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A slew of gunshots rained. I counted the shots, hoping to fuck I could calculate when his magazine was spent and he needed to reload.
The second he fired off the fifteenth shot, I swung out from behind the trunk and rushed the piece of shit.
A roar ripped from my aching lungs.
Vengeance in the palm of my hand and Elena’s sweet, trusting face flashing in the depths of my mind.
I caught just the flash of wide eyes before I tackled him to the ground.
He hit it with an oomph, and fallen branches cracked beneath him.
I shoved my gun into his face, spittle flying from between my clenched teeth. “I’ve got you, motherfucker. Gonna hurt you so good. You have any idea what’s coming for you? Did you think you could terrorize my family and get away with it?”
It was a deranged snarl.
He thrashed and spat in my face. “I haven’t even begun to terrorize you for what you’ve done. You killed my entire family. You’ll pay fifteen times over for what you’ve done.”
I could barely make his face out through the faint moonlight that flooded down through the leaves.
His expression carved in abhorrence and the rage over what had been stolen from him.
I felt no sympathy.
We scrambled and fought against each other, and I gripped him by the shirt, my gun still pressed up under his jaw as I jerked him up toward me. “Only thing we did was take out the trash. Do you think we don’t know the vile things you and your brother are responsible for? The cruelties you’ve inflicted?”
Fury singed through my insides at the thought of Elena in that dingy room where she was held hostage.
“We are your judgement and your penalty.”
He smirked like he was the one who had me while the shouts of my brothers grew closer by the second.
“You think you’re any better than me?” It was a taunt. Bait.
I grinned. All teeth. “Probably not, but at least I don’t spend my time tormenting innocent women.”
He scoffed. “I don’t waste my time on idle games. I’m here for one reason. Silas and the rest of his scum bearing those patches.”
The way he said it made me stumble.
Hesitate for one beat.
A beat I didn’t have because a blinding pain suddenly pierced my side. A roar of surprise ripped out of me, and my mind tripped through the shock.
A blade.
Fuck.
This motherfucker had stabbed me.
I lost my hold, unable to remain upright.
I slumped to the side, and he was on top of me in a flash.
Pinning me to the ground with his knife poised high above me.
Death scented the air. Darkness falling on my consciousness. A multitude of sins laid out in front of me.
Elena’s face flashed.
