My eyes slam shut, tucking my mother’s quivering frame into me as I grip onto her tighter. The cascade of bullets and shouting is deafening. I feel like we’re walking through hell’s gates without shoes on, which is perfect since my feet are still bare. Terror crashes over me like an all-consuming tidal wave and breathing is an impossibility. I struggle for air, eyes squeezed shut, afraid to look at the certain carnage. I need this to all be a horrible dream.
I need to wake up!
A large body lands in front me with a thud, a howling groan erupting next to my ear as Xander’s body blankets mine. “Are you okay?” His thick, gravelly voice breaks into my panic, forcing my eyes to shoot open. He’s lying on top of me, his hand gripping his bloody shoulder. The firefight has ended. There are bodies sprawled out everywhere.
I can’t answer. Physically, I’m fine. Mentally, I am so far from alright I don’t even have the words to articulate it. “Oh my God!” I whimper. “You’re bleeding!”
“Yeah, well, better me than you,” he says.
My gaze drifts to the wide, dead eyes of the man who had made my life a living hell since I stepped foot back in Ridgeview. The side of Rossi’s head was blown to bits, as if it exploded from the inside out, pieces of skull and brain matter splattered onto the floor, over his scar and down his neck. Bile rises in my throat and I clap a hand over my mouth, desperately trying to hold it together. It’s the first time I really ever saw a dead body in that state. I feel nothing. Well, nothing except for relief.
And nausea.
“We need to get them out of here,” Phoenix helps Xander scramble to his feet as he winces from the pain of his own bullet wound.
“Don’t ever do that again,” Jase growls at Xander.
“He did what he needed to do to protect his family.” Marco is standing in front of me, holding his hand out to help me clamber to my feet. As he continues, Mr. Iazetti’s stare never breaks from mine. “It’s what I would have done to protect your mother.”
Whimpering pulls me away, making me glance to the opposite corner from us. Carl is holding his side, blubbering and muttering to himself.
Jase strides over to him. “Shut up, you fucking pussy,” he growls, jabbing his boot right into Carl’s neck, the concealed blade popping out and slicing into Carl’s flesh like melted butter.
“It’s finally over,” I breathe out, falling back into the exposed bricks. My knees can’t hold my weight, my entire body feels like it weighs a million pounds. My pulse thumps against my neck as I try to suck in gasps of air, but it barely works.
I feel a tight grip on my hand, my mother finally snapping out of her shocked state. “Thank God you’re alright,” she coos, wrapping her slender arms around my neck. I hold her against me, finally letting my mind calm down just a little.
Turning to Marco, my mother blinks back tears. “Thank you for helping me finally see just how terrible my husband truly was.”
Marco’s head bows a little. “I don’t know if thanks are appropriate for this situation, but I am glad that you’re finally out from under his thumb.”
My mother’s spine stiffens as she holds her head up high. “Now Hawthorne Industries can finally get into bed with the right people and prevent these types of tragedies from ever happening again.”
“We need to move,” Phoenix growls. “I’ll call the cleaners.”
“How is any of this going to be able to be cleaned up?” I choke out, counting all of the bodies collapsed on the basement floor.
Xander tucks me into his side. “A business deal gone wrong will be exactly how the news reports it in the morning.”
Marco chuckles. “You don’t get to our status without knowing how to stage a crime scene for it to be able to work in your favor, young lady.”
I am still in disbelief. How is this so easy for all of them? How much practice has Xander really had in all of this? Why isn’t my mother hysterical right now? How am I not hysterical right now?
“Let’s get you to the hospital,” I mutter at Xander. “That shoulder really needs to be looked at.”
“Can’t go to the hospital,” Jase grumbles, stabbing the screen of his phone. “I’ll call the