotion that was all projected towards these weak, cowardly human beings trying to escape justice in that car. It was hate in its purest form.
I pulled the trigger and Karen was thrown onto the ground in a spray of blood.
I released a heavy breath of satisfaction as a single tear tracked down my cheek, before I levelled the gun on the back of the car and started firing again. Troy took off with a roar of the engine and I realised the Night Keepers were firing too, bullets carving holes into his fancy ass car as he raced toward the exit. But he didn’t slow. He kept going and going, making it out of sight until there was nothing left in his place but gas fumes and failed dreams.
Gone.
We’d lost him.
I turned to look at Saint in dismay, my heart sinking and his eyes pooled with a bitter disappointment. Then his features twisted with hate as a groan sounded from my mother on the ground, her body twitching with life.
Kyan untied Saint’s hands for him and then Saint helped him to stand.
“You’re alive,” I choked as I lunged at Kyan, wrapping my tattooed monster in my arms, knowing he wasn’t anywhere near okay, but he was still breathing. And that was what counted right now.
“Yeah,” he saw gruffly. “Bullets are like candy to me, baby.” He winced as I drew back and he looked over my shoulder, his breaths coming out in heavy pants. “Let’s deliver Maren Kunt to Satan personally.”
I nodded, savouring the closeness of him as I breathed in the scent of leather and blood on him, assuring myself he was really here. Then I turned and started marching toward Karen with purpose and felt my boys following me until we were all circling around her in a ring. Blake and Nash joined us, spattered with blood and looking thirsty for more death.
Saint kicked Karen to roll her over and she gazed up at us as she choked on her own blood, my bullet having blasted through the centre of her throat.
“Who’s weak now?” I hissed at her and her eyes glistened with anger, defeat, fear.
“It’s you,” Saint supplied in an arctic tone. “You’re the dirt at our feet.”
“You’re going to go into the ground and become a feast for the worms,” Nash said chillingly.
“You’re not going to be missed by anyone on this entire planet,” Blake added with a taunting smirk.
Kyan shook a little as he leaned on Saint for support, his eyes hollow as he gazed down at our kill. “You’re nothing…and no one…and nobody.”
I crouched down as she started to jerk, the last of the life leaving her as I angled her face towards mine with the tips of my nails.
“I won’t think of you after this day,” I promised. “Not a soul in this world will.” I leaned down to whisper in her ear. “And do you know what’s weaker than the weakest woman on earth? The weakest woman on earth when she’s dead.”
A rattling, gargled breath left her and she fell still,