Page 137 of Broken Blood Ties

But as quickly as it comes, it disappears. “What’ll it be, O’Donnell?”

Riku strolls behind the chair, pulling Kieran’s head into a headlock and squeezing. Kieran’s eyes, already bloodshot and red, pop wide.

“It’s not even a question! I’ll go! I’ll go with you … please don’t touch Aoife.” My father’s arms slacken.

There’s pounding on the door, followed by a loud bang, as if a body was thrown against the metal on the other side.

Kieran’s voice tries and fails to speak. Finally, Riku releases him, shoving his head to the side and I wince.

“Ye’re dead. All of ye are?—”

The world slows as the gunshot rings out, splitting the air. Kieran’s body snaps back with the shot to his chest, the force of the close-range bullet sending the metal chair he’s strapped to tipping back and hitting the floor with a bone-shattering thud.

I don’t realize I’ve screamed until my throat burns in agony, raw from the sound of his name wailing from my lips.

My heart stops, suspended with the agonizing realization—Oh my god.

Blood blooms across his chest, dark and currant-red, spreading through the white of his shirt. Stinging tears come hot and sudden, welling up and spilling over. My breath is caught somewhere between a sob and a scream—God, the pain—what do I do? How can I?—

Strong hands grip my waist, lifting me, as the creak of the door opening sends a wave of disbelief and utter terror through me, choking me.

They’re taking me away. He’s dying and I … I need to go to him. How can I tell Aoife her father is gone?

I buck, pulling my legs up and kicking behind me. The world spins while the sound of the gunshot still echoes in my ears. It’s as if it wakes me up out of this slow-motion dream, because I scream. I scream for Kieran. For me. For Aoife.

“Let me go!” I wiggle and squirm, but it’s no use. Bulky arms surround me, crushing me the more I try to dodge his grasp. The doorframe passes by, and I scream again.

Through the hair sticking to my sweaty forehead, I catch sight of people running. And that’s when I hear it. More gunshots. More screams.

“Move. Move!” My father’s voice is loud in my ear. Two more guards rush over, forming a protective barrier around him and the man holding me. Each guard grips a brawny firearm, the barrels swiveling as they scan every angle. Their fingers hover over the triggers, ready for any threat.

“Summer!” The voice is familiar, and I catch Cormac fighting a crowd of running people. Behind him, Finn raises his gun at my father.

“He’s in the training room!” I try to yell above the shots and screams. “He’s shot! Cormac you have to get to him!”

Several shots ring out behind Cormac and Finn. Riku and his men have pulled their weapons firing at?—

More thunderous shots, loud and unrelenting, fill the air. Pings of bullets ricochet off the concrete walls in exploding booms. It’s chaos. Utter chaos and devolving by the second.

Through the barrage of shots, bodies dive for cover behind the few open training room doors, while some people pour back into the arena.

It’s madness.

I try to keep up with Cormac and Finn, but I lose them and can only hope they’ll make it to Kieran.

Kieran. Desperate tears fall down my face as I try to escape my father’s men during the distraction of the firefight. One man guarding us goes down, a shot to the leg. Blood splatters ahead of me as a young blonde’s skull is blown off in a single disorienting shot.

With another shot, the man carrying me pitches forward and I bite the concrete with a hiss. My elbows take the brunt of the fall. For a minute, the wild violence warps into a sludgy slow, and the man carrying me groans in pain with a gunshot wound to his side next to me.

Pushing up, I reach over and rip the pistol from his side holster while hands above me fumble to gather me again.

I shout, turning over and aiming the gun at the man standing above me. My father’s guard lifts his hands while my father ducks down to my level. I scramble back, sit up, and use one hand to aim the gun back and forth between them both.

“You … you killed him,” I rasp out, tears streaming down my face.

My father glares at me. “I did not. Riku did. Enough with this nonsense, we need to go.”

No. No, there’s no way I’m going.

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