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“For fuck’s sake, woman,” Jackal snaps. “Your pussy must be magic if Kane puts up with you, but you’re so fucking sour I’d be afraid my dick would fall off.”
Anne’s jaw drops before she slaps a hand over her mouth to muffle the gasp.
The door slams open and everyone jumps. The three men all reach for their guns, going from vaguely bored to full attention in the blink of an eye. They relax when they see it’s one of their own at the door, a man with thick, unruly black hair and sharp features.
“Poe? What’s going on?” Ghost asks.
“Kane’s got Cooper. Bring the women up.”
My blood runs cold. “No.”
Poe nods. “He’s threatening to kill Cooper unless we bring them to him.”
Tex takes me, Ghost takes Anne, and Jackal leads Marissa up to the second floor where they were holding Vincent. There’s noteasing or joking this time. Every step feels like an eternity. I was so close to finally getting away from him, and now I might end up right back where I started, and after this, he’ll be looking to find someone to beat on. Maybe he won’t care about me. It’s Anne and Marissa that are important, right?
“We’ll be okay, right?” I ask, feeling like Anne when Tex’s silence is my only answer.
We are marched into Victor’s library upstairs. The wall of windows is nothing but sparkling rubble, with thousands of chunks of glass strewn around the floor and outside onto the terrace. Victor stands near the window, forcing a man’s head up with his arm under the man’s jaw and holding a knife to his throat. A trickle of blood is dripping lazily from the blade.
“Just shoot him!” Victor’s hostage snaps. That must be Cooper.
But they don’t. “Where you gonna go, Kane?” Ghost asks. “There’s no way outta here.”
“If you want this guy alive, leave the women here and back the fuck off! I’ll send him back to you when I know I’m safe!”
“The helicopter,” I whisper, but nobody is paying attention.
Cooper struggles, but it doesn’t do him much good. “Shoot him!”
A biker with long black hair has his gun trained on Victor. He looks pissed. “You think we’re stupid? Hand him over first and we’ll think about it.”
I’ve seen Victor angry plenty of times, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen him afraid. He slowly steps backwards through the destroyed window, forcing Cooper to stumble after him or slit his own throat by resisting.
Anne is crying. “Daddy?”
“You won’t leave me with them, would you? Give them what they want, baby!” Marissa pleads.
I feel like I’m the only one that can see him for who he is, a horrible selfish monster that would sacrifice all of us if it saved his own skin. I stretch up on my toes to whisper to Tex without everyone else hearing. If things go wrong, I don’t want to give Victor even more reasons to punish me later. “The helicopter! There are stairs behind him.”
“He’s going for the chopper!” Tex yells.
Everything happens at once. Victor swears and drags Cooper up the stairs as Tex and Ghost grab me and Anne, pulling us away from the fight and keeping us from running after him. Marissa actually manages to do something for once, and brings her hands down on Jackal’s injury, distracting him just long enough for her to make a run for it.
“Daddy!” Anne screams.
“Does he know how to fly that thing?” Ghost asks.
I nod. “He doesn’t usually fly it himself, but has his license.”
“Fuck.”
The unmistakable sound and force of the rotors engaging just above us floods the terrace. Glass and debris goes flying and anyone still outside has to duck for cover. I watch in horror as the helicopter starts to ascend, swinging back and forth dangerously.
“What the fuck is he doing?” Tex asks.
“Oh fuck,” Ghost breathes out. He grabs Anne, who is hysterical at this point, and pulls her back into the house.
The helicopter is swinging because Marissa didn’t make it fast enough. She’s trying to climb in, but Victor won’t wait. She’s still hanging from one of the skids as it finally clears the roof.
