Library

41

41

STACEY

My eyes ping open as a scream hits my ringing ears, everywhere hurting as I try to move and fail.

Confused and dazed, flat on my back, I will myself to stay awake. My head is aching from something dropping on me. I try to keep my eyes open in the darkness licked by flames, but they burn, just like my lungs do as I drag in erratic breaths.

A sharp pain in my legs has me wincing as I try to move, blinking as I cough on the thick smoke filling the corridor at the bottom of Kade’s spiral staircase.

I tuck my chin in to see the glow of the fire on the wooden beam trapping my legs.

“Stacey…” The soft voice comes from my left, and I look over to see my best friend pushing herself to her feet.

Luciella looks at me, distraught, her face bleeding, her top ripped to shreds. One of her shoes is missing. She cradles herself, pressing her palm to where her baby is growing in her womb.

“Oh God,” she cries quietly, limping towards me and taking in the demolished surroundings of her home. “What happened?”

So many memories burned away. Kade’s room doesn’t even exist anymore. The box I stored in his cupboard will be gone – the princess dress, the booties, the photographs and everything else he kept to remind him of us.

All gone.

I’m so weak that the gunshots I can hear from somewhere in the manor don’t faze me. There’s yelling, and something falls from the ceiling and causes embers to float towards us with a bang. There’s crackling in my ears, and I don’t know if it’s from my head injury or the wood burning around us.

Luciella uses the shredded material of her top to cover her mouth. Pretty soon, the smoke will grow thicker, poisonous, and we’ll probably die in here.

Every nerve in my body is aware of the pain I’m in, and everything burns from the polluted air. I pull my sweater up and over my mouth to try to filter some of the smoke filling my lungs.

I’m not sure how long I was knocked out, but one minute, Luciella and I were rehearsing how she’ll tell Base she’s pregnant, me hyping her up when she started to panic because he hates children, then the next, chaos. Something happened when we were walking down Kade’s spiral staircase to go find Base and tell him the news. There was a bang, then we were catapulted down and everything turned black.

The smoke is getting thicker, and the flames are closer. I have sweat all over me, stinging the wounds on my skin. “Tylar,” I say. “She went to your room. Can you phone her?”

Luciella pulls out her phone from her back pocket, but the screen is smashed. I have no idea where mine is.

My heart twists at the thought of whoever is attacking us getting to Kade, and I silently pray he’s not too stoned to defend himself.

We freeze when gunshots sound louder at the end of Kade’s corridor, two heavily armoured figures running past with gas masks on, torches attached to their guns and shining through the smoke. They’re aiming and firing at someone.

We need to get out of here – and fast. Whoever attacked the manor is also storming the place.

Oh God. Where are the dogs? Kade? Tylar? Everyone?

My eyes sting from the smoke and pressure of the pain in my head, but I manage to push my palms into the floor beneath me and sit up. “I can feel my toes,” I croak, coughing as relief courses through me – my legs aren’t broken from being trapped under the beam. “Help me lift this off.”

When she reaches forward, realisation hits, and I grab her wrist. “Wait. No. You can’t lift it – you’re pregnant.”

“I’m helping you,” she demands, freeing herself from my grip. “The fire is spreading, and I’m not leaving you here to either be shot or burned alive.”

Three attempts, and we fail to move the beam trapping my legs. It sits just above my knees, but if I try to pull my legs out, my kneecaps feel like they’re going to snap. I give up, coughing enough to make my throat hurt.

“You need to go, Luciella.”

“Shut up. No.”

“Lu, please. You’re pregnant, and I’m stuck here. The smoke’s getting worse.” I take deep breaths that sting my throat. “Please go.”

“No.”

I go to groan, but the sight of two more figures pushing their way into the destroyed corridor has me pausing. Relief fills me as Kade snatches someone by the throat and repeatedly punches them in the face, so hard the gas mask drops to the ground. Base is strangling the other, a manic expression on his face.

“Motherfuckers chose the wrong family to fuck with,” Base growls, kicking the person between the legs before they drop. “Pieces of shit.”

Kade snaps the man’s neck so easily, and I hear it popping.

They’re both drenched in blood.

Kade’s gaze clashes with mine, and I feel all the air vanish as he instantly runs to me, my name on his lips, Base just behind him, yelling for Luciella. They stop when another beam drops from the ceiling, missing them by an inch.

They bolt over the beam and run towards us, dodging debris. Kade reaches me first with wide eyes. “Fuck,” he blurts, grabbing my face to check my injuries. Then he glances down at my trapped limbs.

He effortlessly lifts the beam, and I shuffle back to free my legs. He yanks me into his chest before I can say a word. His face buries into my shoulder as his hold tightens around me. “I can’t ever lose you. I… I can’t. Ever. I thought I lost you… I couldn’t find you… couldn’t fucking think straight.”

I lean back and cup his stained cheek, his eyes wild. “It’s okay. You found me.”

“I killed a lot of people tonight,” he admits, his eyes taking in all my cuts and bruises. “Don’t hate me.”

The knuckles on both his hands are burst open, his ear and eyebrow are bleeding, and there’s a gash on his head – also bleeding.

“They deserved it.” My chin wobbles. “The dogs?”

“They’re outside with two of my guys. We found them at the bottom of the staircase. They aren’t hurt, just spooked.”

He doesn’t take his eyes off me as Base speaks. “We’ll need to jump into the bushes or try climbing down – the stairs are crawling, and this wing is about to collapse. We’re out of fucking bullets.”

Base is holding Luciella to him, shaking his head and muttering in Russian and English as he kisses all over her face. Then he adds, “Tylar is with Dez. She’s safe.”

Good. That’s good.

“Where’s my mum and Ewan?” Luciella asks. “And Nikita?”

“With her bodyguard. Ewan got Aria out too.”

Kade lowers his forehead to my shoulder again. “I nearly lost you.”

“You’ll never lose me, Kade.” I brush my fingers through his hair. “Get us out of here,” I say, my lungs on fire, my eyes droopy. “I’m getting dizzy.”

I stare down at my bloodied legs as Kade stands and slips a gun into the back of his waistband. He helps me to my feet, but the pressure on my knees has me buckling. The dizziness from being knocked out is starting to settle, replaced with panic and pain, making my heart race uncontrollably.

Kade holds me up. “Can you walk?”

I nod.

More gunshots go off as Kade pulls my arm over his shoulder for support, slouching down to my height. We only get halfway down the corridor before he’s coughing and I’m falling. We get back to our feet, Kade pressing his hand to the wall for extra support.

“This room here,” Base says, kicking the door open, and we follow him in. He jogs to the window and slides it open, looking down. “We can jump.”

I glance at the steep drop and blanch.

Kade shakes his head. “Stacey’s legs will snap. And there’s not a chance in hell I’m letting my pregnant sister jump from that height.”

Base pauses. “What?”

Everything goes silent. Luciella closes her eyes. Base doesn’t blink, his brows furrowing. I internally cringe at the quietness. Kade crosses his arms and stares at them both like he didn’t just drop a bomb.

“She’s pregnant,” Kade says, making it worse. “Congratulations, you’re going to be a father – if we get out of this. Now, what’s plan B?”

“Wait. Hold the fuck on. What?” He stands in front of Lu and tips her chin up, so she looks at him. “You’re pregnant?”

“Can we talk about this later please?” she asks. “We’re in the middle of a near-death experience, and this can be discussed later.”

“They’ll try to kill you. If Nikita’s family finds out, they’ll send orders for you to be killed.” He looks at Kade. “Can you hide her?”

“I’m not hiding,” she snaps before her twin can respond. “We don’t need to say it’s yours.”

“It’s definitely mine, right?”

Oh, he did not. I step forward with a tight jaw, but Kade beats me to it, grabbing Base by the scruff of his collar. “Watch your fucking mouth.”

“Calm the fuck down!” Base snaps, shoving Kade away. “I know the kid is mine. Nikita’s family will too! Do you understand how dangerous this is?”

“I can easily say it isn’t yours! They won’t find out.”

“You think I’m going to go back there knowing you’re carrying my kid?”

“We don’t have time for this,” Kade says, glaring at them both. “The smoke is coming through every goddamn crack. We need to get out of here.”

Lu tenses her jaw, but before she can yell at him, the door bursts open, a large figure wearing a gas mask and riot gear filling the doorway, his gun pointing at us. “Jackpot,” he says in an English accent. “I found Kade and Luciella Mitchell.”

He speaks into his earpiece, but my view is blocked as Kade slides in front of me, giving me a full view of his blood-soaked back. Base pulls Lu behind him too.

“I want the four of you to put your hands above your heads and drop to your goddamn knees.”

“This one is mine,” Base mutters under his breath, but we can all hear. “I let you have the last one.”

Kade lets out a breathy laugh and shakes his head. “You got your ass handed to you, and I had to step in.”

When the man realises no one is listening, he radios to his team. “Send everyone to—”

The words stop, gurgling hits my ears then there’s a thud. I look around Kade to see the man on his front, a blade in his skull. The murderer steps over him, the gas mask he’s wearing drops to the floor and we all gasp.

“No time for dramatics,” Tobias Mitchell says in a deep voice, standing above the dead body. He’s wearing the same uniform as his victim. He nods to the door. “Let’s go. The building’s on fire, if you didn’t notice.”

“Dad?” Kade and Luciella say at the same time.

The former steps forward, hesitant. They don’t believe their eyes. “How are you here?”

“Run now, talk later.” His eyes fall on me. “Hello, little one.” He looks at Base. “Sebastian.”

“Shit,” Base blurts. “I’m too scared to tell you to not call me that.”

I grin at Tobias. “I knew you weren’t dead.”

“But I am,” he says, smirking. “To the world, I am dead. Let’s keep it that way.”

“You’re really here…” His son takes another step forward. Luciella is frozen in place, probably in shock.

Kade advances forward slowly and presses his hand on his dad’s shoulder, who nods once, before his son lets out a sigh of relief and hugs him. And against his psychotic nature, Tobias hugs his son back, pulling Luciella in too when she finally runs at him.

Base is pale. Maybe from seeing a ghost – or the news that Luciella is carrying his child. It can’t be all the people he killed tonight or the gaping wound in his shoulder.

“I thought you were dead,” Kade chokes. “They identified your body.”

Tobias pushes them back and nods. “Bernadette wanted them off my back. She faked my death. The stupid bitch only made things worse for herself.”

Even her name makes me shiver.

The ceiling crackles as the flames eat at the wood, and Tobias kisses his daughter’s head. “Stop crying, sweetheart. I’m okay. Look?” He pats his chest, over his heart. “I’m okay.”

Kade pulls on the dead guy’s uniform, and they both pretend to hustle us through the manor. Luciella keeps crying and whispering to her father that she loves him. He keeps telling her that he knows and begging her to shut up, so we don’t get caught.

Kade holds my arm tightly to keep pressure off my legs, and I try to hold in my tears when I see the bodies lying everywhere. Russians. Officers. Kade’s team. And others dressed in the same uniform as Kade and his dad.

The boy Kade saved, the one who wasn’t allowed to work for him until he was eighteen, is lying in a pool of his own blood, a bullet between his eyes.

Kade pauses when he sees the boy’s body then shoves me forward.

Whoever it is that attacked, their soldiers are swarming the place. Tobias mumbles in his worst English accent that he’s taking us to the van and that Kade Mitchell was in the east wing trying to escape.

All of them sprint in that direction.

We veer into the kitchen where Kade kissed me that second time, out onto the part of the grounds that leads to the pool house where we met, where we thankfully find the dogs cowering, and Tobias stops.

“Where’s your mother? I couldn’t find her.”

“Ewan got her out,” Kade replies as he bends down to comfort the dogs. “The police are surrounding the manor and trying to get everyone to safety. They think there are more bombs planted, so they won’t come onto the grounds without their bomb disposal squad. What if they see you?”

“Don’t worry about me. They think I’m dead, so I’m off their radar. All the bombs are disarmed. But I missed two,” he says, gesturing to the havoc. “They snuck them in through the tunnels running under the manor.”

Kade takes my hand. “We need to get the fuck away from here. We can take Ewan’s boat.”

“No,” Tobias replies. “You all need to go to the gates.”

“I’ll take Luciella to Russia,” Base says. “She’s pregnant, and I’m not having her near any of this. My grandfather will keep her safe if he knows she’s carrying his next heir.”

“You fucking—” Tobias drops his gun and grabs Base by the throat, lifting him off his feet. “You better not have got my daughter pregnant. Are you trying to get her killed?”

Base kicks his legs, choking, until Tobias tuts and drops him.

“Fuck. Do you need to be so aggressive?” Base asks, rubbing his neck and turning pale. “We obviously didn’t fucking plan it.”

Tobias blinks and stares at his daughter. Something warm flashes in his eyes, but it quickly vanishes when we hear people yelling inside the manor and more gunshots firing. “Go to the manor gates and make sure you’re all placed into protection.”

His son frowns. “And leave you? No. I just got you back. Besides, Bernadette will be sending backup soon. We need to go. Now.”

Kade turns in the direction of the boat, my palm firmly against his, our fingers locked together. I’m limping, barely managing two steps before Tobias says, “Stop.”

We turn to look at him.

Tobias rubs the back of his head. “This is retaliation from one of the underworld leaders you angered. Don’t worry, he’s dead now.” He waves his hand towards the burning manor. “And that woman is in no state to cause this.”

Kade frowns. “How do you know?”

An evil smile crosses Tobias’s face. “Because, son,” he says, raising both brows, “I have Bernadette Sawyer.”

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.