33. Enemy Territory

33

ENEMY TERRITORY

OLIVER

"Caddell!"

The only voice in the world that could rock my world while simultaneously upheaving it sounds from behind the row of bodies next to me. Soph's tone holds as much revulsion in it as the smell of a rotten deer carcass.

"It's me you have beef with. Leave everyone else out of it."

"I told you to stay put." Preston, one of our hired hands nears her side, gun drawn. There's a look of remorse in his dark glare when it cuts to Ashton. Clear indication he's failed to do his one job of keeping Sophia safe and away from this shit is sprawled across his creased forehead. His eyes dart to Soph. Shaking his head and huffing dreadfully, he says, "You listen as well as a damn goldfish."

He's getting fired, and he knows it. For real this time.

Beckoning her into the safety of his arms, Mazen calls out, "Rosella, come here."

"No, I can't. I'm sorry, Mazen. I'm so tired of running. "

Her attention turns toward the man in the suit, which looks like his dry cleaner was high. It's not pressed or anything.

Tool.

I watch in horror as Sophia marches up to Julian and Knox. With each step, determination plows into her. She's all anger and hatred. I shouldn't be turned on by her powerful stance … but I am. Fuck. This little fireball has amazed me from day one. Her spine was crafted from tungsten.

"I'm done. If he wants his retribution and is too impatient to wait for a damn paycheck, then he can have it now. I won't allow him to hurt any more of the people I love. This ends tonight."

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to read between the lines. This guitarist understands just fine. She's not offering herself up in exchange for us. Nope. Not happening today. Not on my fucking watch. I've had enough.

Before she marches past me, fortitude clinging to her set shoulders, I grab her arm forcefully. Her body halts. "You don't need to do this. It's why we left you out of our plan. Let us handle Caddell. Please, Fireball."

Defiance mounts, then pours from her parted lips. "You left me out of the plan to protect me, right?" She doesn't give me enough time to answer. "This is me protecting you guys, my sister. His beef is with me. Not you. For Christ's sake, you had to lure Caddell out with Mazen's fancy private investigator. I had the situation handled. You guys care about me, and I appreciate that so much, but this is bigger than us. It's bigger than—"

"He has my wife." Murphy's wounded voice cuts through Soph's tangent. "She went out for a run and didn't come back." Dark brows pinch when he looks between her and the man holding Vanna's arm in a death grip. "Look, I care about my brothers, our band, you … but right now, all I can think about is pulling the hand he has on my wife completely off and then shoving it up his ass. She's our priority."

Bridging the gap between her and Knox, Soph's small frame walks directly onto the battlefield. She glances over her shoulder and says, "You're right; she is. Let me save her."

I have half a mind to yank the black pistol out of Ashton's hand. Going all in, Al Capone-style. The other half, the sane side—do people really have those?—is telling me to chill. He has Vanna and Mazen's dad held hostage. We need to think with our heads in order to all get out of this situation unscathed.

Leaning forward, we watch in horror as Soph whispers something into Caddell's ear. By his sinister smile, I know that our queen just handed him her crown.

She'll gladly surrender in order to protect us. She said it herself. I still let her walk away from me.

A look of triumph spreads across his face. He thinks he's won. That look will haunt me for years to come.

"I'm a man of my word," he says, jaw clenching before he grabs Vanna away from his nephew's embrace and pushes her directly into Murphy's arms, like she's an empty cereal box he's tossing into the garbage.

Before there's time to collect our thoughts or think of how this needs to finish playing out, Knox is wrapping his arms around Soph's stomach, pulling her into enemy territory.

The sight of seeing her defenseless is nauseating.

I capture her attention. For a second that seems like five minutes, I hold her unrelenting glare. There's so much said between her forest-green eyes and my own.

Promises of a future I desperately want with her.

Fragment memories of the laughs we've shared during our tour.

Memories of the night I let her tattoo a burned piece of toast on my forearm—commemorating the time Mazen tried to woo her with breakfast and failed miserably. When you have as much ink as I do, there isn't much I wouldn't get tattooed on me at this point.

"I'm going to fucking kill you." Cannon loses his battle with restraint. He charges toward Knox.

Out of my peripheral vision, I catch Soph flinch before her long lashes close over her lids, breaking the tether our gazes clung to and my heart in the process.

Bang.

The sound of a gun—I'm not certain whose—fires into the vicinity Cannon was barreling into.

My world crumbles as the deafening tone hits the air and the bullet finds my best friend's shoulder.