Protecting His Kidnapped Family - Leslie North Page 0,55
her. He’d been behind it all.
A new emotion flared white-hot alongside everything else scorching through her veins. Anger.
Trying to get on his good side hadn’t worked well at all, so what the hell. She tried a different angle. Maybe she could piss him off enough that he’d make a mistake. There was a row of bushes nearby. If she could throw him off his game enough, she might be able to reach them before he pulled the trigger. She inched toward them now.
“You know what, Nate? You’re pathetic.” She was grateful for the edge of steel in her voice even though her knees were shaking so badly that she feared they might not hold her up. How the hell did Noah deal with this stuff every day? A newfound respect for what he and the guys at SSoF did blossomed inside her, along with even more love and gratitude for Noah. She stared directly into her brother’s eyes. If he was going to kill her, she’d make him look her in the eye to do it. “You grew up in the lap of luxury. You could have had anything, been anything you wanted. The world was at your feet. But all you can focus on is what you don’t have.”
“Go to hell, you deceitful bitch!” He took another step toward her, the gun only inches from her chest now. “I know you poisoned Mom’s mind against me. That’s why she made you CEO instead of me.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him he was wrong, but arguing with a crazy person was pointless. So instead she went along with his line of thinking. The bushes loomed closer on her right. Just a couple more feet and she could make a run for it.
Serena snorted. “I didn’t have to tell them anything. Your incompetence was visible enough all on its own.” The words were harsh, but they held more than a little truth. Nate had always been a decent student, but never a great one. He was lazy—expecting life to hand him everything he wanted. It probably never occurred to him that he might have gotten what he wanted if he’d worked hard to prove himself as the right leader for the company. No, it was easier to blame her than to admit that he’d brought this on himself. “You always were hopeless when it came to people. Why in the world would they leave the control of a global company worth billions in the hands of a man who can’t even make small talk at a party?”
“Fuck you!” Nate yelled again and raised the gun. “The CEO position belongs to me and I’m going to take it back today!”
“Serena?” a voice called from somewhere in the distance and she nearly fainted, she was so glad to hear Noah. “Are you out here?”
Nate’s eyes widened slightly and her gaze flickered to the barrel of the gun. He was going to shoot. Her brain registered that a split second before the bullet fired, giving her only a brief moment to duck and run at the bushes ahead.
The next few moments happened in slow motion. She was aware of the sting and scratch of branches against her skin as she dove for cover. The whizz of a bullet past her ear, just missing her. The pounding of feet and shouting voices as Noah and Levon came tearing across the park toward Nate.
She barely heard her brother shout over the thundering blood in her ears, but the next shot she heard loud and clear. Then Noah was there, pulling her out of the bushes and into his arms, while Levon stood over Nate’s prone body lying in the grass, blood pooling from the gunshot wound in his head.
“Did you…” she asked, burying her face against Noah’s chest, the sight of her brother dead seared in her mind forever.
“No. He shot himself before we reached him,” Noah said, his low voice settling into the black hole of grief and sorrow inside her and filling it somehow. Not completely, but enough. “I’m so sorry, Serena.”
Wrapping her arms tighter, she clung to him like the rock he was to her. “Please, don’t go.”
“I won’t,” he said, burying his face in her hair and holding her closer. “I’m not going anywhere. Not now, not ever.”
They stood that way for a long moment, until the wail of sirens drew close. Levon must have called them, Serena supposed, but she didn’t care about that. All she