Page 3 of Tainted Blood
“Fuck.” I fumble for my gun.
“Bug!” I hear a deep voice hiss from the driver’s side. “Come back!”
A red, wooly toboggan breaks through the wall of white. It’s a girl. A young girl. She’s kicking up waves of snow as she runs toward me.
Shit!
“Shoot her,” a voice in my head says. “Shoot her now.”
“But she’s just a kid,” I whisper.
“Enemies come in all forms,” it growls back. “The sweetest faces are often the most deceiving.”
My throat tightens.
“Are you waiting for someone?” she calls out. “Do you want to come sit with us?”
“Do it.” the silent voice commands. “Prove yourself.”
She can’t be more than nine or ten years old. Innocent. What the hell is she doing in the backseat of a stolen car?
Reluctantly, I release the trigger. No, I can’t. My first kill won’t be her.
I want to tell her to get back in the car, but I can’t find my voice. I’m too wrapped up in those rosy, wind-bitten cheeks. She looks like an angel lost inside the walls of a white jungle. I want to look away. Instead, I watch, mesmerized as she draws closer, snowflakes dotting her long dark hair like a domino.
The shouts from the church are escalating. This time, it’s more than a clash of egos. Something doesn’t feel right. Blood instinct, my father calls it.
Still holding my gun, I grab my phone from my back pocket. Something bad is about to happen. I can feel it in my bones. And despite what my father thinks, I’m ready to take charge. I’m going to lead a sicario ambush inside that church. I have to get my father out of there.
I glance back at the girl.
I have to get her out of here, too.
She tilts her chin. “Did you hear what I—?”
“Go,” I snarl, eating up the distance between us in a couple of strides and shoving her backward. “Get out of here. It’s not safe!”
She stumbles, those soft brown eyes widening in shock. She doesn’t understand.
“Leave her alone!” the older boy shouts.
That’s when all hell breaks loose.
Out of nowhere, engines rev—plowing at full speed through the dense white curtain, just as gunfire erupts inside the church. My heart slams against my chest. Loyalty tells me to run inside.
But this girl…
Unfamiliar men pour from the cars as more shots ring out. Before I know it, I’m barreling straight toward her. Gripping her waist, I shove her to the ground, her small frame sinking deep into the snow as I shelter her with my body.
Choices have consequences.
I’ll face mine.
If I live that long.
More squealing tires. More bullets fly but I refuse to move. I won’t let this little girl die.
Not tonight.
