Page 79 of Huge Dynamite
He presses the knife so hard I begin to choke.
“I-it’s called hemorrhaging.”
“Yeah, that’s it—”
There’s a loud scuffle from behind us, and suddenly, someone screams, “Bullseye!”
Damian turns me in the direction of the voice.
“Seth?” Tears stream down my face as I see Seth come up from behind one of the Dogs, tear the shotgun from his hands, and toss it to Bullseye.
Bullseye stands in front of me now. His feet are hips’ width and one eye is closed as the other stares down the sight of a shotgun that’s pointing directly at Damian. Bullseye’s arms are so sure and so steady, he rivals some of the best surgeons I know.
“Let her go!” Seth commands, rushing up next to Bullseye. “You can’t win this, Damian. This is your one chance. Let her go now, otherwise Bullseye will pop you right between the eyes. He’s an expert sharpshooter. You know he can—and he will.”
Damian shuffles from foot to foot, beads of sweat rolling down his face.
“I’m counting to three.” Seth stares me in the eyes as he counts. “One, two, thr—”
“All right!” Raising his arms, the man releases me, and I drop to the ground.
“Holly?” Seth rushes to me and squats down next to me. “Are you okay?” He strokes my hair. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”
“Yes, I’m okay.” I fight to make sense of the situation as fighting resumes around us.
Moving me back behind a bar, Seth nods to me. “Stay here.”
Stroking my cheek, he smiles and then stands and rushes Damian. Jumping him from behind, Seth takes Damian down with a chokehold. Men—and Seneca—are punching and kicking. In the corner, Colt wields a set of nunchucks and cracks a man in his cheekbone. The way the man falls, my guess is he either has a broken cheekbone or a dislocated jaw. Bullet backhands a large man, taking him down. The carnage builds until it looks like I’m sitting in the middle of a slaughterhouse. Men with vipers on their jackets, and another group with an insignia I can’t make out from here, are working their way through the clubhouse with the Knights. There are so many of the Unchained Dogs on the ground that the fight has to be letting up. Turning to Seth to see if he’s okay, I watch as he pulls a gun from his jeans and points it at Damian’s head.
“You are going to die a long, painful death,” Seth warns Damian. “Do you understand?”
“Yes—ow!” The man doubles over as Seth kicks him in the gut. It’s probably a bruised liver.
As soon as the man gets to his knees, Seth kicks him again and again. Turning away, I try to hide from the violence.
“Now, it’s your time to die.” Even above the ruckus, I can hear Seth’s voice threatening the man.
Forcing myself to look, I see Seth holding a gun to the man’s temple.
“Seth, no!” I’m terrified to even speak, but my voice is strong.
Still pointing the gun at the man’s head, Seth looks over at me. “Holly, turn away. Don’t look at this.”
“Seth, you can’t kill him.”
“He tried to kill you. He deserves to die.”
Braving the chaos, I crawl on my hands and knees toward Seth. “No! Don’t you understand? I cannot be the cause of someone’s death.”
“You won’t be,” Seth assures me. “I will.” He steps even closer to Damian.
“Seth, no, please!”
Damian turns to me with a confused look on his face.
“Seth, please,” I plead with him. “Don’t you understand what I’m saying to you? If there’s any chance—ever—for us to be together, you can’t do this. I cannot be with someone who kills—not when I’ve devoted my life to saving people.”
The piercing sound of an ambulance’s siren blasts through the noise of the clubhouse.
