Page 79 of The Merciless

Angel blinked, his face alight with the moonlight as he saw the ruined mansion sitting at the end of the clearing, barely a few feet away. And with the view came the rush of sounds. A yell made him pause in his tracks, his eyes flaring wide as he saw a man wearing a black suit fly from one end of the huge open doorway to the other.

Angel began walking again, keeping half his attention on Mia and the other half on the terrible scene up ahead.

There had been a time when a gate was used to guard the place. For a gang that was based in the underworld, they’d sure made their presence very clear. They’d been the easiest ones he’d hunted down back then. Angel could see the debris of the fountain he’d ripped apart the day he had set foot here. The bricks lay over one another, the water no longer flowing through them.

And up ahead, was the mansion with no roof.

Angel’s eyes narrowed as he slowed his pace. The yells, the bullets were all too loud now. Were toomanyfor him to hope for the best. He rounded across the ruined fountain, disguising himself in the shadows that were cast from the large walls built around the estate. His footsteps were light. Silent in the wave of flashes and screams that swung in the air. Angel kept his head ducked,maybe he could get to the back entry of the place. It had no roof, nor no walls to keep it upright for long.

Maybe they could blow it all apart again.

A faint shiver ran up his neck then, making him pause. He could swear he’d heard aclick–

Angelducked.

All air left his lungs as he heard her guttural scream of annoyance behind him but didn’t wait for her response as he covered his head with his hands and ran to the other end of the fountain.

“Mia,”Angel said, keeping his voice calm and loud enough for her to hear as he saw her red hair snake its way through the line of his vision. Mia stood with a hand braced on her hip, her eyes narrowed as she stood right opposite him. He watched the gun in her hands, waiting for her to lift it as his own fingers inched back to grab his own. But she didn’t move. And then it struck him,

“You’re out of bullets, aren’t you?” he yelled, a grin sneaking its way past his lips. It lacked humor but made its mark as Mia hauled the gun in his direction.

Angel ducked and barely flinched when the gun landed behind him with a loudthud.But with the gun, came another surprise.

Angel’s head snapped up, his eyes flaring wide as he saw Mia climb over the ruined fountain and scrambled back when she unleashed herself upon him like a fuckingmaniac.Her yell was nothing short ofboomingas she pounced on him. Hadn’t seen it coming, Angel barely managed a step back as her weight brought him down.

His back collided with the ground in a painfulrush,a shot of pain running down his spine as Mia’s fingers closed around his neck, her thumbs pressing on the point right above his collarbones,blindinghis vision for a second. The airgoneleft him gasping in surprise.Too much strength,he realized as Mia’s red hair fell like a death curtain around him,she’d been training.Mia leaned down further, her eyes ablaze as though she could read his mind.

“Came to bite you back in theass,didn’t I?”

She snarled as Angel gasped, his hands snapping up to clasp her upper arms forcefully.

But he didn’t push her away. He realized then as a tear leaked out of the corner of his eye and Mia looked down at him with suchhatethat he couldn’t kill her.Didn’t want to.

“And this fucking necklace.” Her chin nudged in its direction. Her words, it brought forth anunholysort of rage in his mind and his vision, which was once going black now turned red,

“Your mother’s gift, wasn’t it? Martin’s told us all about it. How she died soeasily.”Fuck no,“How after giving birth towastelike you, she spent all her life mothering you.Protectingyou.” Mia laughed and Angel shut his eyes, unable to breathe, unable to think, “And what did she do in the end?Diedafter putting agunin your hands.”

Oh, Gods, it’d been a while since he’d felt such fury rock his bones.Even as his vision flooded, as his air left,nothingcould stop him from hearing her next words.

“You gave one to Raylene Walker as well, didn’t you?” it was the low baritone of her voice, the silk venom hidden in her words that had him snapping his eyes open. Mia matched his glare and laughed, her hold on his throat tightening as she stood up to put more of her weight on it, “How would you feel if I hand her the same fate?”

Screw whatever he’d said earlier.

Angel’s fingers dug into the skin of her fingers, his nails biting into her arm as he glared up at her. By getting up, she hadn’t realized, she’d just granted Angel the perfect opportunity to get out of this situation.

Mia barely noticed as he grabbed her right elbow and grunted softly with the increase in weight around his neck.

Enough air,he told himself as he drew his knees closer,he had enough air to do this.

And it was withthatthought he propped his feet against her hip andpushed.Mia’s eyes went wide, her hold loosening enough for him to gasp out loud. But he kept his eyes on the movement as she lost her balance and was about to fall on him when he twisted his leg, wrapped it around the back of her neck, andslammedher to the ground. Still holding Mia’s hand, he twisted it hard enough to have her screaming as he snarled low enough for her to hear,

“Keep herfuckingname out of your mouth.”

And shoved her away from him.

Mia rolled away from him with a half gasp and groan but gave him enough time to get to his feet and look to his right to see if anyone was there. All he saw were the bodies in the shadows, hurling around with the sounds of bullets in the background. Angel’s gaze narrowed as he took a step back. And another.

And caught a glimpse of pink highlights in the glimmer of moonlight. Angel’s chest hollowed out.Myra Jelani.They’d all gotten here before him.

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