Page 99 of Together We Burn
I’dnevershotata person before. Sure, I’d been to the firing range a few times–it was good sense to practice using the weapon I kept tucked away in my drawer–but firing at a living person and not the paper cut-out was completely different.
Stefany and her boys obviously didn’t have the same problem with shooting to kill. With her gun held high, she ran to where Mac had taken shelter behind Alex’s truck, popping out occasionally to take shots at Emilia’s bodyguard. Firing rounds toward the man dressed in black military-style gear, she slapped Mac on the back as she rounded the truck, keeping her body tucked down low and out of sight.
Alex had already taken out one of Emilia’s men; the driver, judging by the stupid little chauffeur’s hat, spilt behind him. The man never stood a chance with the way Alex brandished the machine gun like a maniac, sending bullet after bullet into his torso, arms, and shoulders, making my one measly shot that struck him square in the thigh seem like a waste in comparison.
Alex roared as he finished the belt, tossing the gun to the side, then pulled out two handguns from behind his back. The man was like a tyrant, sending round after round into the bullet hole-riddled door of her car that hid Emilia’s bodyguard. If Alex had a death wish, he’d be playing with fire with how he stood, uncaring that he was completely exposed for anyone to take a half-decent shot that would bring him to his knees.
How he hadn’t taken a single hit was beyond me.
My gaze bounced between the brothers and the man crouching by the Bentley. Worry swirled in my gut as I sought out Emilia, but came up short. The bitch was hiding somewhere and hadn’t been seen since Stefany launched herself at her sister.
Finishing yet another magazine, Alex dropped the empty gun beside the other one he had discarded earlier, creating a small pile of useless artillery. Pulling out a new clip from his back pocket, he reloaded, giving Emilia’s last standing guy a brief opening to aim at him.
Springing from my position, I pulled the trigger–pop, pop, pop–straight into the man’s chest. His grip on his gun slipped, the metal dropping as he grabbed at his chest, eyes wide in shock or pain, I couldn’t tell in the dim light, until he fell to the ground with a sickening thud.
Bile rose in my stomach. The desperate need to vomit came in waves as the man’s shirt shone wet in the moonlight where I’d hit him. Blood seeped into the material, and if my shots hadn’t reached anything vital, the blood loss would surely kill him now.
Alex twisted, his face grim as he scanned over my position. He nodded in thanks, gripping my shoulder, and commanded, “Breathe. In through your nose and out through your mouth. We can’t have you going into shock.”
“Fuck off,” I scoffed, pushing his hand off me, noticing Stefany walk toward the dead man and toeing him with her boot before peering into the car, still searching for her mother.
“I should have known your pussy ass wouldn’t have stuck around long enough to finish what you started, mother,” Stefany taunted into the darkness. “Must really piss you off that your own flesh and blood beat you. ThatIbeat you.”
A sardonic laugh came from the shadows, and Stefany’s head jerked in the direction of where it appeared to have come from.
“So you are so delusional, darling daughter.” Emilia’s voice rang out into the cold night air. “Desperate to believe a man who betrayed you that you’d ignore the fact he fucked your mother. I’d say a lot better than he fucked you.”
Stefany’s fingers flexed around her gun. Clicking her tongue, she scoffed, “I’m delusional? I feel sorry for you, Emilia. Is your sex life that dull that you need to make up stories to make you feel better for the fact that no one in their right mind would touch you?”
Stefany turned and began walking to the back of Emilia’s car.
“You are such a disappointment, Stefany,” Emilia continued. “You could have had so much potential. I had dreams for you, for Chris,for my son.But instead, you turned out like this.”
“I quite like the way I am,” Stefany deadpanned, aiming the gun in the open back door of the Bentley. Only the car was empty.
Emilia really did like the fucking dramatics.
“Can you just come out so I can kill you already?” Stefany called, sounding bored. “I’d really like to get home and have a nice hot bubble bath before it gets too late.”
“It will be me killing you, darling daughter. I brought you into this world, and I will be taking you out of it.”
From the shadows, Emilia stepped out, gun held high, aiming for her daughter. Stefany’s back was to her, searching an area of the parking lot, unaware of the immediate danger she was in, like a swimmer being hunted by a shark in the depths of the ocean.
I ran.
Lungs burning, heart pounding as my feet smacked on the gravel, ignoring the shouts from Alex as everything in me roared to get to my girl.
“Stefany,” I yelled in a scream of fury and fear.
Everything slowed.
The turn of her head. The flick of her hair. The widening of her eyes as she faced me.
Then the shake of her head. The panic forming across her face. The words spilling from her lips as she soundlessly screamed, “No!”
She aimed her gun and fired in the direction of Emilia, her mother’s body jerking back as I collided with Stefany’s body, and I could only hope that meant she’d hit her.
Gunfire pierced the high-pitched ringing in my ears, bringing the world back to normal speed as we crashed to the ground, and Stefany cried out as her head smacked against the gravel with a sharp thump. Excruciating pain ricocheted through my body. My arm and chest burned in a blinding agony like nothing I’d ever felt before.
