adoring kind of way, but the blade scraped over my cheek, and I flinched at the rawness that was left behind.
She? As in…my mom?
“I’ve watched you, little bird.” His voice had turned gentle, but the look in his eyes remained manic. “I’ve waited and dreamed of the day I would take you. I thought it would have been easier. If you had just taken that part in that fucking movie, things would have gone so much smoother. I could have gone on watching you like I have in the past for a little longer before I had to steal you away.”
His hold on my hair tightened, and I could actually feel strands being pulled out of my scalp as his honey-golden eyes darkened with anger. “But no,” he seethed, the tenderness evaporating from his voice. “No, you wouldn’t take the part! And then there was Moreitti. I thought I could use him, get him to make you see it was good for your career, but that little pencil-dick loser couldn’t even do that.” Garon lowered his head until his lips were almost touching mine, and I felt bile lift into my throat. “Did you think of me while you fucked him, little bird? Did you imagine it was my cock you were riding?”
This wasn’t happening, I thought as I cowered back from him. This sick man couldn’t be saying these vile things to me. It was wrong, so very wrong. I whimpered in fear, wanting this moment erased from my mind.
Everything happened so fast, I didn’t even have time to blink. A sudden shot filled the garage. One moment, Garon was about to kiss me, and then the next, part of his head was missing.
The knife fell to the ground, but I didn’t hear it or anything else. The blast of the gunshot hurt my ears, the sound making them ring so badly that I couldn’t even hear the blood rushing through my veins like I had only moments before.
Blood was splattered on my face and clothes. There was something thick dripping from my hair. All of that barely registered as Garon dropped lifelessly at my feet.
I bent in half, retching.
Strong arms came around me, and I tried to look up to see who it was.
Braxton?
My brother-in-law tucked my head against his chest as he carried me away from my uncle’s dead body.
Twenty-Six
Arella
I didn’t understand what was going on around me, could barely hear the voices as people talked rapidly to one another, into their phones, or to me. I was sitting in the open doors of an ambulance as a nice female paramedic cleaned the blood and brain matter off my face. She’d already bandaged the wound on my belly and told me I was going to have to go to the hospital for stitches, but it wasn’t a life-and-death injury, so we had a little time.
At least that was what I’d heard through the continued ringing in my ears, so I wasn’t completely sure that was exactly what she’d said. But we weren’t rushing to the hospital.
Braxton stood close by, limping as he paced back and forth, talking into his cell phone. To whom, I had no idea, but the look on his face told me he wasn’t happy. Samuel stood beside the ambulance, his eyes constantly moving around the garage as if everyone was a threat.
The cops were standing by Garon’s dead body. A sheet had been thrown over him, and several people had lifted it a few times to inspect the damages.
Braxton had killed Garon.
How he’d even known I needed help, I had no idea, but I was thankful.
“Arella!”
The roar of my name broke through the ringing in my ears, and I lifted my head to find Jordan running toward me.
His face was as pale as a ghost, his suit jacket missing, his tie hanging loose around his neck, and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows. He looked ragged and scared, and I’d never seen a more wonderful sight in my life.
With a cry, I jumped from the back of the ambulance and threw myself into his arms. Sobbing, I buried my face in his chest and held on to him for dear life.
Jordan trembled as he ran his hands over me. “Thank God you’re okay,” he said as he tilted my head up so he could kiss me. “When your mom called me, I nearly had a heart attack.”
“My mom?” I repeated. “Not Samuel?”
“He did,” he confirmed, his quivering hands running