AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The sound of police sirens rises from the streets, which means we’ll need to leave in the next five minutes to evade questioning.
Get to Ana.
Kill Turner.
I burst into the bedroom to find him with his arm around Ana’s neck. I don’t see the gun but I’m assuming it’s hidden under her hair and pressed up to her skull. The man deserves a slow and painful death, but a bullet between the eyes will have to do.
“Bryce!” she screams.
“Don’t move, Ana,” Turner says. “I don’t want to hurt you, you know that!”
“Let her go!” I yell, ripping my ski mask off.
“Drop your gun!” Turner bellows back.
I raise my free hand and lower my gun with the other.
“Let her go, Turner. Stop hiding behind a woman, you shit coward.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he bursts incredulously, like he’s annoyed with me. “This didn’t have to be a bloodbath!”
“Let her go and I’ll kill you quickly.” I bare my teeth, feral as an animal.
“You can’t,” Ana says weakly. “Bryce, you can’t kill him.”
What the hell, she can’t be saying what I think she’s saying. Blood rushing to my brain must be blocking my hearing.
“He won’t hurt me, Bryce,” she says and then pulls away from Turner. She looks over her shoulder and something passes between them.
Now that she’s detached, I lunge for my gun. But Ana stands in front of Turner with her arms out. Protecting him. I shake my head in disbelief.
“Stop! Bryce, stop! You can’t kill him. He’s my brother!”
What the fuck did she just say?
“And he’s unarmed,” Ana says shakily, stepping to the side so I can see the man’s empty palms.
“What the fuck, Ana! Move!” I demand, pointing my gun at the forehead of the man she’s shielding.
My entire body is as taut as the trigger of the loaded gun in my grip.
Ana throws herself at me, taking me slightly off balance. Automatically, I use my free hand to shove her behind my body as I continue to aim at her kidnapper.
Pressing herself against my back, Ana pants heavily. Words come in starts and stops. “I’ll explain later. He’s unarmed. You can’t shoot an unarmed man. Please just get me out of here.”
“Fuck, Ana.” I feel the heat of her breath and the press of her chest. Flooded with relief and anger and confusion, my hand wavers. Did she say brother?
“Let’s go, boss!” Diego yells.
I shake my head in a moment of indecision. Then, Ana says the one thing I can no longer deny her.
“Look at me.”
I exhale and turn so we’re face to face, all the while my hand is still outstretched, gun steadily trained on Nathaniel Turner. Ana has a wound on her lip and tears down her cheeks. A renewed fury surges through me but she cradles my jaw to force my gaze up. Her eyes are a swirling vortex of brown, moisture spilling over the edges.
“Trust me. If you really want to protect me, trust me this time. I don’t want any more bloodshed. Please, Bryce. There’s a way out of this without any more violence.”
“Bryce, for fuck’s sake, we’ve got them tied up, but we need to go!” Diego is at the threshold, his gun also on Turner. “Say the word,” he says ominously.
