34. The Showdown

Chapter 34

The Showdown

Hunter

E verything happens at once, almost as if in slow motion. The creep standing behind Lena crumples to the ground from a shot to the head just as Megan whirls silently around, slashing the steak knife in her hand at the man who was behind her.

I knew I had fallen for a bad ass, but I didn’t know she had this kind of presence of mind. Her attack was a thing of beauty and I’m so proud of her for thinking on her feet. Of course, I take advantage of the chaos and shoot the man in the chest, stomach, and hand so she won’t have to wield that knife ever again. It’s not Megan’s job to protect herself. It’s mine.

Various footsteps come rushing forward, and Jonathan has his Glock pointed towards me. He stands tall and firm as if he’s so proud of himself, and I wonder to myself how could I have missed that he hated me as much as he does. Do I not have a good sense of how people think? Have I been fooling myself this entire time? Maybe I’m not half as bright as I think I am.

“You’re a dead man,” he smirks.

“You did all of this to kill me in a basement?” I ask snidely. "How original."

“It doesn’t matter where or how you die, just that you’re gone.”

Lena and Megan are huddled together over on the side. Megan has her arm wrapped around Lena, giving her comfort, but I know I’ve got to get them out of here. I don’t know how many more people Jonathan has brought with him or the extent of his plan.

Suddenly, Dante walks out of the shadows with his gun now aimed at Jonathan’s temple. But it’s not until Vaughn enters the room that I begin to exhale. My team is finally here. If Dante and Vaughn are here, that means there are at least seven more men close by, including Christian.

“Put the gun down,” I tell Jonathan. “This is over.”

“Fuck that!” He protests, but I can tell that his resolve is slowly crumbling. A gun pointed at your head can do that to a man.

“With just one word, I can have your brains blown out all over this room but out of respect for our history,” and the fact that I want to kill his ass slowly in the basement of the Blue Whiskey , “I’m going to give you a death worthy of someone who came up in the organization just like I did. Put your gun down.”

While his arm is a little shaky while still aimed at my heart, I know he won’t relent. This is the end of the road for him, and as I suspected, he won’t go down without a fight. This is what he ultimately wanted: a showdown between us two.

“Keep those two alive,” I redirect Dante, referring to the two overly ambitious gang leaders. They’ve got a fresh dose of hell waiting for them when this is all over.

“And Vaughn–” I motion toward the girls. “Get them out of here.”

I’m ordering the guns off of Jonathan because a part of me knows that he isn’t going to pull the trigger. He’s expended all this energy trying to bring me to my knees, so I figure that he’s not going to let it end anticlimactic. I just want Megan and Lena left out of this. I need them safe.

“You made a mistake keeping them close to you, Hunter.”

I hate how Jonathan’s words echo the same ones running through my mind right this very second. I allowed my cock to do all the thinking for me when it came to Megan, and I let some sort of misguided nostalgia lead me to find my sister. I’m not new to this. I know that having people in your life you care about, especially women, is a weakness– not a strength.

“They have nothing to do–”

Before I can finish my sentence, Jonathan swings a stiff arm around, points his gun toward Megan, and shoots. It’s the loudest shot I’ve ever heard in my life as his icy words follow it. “You said you wanted to save your sister, so now you’ve got your wish.”

A foreign noise escapes me as I watch Megan’s eyes widen in shock as the bullet pierces her abdomen. A cold feeling surrounds my heart and it feels like everything has gone still. I run to her, my body lowered to the ground beside her, and watch in horror as blood stains the cemented floor.

“Hunter,” she whispers in a haunting tone as tears flood her eyes.

“I’ve got you, baby,” I reassure her, desperately making a bargain with God in my head.

P lease save her. I’ll do anything.

I hear another shot, and because I don’t know whose gun it’s coming from, I cover her with my entire body. Suddenly, Christian barges into the room, emptying his gun into someone or a few someones. I don’t know because all I care about is keeping Megan safe from further harm.

I cover Megan’s ears with my hands and continue to mouth the words, “ I’ve got you. ”

I’m not sure when or where he came from, but Lars is suddenly beside me, pressing down on the wound.

“We need to get her to a hospital!”

His tone is urgent, and I know I’m reacting and moving, but everything inside me has gone numb. I think Vaughn has a sobbing Lena and Dante is also behind us as we rush up the steps. I don’t know why I can’t go faster than this. It feels like my thighs are made of concrete.

“The Downtown Medical Center!” Lars shouts at Parker as I ball up Megan’s shawl and press it against her wound. She keeps looking at me, eyes blinking rapidly, not a sound escaping her.

I know what she’s thinking. She’s coming to terms with her injury. As if she always expected to go out violently. I don’t know why that full acceptance in her eyes makes me so enraged.

My voice is low as I hiss at her, “If you even think of dying, I’ll set this whole fucking world on fire! Keep your eyes open. Keep fighting. I’ve got you, and I’m never letting you go!”

But her eyes are growing cloudier, and it feels like somebody has grabbed me by the neck, making it difficult to even draw out a single breath.

My hands are covered in her blood, and it feels as if someone is driving nails into my heart. Her lips are moving, and she’s trying to say something, maybe to curse me out for yelling at her, so I lean forward, desperate to hear anything she has to say.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

My heart nearly stops.

“I – I - love you,” she stutters.

Just as she finishes saying those three beautiful words, she spurts out some blood, and I order her fiercely and say, “Tell me that again after you’ve been patched up, baby.”

She gives me a drained smile in response, then her eyes roll to the back of her head, and sheer panic settles into my soul.

“Megan!” I shout her name. “Please, don’t go.”