Page 129 of Kings & Carnage

I still had my gun, but my shot was worse than Neo’s, and Neo's shot sucked.

I scanned the area around them, hoping for something I could use, anything that might at least act as a distraction for Neo to put a bullet between his father's eyes without hurting Willa.

I found it a second later when I saw Rock move slowly into position behind Roberto — and either Rock was as stealthy as a jungle cat or Roberto was distracted as fuck because he didn't seem to hear a thing.

I had no idea if Neo could see Rock but I hoped he could, that he would wait until Rock made a move rather than risk shooting Willa instead of Roberto.

"I'll tell you what," Neo said. "You let Willa go, I let you go.”

Roberto laughed. "You must think I'm stupid. This isn't going to end until one of us is dead and you know it.”

Somewhere in the distance I thought I heard helicopters, but I couldn't be sure and I didn't dare tear my eyes away from the unfolding scene.

"You're probably right," Neo said. When he spoke again, I knew he'd seen Rock. “And it's not going to be me.”

Rock rushed through the trees, making a fuck-ton of noise that caused Roberto to spin toward him.

I held my breath, hoping his knife wouldn't slip against Willa's throat, that if it did it would slip out of his hand instead.

Willa took advantage of Roberto's loosened hold, ducking underneath his arm and moving out of the way as Rock crashed into Roberto with the full force of his body weight.

They fell to the ground in the snow, punching and grappling, making it impossible to see who had the edge.

Neo advanced on them as Willa scrambled back, wrapping her arms around her nearly naked body as Rock and Roberto rolled around on the ground. Neo was holding his gun over them, waiting for a shot when Rock gasped, rolled off Roberto, and clutched his stomach.

Blood seeped from between his fingers, Roberto still holding the now-bloody knife in his hands.

Willa rushed toward Rock, pulling his head in her lap as Neo took up position above his father, pointing the gun at his head.

"Ready to roll the dice on that theory about me?” Neo said.

Roberto grinned, then lunged forward with the knife.

Neo's shot echoed through the woods, and Roberto fell back into the snow, blood trickling from a hole in his forehead.

The sound of helicopters got louder, a spotlight trained on Neo and his father as the helicopter hovered above them.

"Drop your weapon," said a voice through the helicopter’s broadcast system.

Neo dropped the gun.

Then the scene was swarming with officers in tactical gear, advancing on us with weapons drawn, Willa still sitting in the snow, cradling Rock’s head.

Chapter66

Willa

Ishivered under the warming blanket the EMTs had wrapped around my body on the portable gurney. I hadn't had time to explain why I was in the woods in my underwear with a pair of wings attached to my back, but luckily they seemed more concerned about frostbite and hypothermia.

I peered out from inside the ambulance, parked at the trailhead near the Hummer, watching as Neo, Oscar, and Rock, spoke to the police.

I felt sick looking at Rock’s bloodstained shirt. Grateful the knife wound had turned out to be less serious than it had looked, but sick. Of course, he’d refused to be transported by ambulance to the hospital, but he’d agreed to let doctors look at it when we got there.

I didn't know what would happen from here, but we were alive, all of us. The same couldn't be said for Roberto, and that meant it was really over.

I peered through the darkness as a figure in a nylon police coat walked toward the back of the ambulance. From a distance the bundled-up figure looked like a man, but when they reached the ambulance doors I realized I’d been wrong.

I blinked, wondering if I was hallucinating from the cold. "Interim Dean Garcia?”

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