Page 90 of Dealing Dirty
Derrick’s eyes go wide with horror as he watches Kenneth’s body fall limp before hitting the grass with a sickening slump.
Chaos erupts in slow motion all around me. Bodies collide and bullets fly.
Sasha is yelling at Derrick to get me out of here. She slides forward on her knees and swipes up her discarded gun before feeding Glasses a lead dinner. The blood spatter covering her face makes my stomach roll, and hot bile surges straight to the back of my throat.
Without warning, Derrick ducks into me, scooping me up so that I’m lying over his shoulder. Whipping out the gun from behind his back, he braces me against him with his opposite arm and fires behind him, hitting an intended target.
Gunshots continue ringing out as he turns to run.
“Wait, Derrick, please! We can’t leave her.” I’m sobbing as Hazel’s screams of agony shred my entire soul to ribbons.
Cooper works with Sasha to cover Kenneth’s body as two more men approach the top of the faraway hill.
“I’ll help Cooper get Kenneth to the hospital,” Sasha says to Jack and Micah. “Go!”
I brace my palms against Derrick’s back, lifting up to witness the melee.
Jackie’s eyes lock onto mine.
“What have you done?” I scream at him.
Derrick’s back takes a beating as I pound my fist against it, wishing it was Jackie’s traitorous face.
“You monster!” I nearly choke on the angry tears spilling over my cheeks, but he only stares back with those soulless eyes as we escape further away from this nightmare.
No, no, no.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.Howcould this have happened?
Alfonzo shoots wild bullets our direction as they retreat up the hill, but my brain struggles to catch up to speed, replaying Jackie shooting an innocent man in the chest.
Hazel collapses onto the ground, grasping and clawing at the grass to get to Kenneth. Sobs rack her body as Ben races to her side, quickly cradling her against him, and then they’re gone.
Epilogue
Jackie
“Son of a bitch!”
Pens and papers fly off my desk in a fit of rage. I kick my office chair for good measure.
“Motherfucker.”
Juliana’s terrified eyes burn a brand in my skull while I pace through the disaster I’ve created. We had a deal. Then wonder boy had to swoop in and ruin it all.
I scrub a hand over my face, and fresh stubble pierces the palm of my hand.
Bruce was beyond furious to find thatthe girlshad escaped, and here we all were,with our tails between our legslike fucking dogs ashe berated us.
The only reason any of the guys still have their kneecaps is because we were able to recapture Hazel. Her screams still surround me, suffocating andagonizing.
I’d tried to get them away.That sinking feeling of dread presses between my shoulder blades. Retaliation from the Wolves is sure to lead to an all-out war.
I slam a fist against my obnoxiously large mahogany desk.
Ifucking hatethis place.
Hazel reminds me so much of my two girls. Those wild, wonder-filled eyes are just like Elizabeth’s, and Lauren has the same rusty-gold tone in her brown hair.
