Page 48 of Kingpin's Secret Baby

“Piers-” Her voice catches, thick with something that sounds too much like goodbye. “If anything happens-”

“Nothing's happening,” I cut her off as I spin, gun already drawn, firing back into the darkness. A shadowed figure drops with a strangled yell, but more are coming. “We're getting out of this. Together.”

One lunges at me from the side. I meet him head-on, driving my elbow into his throat, sending him crashing backward. A second one charges, and I throw a punch, feeling bone crunch beneath my knuckles.

Another figure emerges from behind a tree. I shove Fantasia aside and meet him head-on, driving my shoulder into his chest. We hit the ground hard, but I'm up faster, my fist landing squarely on his jaw. Another man appears to my left. I dodge his first swing but catch the second across my ribs.

The fight blurs into a chaotic mess of fists and shadows. I lose track of how many men I'm fighting, focusing only on staying between them and Fantasia. My knuckles split against someone's teeth. A boot catches my knee. I taste blood.

“Piers, behind you!”

I spin at Fantasia's warning, but I'm too slow. Something hard- the butt of a gun, maybe- cracks against my temple. Pain explodes through my skull.

I fight my way toward her voice, but another attacker barrels into me. Through the haze of pain, I hear Fantasia scream my name.

“Run,” I try to tell her. “Don't stop-”

The last thing I see before darkness takes me is Fantasia's face, her eyes wide with horror, her lips forming my name.

The world tilts sideways.

Blackness rushes in.

Then nothing.

Chapter 24

Fantasia

The world is a blur of fire and smoke, screams and gunfire.

I don’t know when I lost Piers. One moment, his hand was gripping mine so tightly it hurt, grounding me as we tore through the trees. The next-

I saw him go down.

The crack of something hard against his head rang out, and his body crumpled like his legs had been cut from under him. I stumbled toward him, heart hammering, but the fight swallowed him up. Shadows surged in from every side- fists flying, bodies crashing- and no matter how hard I pushed through the chaos, I couldn’t reach him.

I heard him shout something- maybe my name, maybe a warning- before another gunshot split the air, and I ducked low, my breath coming in ragged bursts.

Then everything blurred- shouting, footsteps pounding in all directions- and when I looked back to where he'd fallen, he was gone.

“Piers?” I rasp, but my voice is swallowed by the chaos.

I turn, ready to run back into the madness to find him-

A hand clamps around my wrist.

I barely have time to gasp before I’m yanked around, crashing into a solid chest. A man. His grip is iron-strong, unyielding. My heart slams against my ribs, my pulse a wild, frantic thing.

And then- I see him.

For a second, my mind refuses to make sense of what I’m looking at.

He looks just like Piers.

Same sharp jaw, same piercing eyes, but dressed in the colors of the Crowes.

I suck in a breath, twisting hard in his grip, but he doesn’t let go.

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