Say It's Forever, page 35
I grabbed Juni’s hand. “We have to go, sweetheart.”
“No, Mommy, no more adventures. Please.” She tried to yank her hand free.
Agony lanced while the betrayal whipped.
How could he do this to us? When we’d finally had a chance?
“I can’t believe you’d do this to us. I can’t believe it.”
My gaze jumped to Mimi, and I felt my heart breaking all over again. “We have to go, Mimi. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Old sorrow spun through her eyes, but it was pained disbelief when it shifted to Darius. She looked back at Juni and me. “I understand, sweet girl. Don’t be sad. I’ve cherished these months with you two. Months I never thought I’d be given.”
Tears streamed, and I tried to hold back a sob, but it was so big it busted through and banged against the walls.
“Come on, sweetheart,” I begged.
Darius hustled behind me as I dragged the suitcase and tried to coax my daughter into following.
She cried and whimpered and tried to dig in her heels. “But this is our specialist place, Mommy. We gots to stay with Mimi and Gage and the Motorcycle Man.”
My teeth gritted, and I forced out, “We have to go.”
Darius moved forward and grabbed me by the wrist. “No, you don’t, Salem. You’re safe. Carlo gave me his word. You’re safe. He just wanted the details of Jud’s family, how to hurt him most, in exchange for your safety.”
“And you’re a fool if you believe that’s true.”
Dismay pulsed through my being, the thought of Jud or his beautiful family being harmed in any way. The people who’d accepted me and my daughter as if we were one of them.
Good, kind people.
I had to warn them.
Darius tightened his hold. “No. You were the fool for falling in love with a man you don’t belong to. A fool for leaving Carlo to begin with.”
Shock cleaved through my being. The treason my brother had meted nearly dropped me to my knees.
“How could you say that?”
Pain curled his face and a strained breath wheezed from his lungs. He flung a frustrated hand out into the room. “Because you and I both knew what would happen if you left him. The lengths he would go to get you back, and you agreed to testify against him, Salem. Took his children and went into hiding.”
He swallowed hard. “I’ve been terrified for years, searching for a way to make this right. To take back what never should have happened in the first place. But I couldn’t do a fucking thing. Carlo had claimed you as his and there was nothing I could do. Nothing I could say. It didn’t matter you were my sister. He was the boss. So now, all these years later? If I had a way to finally give you the life you deserved, to set you and Juni free? I had to do it.”
I tried to yank free of his hold. “No, you didn’t have to do it,” I shouted. “You didn’t. You lied to me. You lied to me.”
I rushed toward the door. He grabbed me again. “What did you expect me to do, Salem? Let you keep running forever? What kind of life would that be? For you and for your daughter? How was Juni ever going to feel secure? Grow up? Go to school? How? I had to do something.”
Disbelief coiled in my spirit. “And what you did was destroy our chance.”
I whipped the door back open and rushed out, hauling Juni behind me. Darius followed, coming around to my side, trying to get in my face. “Listen to me, you’re safe. He gave me his word.”
The vile, cruel laughter that echoed from the end of the walk had me freezing in place.
Ice slipped down my spine.
My hand curled tighter on my daughter’s hand.
“It’s been such a long time, Pupa. Look at you…as beautiful as ever.” Carlo’s voice was close to casual from where he leaned on the driver’s side door of my SUV, wearing a suit, his hands mindlessly stuffed in his pockets as if he weren’t there to destroy.
I knew better.
Terror seized me.
Rocketed through the air in fiery bolts.
I tried to breathe, to think, to plan.
Because I wasn’t going out without a fight.
I screamed when Darius was suddenly yanked back and forced to his knees with his hands behind his back. A gun was pressed to the back of his head by one of Carlo’s men.
Another man lurked behind them.
“What are you doing?” Darius seethed. I could feel his fear rush through his muscles, the way they bunched and sweat dripped down the side of his face.
Carlo laughed a condescending sound. “It seems I’ve had a change of heart.”
Darius thrashed. “No. You promised. I gave you the information you wanted on Jud. You have him. Now let Salem go.”
“I’ve learned there’s something he wants more.” Cocking his head, Carlo grinned at me.
Without another warning, a gunshot rang out. Darius slumped to the sidewalk, blood pooling around him.
A scream ripped from my soul.
A scream of agony.
Of disbelief.
Of horror.
Of fear.
“No,” I whimpered as I grabbed my daughter and hid her face against my body, desperate to protect her from the cruelty that had found us.
My eyes darted everywhere as I looked for a path. For a direction to run. For a way out of this place.
I would fight.
I would fight.
“Come here, Pupa,” Carlo quietly coaxed, as if I were precious. “Bring my daughter to me. I’d like to meet her.” His head cocked to the side and his mouth twisted in an annoyed sneer. “As for you…it’s a shame you already used your second chance. We could have been so good together.”
“No.” My head shook, my veins filling with a frenzy as I searched for a way out.
He tsked.
In a flash, I scooped up Juni and took the chance.
I ran, my feet frantic as I raced across the lawn in the opposite direction of Carlo and toward the street with my daughter in my arms.
Mimi shouted, and out of my periphery, I could see she was running for Carlo with her arms waving above her head.
Oh god, no.
“Mimi, no!” I shouted into the air, still running, praying for her to come to her senses.
Another shot rang out.
A grunt and a crash and her voice was silenced.
Agony ripped through me.
Staggering.
Unimaginable.
But I kept running.
I had to. I had to.
Another shot. This one from the other side of the street. Then shots began to fire from every side.
What was happening? What was happening?
A disorder engulfed. Chaos.
I curled down and kept rushing away, my arms around Juni’s head as if I could protect her from the hail of bullets.
Through it, I somehow saw as both of Carlo’s men fell.
It was one second before Carlo’s arms wrapped around me from behind.
He yanked me against him. Hard and vicious.
A scream yelped from my throat.
We toppled to the ground in a heap, the vicious man’s arms chains around my body.
But not before I let Juni go.
Not before I screamed, “Run, Juni, run! Run and don’t look back.”
THIRTY-FIVE
JUD
Helplessly, I watched her peel out of the lot, the SUV accelerating quickly before it disappeared at the end of the street.
“Fuck! Salem!”
I sucked for a breath I couldn’t find.
I felt like I’d gotten torn right in two.
By the memories of what I’d done, but more so, by hers.
The truth coming to light. I couldn’t process the magnitude of her loss. Of what she’d been through.
And I’d been there that night.
I wanted to claw my fucking heart out of my chest.
But that urge? It only came in as a close second to the burning need I felt to hop on my bike.
To hunt Carlo down.
Like I’d said, all I needed was a name. And now that I had one? I wouldn’t stop until it was finished.
Wondered if it was fate that name was already written in vengeance.
Retribution itched at my fingers, the thirst to go on a rampage so strong I could taste it on my tongue.
Need to give this girl the life she deserved.
One without me in it.
Right after I wiped the stain from her life.
The monster from this earth.
The demon inside raged. Jerked and thrashed against its bindings. Chains that pulled taut, links stretching to the brink of breaking.
In turmoil, I stormed back toward the building on my bare feet, wearing nothing but my underwear, my ears ringing with the promise of blood.
Probably looked like a psychopath. Wasn’t far from the truth.
I ran back around the side of Iron Ride to the set of stairs that led to my loft. I jerked open the heavy door and pounded upstairs, flinging open the upper door and going straight for my room where I’d left my phone on the nightstand.
I ripped it free of the cord, frantically jabbing at the contact.
It rang three times before Trent’s recorded voice came on the line.
“Fuck,” I spat, then started to rattle off the message when it beeped. “There’s trouble, Trent. Carlo is here and the bastard is after Salem. Think Darius is somehow involved. I don’t know…fuck…I just…”
Could barely get it out, words breaking as I tried to explain. “There’s a bunch of shit I don’t have time to explain, but I think she’s in danger. She left here panicked. Need you to keep a lookout for her at her place. I know she’s set on leaving town, but I’m not sure if she will go there first. I’m gonna…”
My eyes pinched closed.
Because I didn’t fuckin’ know…didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew I couldn’t sit there idle. Couldn’t wait. “Just keep an eye out.”
Ending the call, I grabbed my jeans from the ground and yanked them on, pulled my tee over my head before I was shoving my feet into my boots. I tucked my phone into my back pocket, then I made a beeline to my closet where I kept my safe. I punched in the code and cranked it open.
I tossed on my holster, loaded it up, and I was blazing out the main door and running downstairs.
Ready to go on a hunt.
Hitting the ground floor, I jogged for my bike.
I stalled out when I saw the dark figure curled up on the floor near the middle bay. My eyes narrowed, and my heart hammered.
Shock slammed me when I realized there was a person bound on the floor.
I streaked that direction, pulling my handgun from the holster as I went.
Dread nearly dropped me to my knees when I saw it was Logan. Tied up and beat to hell. A thick piece of tape covered his mouth.
Blood pooled around his sagging, limp form. Felt bad that I took comfort in the moan that vibrated from him where he lay on his side.
“Fuck, Logan, I’ve got you, man. Hold on.”
I tried to get the tape off without ripping it, without hurting him more, but he was shouting something behind it.
“I’m sorry, man.” I issued it before I gave up and tore it free because I didn’t see any other way around it.
Except, in an instant, he was screaming, “Go, Jud, go. It’s a distraction. I’m a fucking distraction. Go!”
“What—”
He cut me off. “I’m just a warning, Jud. A distraction. Pulled me from my bed in the middle of the night and planted me here. It’s clear it’s not me he wants. It’s you and Salem. They would have put a bullet in me rather than kicking the shit out of me otherwise, and you know it. Go. Find her.”
I warred for the barest fraction of a second before I pulled my switchblade from my pocket, flicked it open, dragged it through the thin rope to free him.
Second he was, he shouted, “Go, man. Go!”
I was on my feet, racing for my bike, pushing the button to the garage door as I passed. It opened, and I dialed 9-1-1, shouting the address to the shop, saying I needed a paramedic at Iron Ride, then shouting I needed an officer at Salem’s house, that a mother and child were in danger.
The operator tried to ask for more details, but I ended it and hopped on my bike, and I was on the road, flying through town. Traveling so fast that the streets blurred beneath me. Lines becoming one. The sky a quickened haze above.
I only had one thing I could see.
One destination.
One purpose.
I would set this one thing right.
Give a new life to this girl who’d become everything. One who I wanted to live. To find joy. For her sweet Juni Bee to fly free.
In a daze of fury, I made the last turn into their neighborhood. I pinned the throttle, flying up the short hill where the houses rested back in the cover of trees.
Then the air heaved from my lungs, and I thought my ribs were gonna cave. A gush of horror shocking free as I squinted into the distance.
Juni.
Juni was running up the sidewalk.
Alone.
A cyclone of terror rippled around her.
I skidded to a stop beside her and was off faster than I could make sense of it.
She ran for me, her precious little face soaked with fear. I had her in my arms in a flash of desperation.
Relief slammed me. A punch to the gut. A riot in my soul.
“Motorcycle Man. You cames to save us. The bad man is here.” She cried it where she’d burrowed her face in the side of my neck, words distorted in my beard.
But I felt them ricochet through my spirit.
And every promise I’d made to myself fell away.
The commitment to be better.
To live clean.
That I’d never again have a man’s blood on my hands.
The devil screamed, and I heard the strain of the chains when they finally snapped.
There was a car parked on the curb, and I ran for it, took a fist and put it through the glass on the side that was hidden from the street. Pain barely even registered as the shards fell free.
I swiped them away, pulled open the lock and opened the door, and placed this little girl who owned me heart and soul into the backseat. I took her by the face. “Lay on the floor. Do not get up or show your face until either me or Trent come to get you. Do you understand? I need you to be the best hider in the world right now.”
Furiously, she nodded. “Okay.”
“Good girl.”
Then I shut the door, gave a furtive glance around to make sure no one saw where she was before I was back on my bike and speeding over the hump in the road that gave way to the plateau where Salem’s house sat on top of the hill.
Ahead, I saw it, the blacked-out BMW sitting in the same spot where it’d been the day Trent and I had been teaching the kids to ride their bikes.
Then my mind spun with dread when I saw the carnage spread out up ahead.
Bodies were strewn all over the front lawn.
Trent was across the road in front of Eden’s house with his gun drawn.
And Salem…Salem was angled to face him, Carlo behind her with a gun to her head, the piece of shit using her as a shield.
And me?
I pulled the gun from where it was strapped to my back, and I let the demon go.
THIRTY-SIX
SALEM
The air wheezed down my constricted throat.
Pain fractured through my being.
Mental.
Emotional.
Physical.
The dread and the fear so intense I couldn’t see.
A cold sweat clogged my pores and saturated my soul as I mourned for what I could only process as loss.
Darius.
Mimi.
Jud.
Juni.
Juni. Juni. Juni.
Silently, I prayed that her little feet had carried her someplace safe. That she’d escaped this Hell. That someone good and kind and right had found her and come to her rescue.
Carlo rammed the barrel of his gun into the back of my head. He pressed it hard to my skull, the metal a painful threat.
I tried not to cry out.
Not to give him the satisfaction as he curled his fingers deep into my skin.
He faced me toward Trent who was across the street with his gun aimed our direction, fierce and hard and dark.
It was a stand-off.
Carlo was using my beating heart as a shield because if he killed me then, there was no question Trent would take him out.
Trent who’d slain the two men as if he were simply checking off a to-do list. The men caught unaware before they were on the ground.
“Let her go,” Trent ordered, “and I’ll make this easy.”
The threat curled through the atmosphere.
Carlo laughed an incredulous sound. “I think you’ve forgotten who I am.”
“Didn’t care then. Don’t care now.” Trent said it offhanded, though I could hear the venom that lined his voice.
The way his words were calculated. Meant to distract Carlo’s anger from me and place it on himself.
As if he were buying time. Precious moments for Juni to escape.
My spirit flooded with gratitude. With a small hope that after all of this, my daughter would be okay.
Then my ear tipped into the distance. To the savage roar of an engine that approached from somewhere beyond this trauma.
Out of place.
In perfect time.
A wicked savior I’d wanted to spare.
Behind the grumbling prowl of the motorcycle, I heard the whirring of sirens.
I immediately knew how Trent had shown at the precise moment we’d needed him.
Jud.
My pulse sped as a shred of hope pushed through the fissures of dried ground.
Sprouting.
Swelling.
While the fear and torment spun.
As if Carlo sensed the coming disorder, he held me tighter against his body. “Move and she’s gone.”
Trent scoffed. “And you and I both know what happens then.”
Trent moved to the right, and Carlo matched him, step for step.
The two circling.
