Page 160 of Like Grim Death: Part One
He fucking fired at me. At my brothers.
I’m thinking ahead, my pulse racing, sweat dripping along the back of my neck, and in my mind, I’m going to block the entrance to my driveway so at the very least these assholes will have to get out of their fucking shitty car to get to my family.
But as my speedometer ticks up, my gaze coming to the front again, Maverick’s arm is suddenly flung out and over my chest, smacking me back against my seat. It knocks the breath out of me, the force of his barred arm, but it’s not the motion that has the hairs on the back of my neck standing straight up.
“Stop the car, stop the car, fuckingstop the goddamncar.”It’s Mav’s voice, panicked in a way I’ve never heard before in my life. It’s chilling, the pure fear injected into his words.
And as my foot goes to the brake, slamming down on it because it’s instinct to trust my brother,I see her.
Red hair whipping around a dark hoodie, she was almost invisible to me in the thick of the night.
But now Ella is caught in my headlights, even as she deftly leaps to the side, avoiding getting run the fuck over by the narrowest margin.
My gaze jumps from her, to the rearview, and I see the Town Car bearing down on me. I don’t think, I just rip up the emergency brake, drifting into a complete U-turn, away from Ella but facing the Town Car head on.
Maverick is already opening his door, cold, October air snaking inside as Nikita dives his car to the left to avoid smashing into me, the sound of brakes screeching through the air.
I feel like I’m going to throw up but I don’t have time to be sick.
I snatch my gun from the console and fling open my door, Ezra doing the same. Across from us, the Town Car’s doors open too, and I don’t bother waiting to get a good aim before my finger squeezes the fucking trigger of my gun, the loudpoperupting into the quiet night.
The scent of rain and burnt rubber fills my nose and I hear one of my guards calling out my name, but I don’t pay any fucking attention as I stalk toward the Lincoln, headlights still bright and fucking with my vision.
Ezra is at my side, I don’t know where Sevryn is, and I hear Maverick snarling,“What the fuck are you doing? What thefuckare you doing?”
I pull the trigger again, stalking forward, my adrenaline surging, making me feel invincible.
“You didn’t have it in you.” Nikita’s obnoxious voice cuts through the night after the ringing of my last shot. “I’m not surprised. You’ve always been a little pussy, Lucifer Malikov.”
I pull the trigger again, coming closer to his car even though I can’t fucking see him or his passenger.
And when Ezra leaps on my back and knocks me to the pavement, my palms catching me, the gun clattering from my hand only inches away, I’m about to elbow him to get him off me when gunfire erupts in return, blasting over our low-lying bodies, bullets sailing in the air. I hear a few pling against my car, and my temper returns with a fucking vengeance.
I try to push up, to get Ezra off me, but he slams my head down and whispers in my ear, “Let them empty their shit out. Don’t be as stupid as they are.”
More ammo pierces the night, but I don’t keep track of their bullets and I don’t even know what kind of weapons they’ve got. So when silence fills the air, I reach out my hand and snatch up my gun as Ezra rolls off me, allowing me to spring to my feet again.
Headlights flood past me just as they do in front of me, but I can see them now. Nikita and a guy with a shaved head, white skin, and a gun in his hand. He’s dressed in red like Nikita, and the four of us—Ezra beside me—lunge toward one another, off to the side of the headlights because all of us are fucking blinded.
The engines of our cars are still running, all the doors flung open, and I want to turn around and look for Mav and Ella, but I don’t dare take my eyes off Nikita’s golden ones.
He smiles at me, a crooked thing, but his chest is heaving beneath his red dress shirt where I’m sure the knife wound I delivered to him is still healing, and I know he’s at least a little afraid.
“You wanted to christen this street for its namesake?” I ask, stepping closer, until Ezra and I are only two feet from Nikita and his friend.
“Why can’t you ever fucking do what you’re told?” Nikita smiles as he asks it, and his friend snorts, then spits on the pavement, his gun held loosely by his side.
Mine is aimed at Nikita, and Nikita’s right back at me.
Ezra says nothing by my side, waiting for me to make a move.
“Your sister told me to let her suck my dick,” I answer, my voice low. I’m very aware of my home at my back. “I didn’t have a hard time listening to that.”
Nikita’s gaze narrows. “Don’t talk about my fucking sister.”
“Oh, no, don’t worry. I wasfuckingyour sister. We were nevertalking.”
Nikita steps closer, his jaw tight. “You didn’t follow orders tonight. There’s consequences to that, you understand?” He gestures behind me with his gun, and every muscle in my body is tense. “So I can take it from you, or I can strip it fromher.”
