Page 108 of Cruel Vows

Ellie gasps and reaches for the gun, grabbing it before Noah has a chance to get it again. She aims it at him, but she doesn’t shoot.

This revenge is mine to take.

Noah smirks and spins to face me, hands coming up in front of his face. “You’re going to regret siding with the Lyndes.”

I grit my teeth, circling Noah and trying to get him as far from Ellie as possible. “No, I’m not.”

With a groan, I lunge for him, ducking beneath his arms, wrapping mine around his legs as I send him toward the ground.

I roll to the side as we fall, trying not to lodge the knife deeper in my leg.

Noah groans, his head bouncing off the floor as I get on top of him, slamming my fist into the side of his head.

Ellie turns the gun on Jace the moment he tries to step into the cell to help his boss. “Stay there.”

He freezes, gun aimed at her and hatred in his eyes. “Just wait until I get my hands on you. I was nice before.”

Noah spits blood at me. I grab the sides of his head, slamming it into the floor.

He groans, eyes rolling to the back of his head.

With one more hard impact to the floor, he’s out cold and now there’s only one man standing between me and getting Ellie to a hospital.

Ellie holds out the gun to me as I stand, but I shake my head. She scowls, but keeps the gun trained on Jace. Her finger wraps around the trigger, the gunshot cracking through the cell.

Jace drops his own gun as his hands fly to the bullet wound now close to his ribs.

I kick the gun away, sending it sailing in the direction of Aiden so he can protect himself if he wakes up while I’m gone with Ellie.

I smirk, hands balling into fists. “I was nice before.”

My tone is mocking, throwing his words back at him as my fist slams into the side of his head, sending him into the wall.

He trips over Dad’s body, sprawling on the ground, then Ellie gets on top of him, despite her broken leg. He throws her to the side and slams his fist into the broken leg, her screams echoing through the room. He scrambles from beneath her, looking like a wild animal trapped in a corner.

Noah comes to with a groan, looking at Jace before springing to his feet. He races out of the cell before I have a chance to get to him. His body slams into the wall, sending him careening to the side.

As he disappears, there’s a part of me that wants to go after him, but the other part recognizes that Ellie needs me more right now.

It’s fine. Royce will take care of him when he sees him.

Ellie shuffles back to the wall, leaning against it as tears roll down her cheeks. She looks down at the gun in her hand before holding it out to me.

“I need you to take this,” she says, her voice wavering, tears coating her dark eyelashes and rolling faster down her cheeks. “I haven’t killed someone in nearly a decade. I was going to kill him. I need you to take this.”

Kneeling beside her on the ground, I groan when the knife in my thigh shifts to the side. I take the gun and flick the safety on before sliding it into my waistband.

I cup her face in my hands and wipe the tears, gentle around the huge bruises. “I know this is awful, but we’re going to getthrough this, okay? Everything is going to be fine and we’re going to get out of here.”

She flinches as the gunshots upstairs grow louder before her gaze lands on the two dead bodies in the cell. “I don’t think this is ever going to end. Look at what happened here.”

“I know, but we need to ignore that right now and get you out of here.”

Ellie shakes her head, curling closer to the wall. “I can’t walk. You can. I’ll stay with Aiden, and you go get us help.”

My hands drop. “If you think that I’m going to leave without you, you’re insane. I love you, Ellie, and you’re not going to sit in this cell alone without being able to defend yourself.”

Her bottom lip quivers. “Aiden is going to die. I want to be with him.”

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