Page 58 of Dangerous Silence
I adjusted my grip on the gun, listening to the bullets in the loading docks, trying to figure out which side was winning. Footsteps. I turned, then shot a man in a white uniform in the face, his body falling backward. Then an ear-splitting roar sounded from the front, knocking out the glass, brushing us in heat, so powerful it threw me on my face. After a moment, I lifted my head, waiting for the fog to subside. Derek stumbled to his feet and ran forward. Wil pushed himself up. Muro was gone, but Margot lay on her side, a knife wound on her cheek.
I glanced behind us; the window panes were empty. A quiet hum settled over the building, People yelled. Zaid came running around the side.
“Muro?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Not yet,” I said. I tapped my earpiece. “Ron, what’s your status?” No response. I clicked it again. “Ron, status.” Again, I was met with silence, until Wil howled at Derek.
“Why the hell are you helping her?” Wil yelled. Derek held a hand to Margot’s cheek to stop the bleeding, then dialed someone on his phone. Margot stared at me, then her eyes flinched back to Wil, then to Zaid, then to me again, as if she could never settle on who to trust. “Kill her. Or use her as bait. But don’t help her.”
“Let it go,” Derek said in a warning voice.
“No,” Wil said. “This is stupid. She’s his wife. Don’t help her.”
I stood beside him. “There’s no reason to keep her alive,” I said.
Derek spoke to our family doctor, then hung up and turned to us: “No one is going to kill her.”
Wil threw up his fists. “Why the fuck are you defending her? She’s—”
“Because if Gerard doesn’t defend her, then who the fuck will?” Derek demanded, his voice booming. Wil turned to me, then looked back at Derek.
“What?”
Margot stammered. “We—” she paused, “Your father and I, we—”
“They fucked and Gerard is too much of a chicken shit to own up to his mistakes,” Derek said. “He might not be man enough, but I’m not going to let him ruin our family’s name.”
Derek’s face was red, full of rage. He wanted her dead too, but it was different. He wanted Gerard to end Margot’s life himself. To make Gerard face his mistakes head-on.
But something was holding Derek back.
“You mean to tell me this started because our father can’t keep his dick in his pants?” Wil groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
But it wasn’t much of a surprise. Our half-brother, Ethan, was evidence of Gerard’s earlier transgressions.
“This is the only way you fix loyalty and respect,” Derek said. “Gerard has to own up to it,” Derek stood, leaving Margot lying on the cement. “Our father claims he loves her.” Derek clenched his fists, spit flying through his teeth. “Then I want him to prove it.”
Wil and I fell silent, watching Derek. Anger boiled inside of him, eating him alive. The desire to kill the woman who had the power to ruin our family’s name was at war with his belief that he had to respect his family, above all else. Even when his family was wrong.
“We don’t even know her,” Wil said.
Derek shook his head, then redialed the doctor again. “If she’s meant to die, then Gerard will do it himself.”
Derek spoke quietly, arranging Margot’s treatment. Wil looked at me, and we stepped off to the side.
“What do we do?” Wil asked.
I stared at Derek. Out of the three of us, he was the most driven to lead and had strived to learn from the way our father had failed. Even if his leading title was part of a criminal organization, he wanted to be different. To earn respect himself.
“We stick by him,” I said to Wil. “We need to trust that Derek knows what he’s doing.”
“But he doesn’t know her,” Wil said.
“Neither do we.”
Derek had a strong urge to guard others, to make sure that transgressions were paid for, one that neither Wil nor I understood. But maybe we did. Wil was fiercely protective over Ellie, willing to fight his own brothers for it, and me? When it came to Demi, I—
Demi.
