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“I always count,” she deadpanned.
“Sammy!” Elias called out.
She jerked around at the sound of his voice, her smile somehow spreading wider. I followed her gaze and found her boyfriend standing beside our mother. They both frowned at me, but it was Elias who had my attention. Blood was soaked through his shirt, dripping off his fingers.
Samara’s breathing changed, a distressed whimper squeaking out of her mouth. “Baby girl, you’re in so much trouble.”
“Elias,” she sobbed. “No. No!”
He took a step toward her, but I saw the minute his adrenaline crashed, the pain from his wound finally registering. His gaze became unfocused, and he dropped at Anya’s feet.
“No!” Samara’s scream made my eardrums ring, but I caught her just as Anya shouted for someone to stop her when she began to move forward. She struggled against me. “Vaughn, I will kill you if you don’t let me go.” She cried, her arms swinging. Her elbow connected with my jaw, but I tightened my hold, knowing she would only get in the way while Anya assessed the damage. “Please. Elias. Oh fuck. Fuck. No. I can’t breathe. I…can’t…breathe.”
“Nothing vital was hit,” Anya called out reassuringly, on her knees at his side as she pressed on his shoulder.
“Mom, please!” Her voice shook with anguish. “Don’t let him die. Please be okay. Elias, please.”
“Samara, he’s fine!” Anya yelled over to us just as Elias groaned, coming around, but my sister was too upset to notice.
She pressed her face into my shoulder, her hands clutching at my throbbing chest. “Whatever you want, you can have. Just don’t let him die.”
“Baby girl!”
One second, I was standing. The next, I was on my ass, Samara running toward Elias, motivated by him calling to her. I shook my head as she dropped to her knees beside him. “Oh God, I was so scared. I nearly lost you.”
“Never. I won’t ever leave you.”
Tuning them out, I glanced over at where Ryan was still holding a gun on Polina. I got a good look at her face for the first time in months. Anya had beaten the hell out of her. Blood mixed with her tears as she mumbled nonsense. Each time she opened her mouth, I could see how badly her teeth had been broken off.
Pity filled me for all of five seconds before I remembered how she’d been planning to kill Abi. That must have been how Anya got hold of her, because she’d been in Creswell Springs to harm my wildfire. Grunting as pain exploded through my chest, I rose slowly to my feet, dusting myself off.
I needed to get Abi out of the panic room and then find Walter. I needed medical attention sooner rather than later to deal with whatever was going on with my ribs. “Walter?” I spoke into the comm device.
“You good, boss?”
Someone whined in my ear, followed by Walter grumbling. “Shut your bitch ass up. It’s a flesh wound. You’ll live, motherfucker.”
“What’s your twenty?” I glanced around, but I didn’t see him.
“Helping our wounded. I’ve counted six dead, a dozen or more need stitching up, and we got bullets in another eight that will have to be handled by a surgeon.”
Coughing, I tasted blood again. “Got some broken ribs,” I told him. “Maybe a punctured lung.”
“On my way.”
Trusting him to find me, I walked over to Ryan, who was rapidly firing out instructions to the Vitucci soldiers still standing. As I drew closer, his brown eyes landed on me and narrowed. Ignoring him, I bent and rolled Polina over, needing to see her face. Her tirade cut off when she saw me, remorse darkening her bruised and bloody tear-soaked face. “Vaughn.”
“I should kill you,” I told her coldly. “But I think I’ll let Anya spend a little time catching up with her old friend before she ends your life”
“Vaughn,” she choked out. “I never should have let Daria do those things.”
“Don’t have regrets now,” I snapped. “You made your choices. Now you get to live with them. For however short a time you still have.”
Straightening, I fought to catch my breath and turned my back on her. Just like she’d turned hers on me over and over when Daria would find new ways to test my loyalty to them. Ryan had stopped what he was doing to watch, and as I walked away from my surrogate mother, he fell into step beside me.
“We should talk,” he bit out after a few steps.
“Talk to Polina. I don’t have time for anyone’s bullshit.” My focus was on Samara. She had the codes to the panic room. That was all I needed, and then I could get Abi away from this chaos.
