Page 86 of The Chief
Outside, the moon had slipped from behind a bank of clouds to illuminate my little slice of hell. I couldn’t wait to leave this place. To get out of here and back to my sister. Back to Galway. Back to my normal life, where I was a nursing student and not some commodity to be traded back and forth.
“Jesus, what the hell happened in there?”
I spun to find Mila stepping out from behind an old tractor, her dark hair gleaming blue in the moonlight.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I’m Plan B.”
“She insisted,” Keir bit out, tugging me along so violently I almost fell. It was only his hand on my elbow that stopped me from eating dirt and gravel.
“Where’d all that blood come from?” Mila asked.
Behind us, there was a roar of defiance, a wounded animal refusing to fall. I turned to see Owen standing in the doorway of the farmhouse, blood pouring from his groin. He was hemorrhaging, but he was still moving.
Keir muttered, “Why won’t the motherfucker die?”
Mila was staring too. “Should this guy be dead?”
“He will be if he doesn’t get to a hospital soon,” I replied.
Her eyes shifted to me. “Sooo, do we want him dead?”
“Yes,” Keir bit out at the same time I said, “No.”
I was studying to heal people, not to harm them.
Mila’s gaze bounced between us for a brief second before she pulled a gun from the small of her back and took aim. Both Keir and I watched as she put a bullet straight between Owen’s eyes. He blinked once, his expression one of disbelief, before his legs gave out and he collapsed.
Keir slowly led me down the driveway and onto the road, where I saw his Rover parked parallel to a dry-stone wall. When he opened the trunk, I saw Orla sitting with a gun pointed directly at us. Leaning in, Keir placed his hand on the weapon and lowered it, but my sister’s eyes were trained on me.
“Cait,” she breathed, throwing herself into my arms. When she pulled back, her eyes bounced around my face. “Whose blood is that?”
“Owen’s,” I replied.
“What—”
“Later,” Keir interrupted her, motioning for Orla to get out of the rear compartment. As soon as she slid out, Keir lifted the floor panels as Mila craned her neck to get a better look.
“Whoa, is that an RPG?” she asked, wonder tinging her voice.
Keir didn’t answer. He simply lifted the weapon into his arms and turned to walk back toward the old farm. Over his shoulder, he called, “I want everyone in the car. Engine running. As soon as I’m back, we’re out of here.”
Orla opened the rear passenger door and got in, but Mila and I stood there and watched Keir march down the street and disappear down the driveway.
Mila turned to me. “What the hell happened in there? He looks like he’s ready to burn down the world.”
“What was necessary,” I muttered.
She arched a brow. “What was necessary got that much blood on you?”
“Yeah.”
I hoped Mila would drop it. While I knew I’d have to rehash this again—to Finnan, no doubt—I wanted to keep it to myself a little longer. I’d already killed one man, and tonight I had contributed to the death of another. The stain on my soul was growing darker, but if it meant I survived, it was something I could live with.
We both turned toward the farmhouse when there was a whooshing sound, closely followed by an explosion that ruffled our hair and pushed us back a step.
“Shit,” Mila said. “We’ve gotta bounce. Get in the back with your sister.”
