Page 100 of My Darling Mayhem

Her body was toned and lithe, like she’d been honing each and every tendon to be used as a weapon. Her lashes were dark and thick, framing beautiful blue eyes. She wore light blue jeans, ripped at the knee, a tight black turtleneck, and Doc Martens.

“Scotty wants everyone to come inside. He said there was something off about the sensors around the property.”

Taylor gave her a warm smile. “Okay, we will. Presley, come here, meet Juan’s sister.”

Presley stepped forward with a warm smile. I eyed her hand, seeing her knuckles were puffy, red, and shredded. Did she train without gloves or any protection?

“Hi.” I held out my hand, but Presley leaned in and took a hug instead.

“Hi.”

Presley was warm, and her hug felt genuine, even as she pulled back and faced Taylor.

“When are Juan and my dad coming back?”

Taylor replied, “I’m not sure.”

Presley’s brows furrowed as she seemed confused. “Where are they anyway?”

Taylor seemed to hesitate the smallest bit before she replied, “King and Gio…they?—”

I missed what Taylor said because I was searching for two little boys who had stopped giggling…I wasn’t seeing their little heads pop up around the grassy field. There were a few hills that might block my view and a foot deep cliff that dropped into a garden bed. I jogged over, calling out for them.

“Cruz. Kane!”

There was no response. My heart began pounding so hard that I felt like it would push through bone and skin at any second. My gaze cut to the left, searching, and then the right, as my voice rang out again, screaming their names as loudly as possible.

Taylor and Presley stopped talking and turned to see what I was doing.

The moment it seemed to register that my boys weren’t here, Taylor joined me in yelling, while Presley turned back toward the house and threw the patio doors open.

“Uncle Scotty!”

The man from last night burst from below where the courtyard was, and four large dogs trailed after him. He spoke in German to them as their noses slid to the ground. Scotty had a large gun in his arms, running toward the back of the property. I was about to yell at him to lower it, that having a gun out was unnecessary when suddenly the world tilted, and I saw him?—

White hair, broad shoulders and a leather cut that he shouldn’t be wearing because it said he was a part of a club he was no longer in.

The same man who’d approached me at the barbeque. Saul materialized just outside the tree line with at least ten men. His arm wrapped around Kane’s middle while another man held Cruz.

My feet froze, and my heart twisted in my chest as the air left my lungs.

I could tell even from where I was that Cruz was crying, Kane was kicking against Saul’s hold, but I couldn’t make out his reaction other than that. He had to be terrified though.

Scotty aimed his gun at them while running, the dogs’ legs picked up as they burst into a run.

No one else was here. We needed more people, more backup. My legs lifted as I started running. I didn’t even have shoes on, and I knew my white socks would be stained green and covered in mud, but I just kept running toward my boys. Taylor was behind me; she’d dropped the blanket, and her dress was unbuttoned enough from the bottom so her knees could rise while she ran. At least she wore boots. In her hand, she had a gun just like Scotty did, but hers was much smaller and must have been pulled from a holster somewhere.

My hair flew behind me as tears streamed down my face. I drew close enough that I could make out Saul’s expression. He gave me a sly smile as he turned away and began to walk away with Kane. The man holding Cruz used him as a shield, stepping behind him knowing we couldn’t shoot with him in front of them.

My heart was going to stop. I felt it. This terror was ripping through me at a rate that I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t?—

A shot rang out, loud and powerful, from behind me.

I saw a burst of red coming from the man cowering behind my son. He went down, dropping Cruz. My son began crawling away right as another shot echoed through the air and the man directly behind him had a cloud of red burst from his head as well.

Then, another perfect shot.

I paused for a second to check that I wasn’t about to get shot and found Presley lying on the tallest hill with a long-range rifle set up. She was sniping them one by one. Her hair blew in the wind while she leaned forward and pressed her eye to the scope, and then I heard another shot, and when I turned to look, another man went down.

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