“These are the new precautions because you brought Adrian Adesso here.”
My chest pinched as humiliation clouded my thoughts and my reasoning.
“So there’s no threat?”
“Oh, there is,” Scotty said with a bit of a sneer then glanced over my head at the twins. “But I’m taking it one problem at a time. We’ll discuss more later this evening. Please go get settled into your room.”
My fists clenched tightly as I bit my lip. It wouldn’t do any good to fight with him out here. There was too much at risk to reveal any sort of dispute in the open. We had no idea how loyal these men were, so I pushed past the group and went straight into the manor.
My mother was walking out of our family wing right as I was walking in.
“Presley?” Her dark hair lifted as her head turned, and confusion marred her face. “Why are you back so soon? I thought you were staying until next month.”
Did Scotty not tell them?
“The twins brought me back, said there was a threat.”
Mom’s face did something that I knew mine did when I got angrywith a sneer and widened gaze. “Scotty did this, I know he did. He sent them, didn’t he?”
She stormed past me. I turned with her, trying to stop her because it wouldn’t make a difference.
“Mom!”
She kept moving, her bare feet barely a whisper over the wood floors she hated so much and her hair flying like a sheet of midnight behind her. She had on a simple T-shirt and a pair of jeans shorts but right as she was about to exit the house, she pulled something familiar from her purse that hung near the front door and my heart sank, but my feet moved faster.
The front door was thrown open and she was on him quicker than I could blink. Her foot connected with the back of his leg and within a single heartbeat she had a Glock pressed to the side of his head. Her lips peeled back as she seethed, “I’m so fucking sick of you interfering with her life. I won’t have you do any more damage. You think you know what’s best, but you don’t. I won’t accept it anymore.”
The click of someone’s rifle had my gaze snapping up. The men surrounding Scotty all had their guns pointed at my mother. I didn’t have a weapon on me. How could I not have a weapon on me?
“Mom, please,” I begged, my chin wobbling.
My vision blurred, all I could see were the men in front of me. Where was my dad?
One of the men narrowed his eyes as if he were aiming and I moved without hesitating. I bolted so fast toward him that I couldn’t even think through how I would take him down. I just knew I couldn’t risk my mother getting hurt.
Scotty had his arms up, but when he saw me running, he began screaming. It didn’t matter; I was barreling toward the solider right as a shot went off as loud as a crack of thunder.
Several things happened too fast for me to process.
Someone pulling me to the ground, a hand covering my head, another wrapping around my waist. People shouting, my motherscreaming. I forced my eyes up just in time to see a bullet fly through a man’s head, making him jolt to the side. Then the other men in the circle began going down, one after another.
I remained on the ground, breathing hard as I stared at every man who had dared point their guns at my mother, as if they were moving in slow motion until they were all down and my mother had finally released Scotty, stumbling backward.
I watched as my father slowly made his way up from the lower parking level, his gun still aimed as if he weren’t finished shooting. He had an odd look on his face, as if someone had just dug into his chest and attempted to rip his heart through his rib cage. His eyes were blown wide, and his face was pale, so fucking pale.
“Dad?” I weakly called for him, but his focus was on Scotty.
“Seven of your men, Scotty. Seven of them had a weapon pointed at my wife!”
Dad’s voice was murderously loud, the tendons in his neck strained and even spit came from his mouth as he screamed.
My uncle glanced around as he finally got to his feet, but my dad kicked his chest until he was faltering down to his knees once more.
“I spared you one time and only one time when you put her life in danger. I have ignored the liberties you’ve taken with my daughter because I understood what it took to withstand your training, but your men just aimed their fucking weapons at mywife!”
Scotty’s eyes flashed over to Mom who was shaking her head, tears gathering in her eyes.
“Kyle.”