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JACE
“We have to go back to the house,” Allie said, trying to convince both of us that driving through the Redwood chaos in the middle of the fucking night was the right thing to do.
We needed to make sure her mother was okay, and I didn’t want to leave her alone with that bastard.
But it had only gotten worse out here since João and I had been out.
The police department had been set on fire, flames lighting up the dark sky and smoke settling over the town. The poor looted the rich areas, throwing rocks into their glass windows and stealing shit from inside. And the rich stayed in a state of panic, pacing back and forth in front of their house windows and packing their cars for an easy escape, if needed.
Ahead and on the only route back home, two police cars were parked right in the street, blocking all traffic. I rolled up to a stop and saw the police chief himself storm out of his car and to mine, gun drawn and pointed at me.
“Jace,” Allie whispered, clutching my hand with her trembling one, tears welling up in her eyes that reflected the shining police lights. “What are we going to do? This is our only way home … and he … he looks like he wants to kill you. I’m scared, Jace.”
Watching him approach the car, I squeezed her hand. “It’s okay. He won’t do anything to hurt me,” I said even though I was sure that he would. I grabbed her chin and forced her to look at me. “If anything happens, take the gun in the glove compartment and protect yourself, baby. Do you understand me? Don’t let him or any of the other officers touch you or force you into anything. You fucking kill them.”
Tears raced down her cheeks. “But, Jace …”
The driver’s door was ripped open, and Nicole’s father yanked me out by the collar and onto the concrete. All I could hear was Allie screaming at him not to hurt me, that she loved me more than anything, that she wouldn’t be able to live without me.
Nicole’s father laid me flat on the ground and shoved his knee across the side of my neck, making it hard for me to breathe. He pressed his gun to my temple.
“Where the fuck is my daughter?” He spat down at me. “Where the fuck did you take her?”
“I don’t know what you’re fucking talking about,” I said through gritted teeth. “I don’t know where she is.”
“Is she with Poison?” he asked me, nostrils flaring, that gun pressing harder against me. He put more of his weight on my neck, and I gasped for air, my vision blurring slightly. He knocked me in the head with the side of the gun. “Huh? Is that where that fucking bitch is?”
When I refused to say anything, he slammed the muzzle into my fucking temple. “Jared, get his fucking whore out of the car. If he won’t talk, we’ll make him.”
“Don’t fucking touch her!” I shouted, scrambling to get out of his hold and ready to put up a fight now because Allie was fucking mine. I wouldn’t let any one of those fucking corrupt cops touch her like they had Nicole.
“Don’t fucking like it, do you?” Nicole’s father asked. “I’ve been waiting to kill you, Jace. I just didn’t think I’d get to toy with your stepsister and make you watch before I put a bullet right through your skull. She’s so fucking pretty though. No wonder Vaughn wouldn’t give me your and Allie’s video. He wanted to keep her all to himself.”
All I could feel was rage rushing through every one of my veins. I wanted to fucking kill this man more than anything. He wouldn’t even get a chance to touch Allie before I did it too.
“Get the fuck off me,” I shouted at him, shoving my elbow back. “Touch her, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
“You won—”
A gunshot rang out to my left, and I twisted my head to see the body of a police officer hit the ground from under the car, blood seeping out from a bullet wound in the middle of his head. Allie stood up and aimed the gun at Nicole’s father with shaky hands and blood splattered across her face.
“Let him go!” she screamed. “Let him go now!”
Nicole’s father gently released me, his gun still aimed at my head but his grip looser. He chuckled at her. “What are you going to do? Shoot me? You’ll fucking kill your boyfriend if you do,” he said to her, grinning like a fucking madman. “Do it. I’d like to see you try.”
And when I saw an opening, I grabbed that gun from his hand and aimed it anywhere that wasn’t right at me. We struggled with it for a few moments, bullets flying everywhere, and another bullet shot through the air, hitting Nicole’s father right in the ribs. When he doubled over to grasp his ribs, I grabbed his gun and sprinted over to Allie, needing to get out of here as soon as humanly possible.
Hand trembling in mine, Allie gave me the gun and looked back at the police chief, suddenly ducking behind someone’s car parked in a driveway.
“He has another one,” she said to me, grasping my hand harder. “We have to get out of here.”
Not willing to stop now, I pulled Allie behind the house and through yards of the Redwood rich until I knew that he wasn’t following behind us. Yet we continued to run toward my father’s house.
“How did you do that?” I said. “You know how to shoot a gun?”
She gave me a half-smile under the moonlight and shrugged. “My dad taught me some things before he died, and I’m glad that he did.” She spotted our house in the distance and pulled me faster. “Do you think he’s going to follow us back home?”
“He’s looking for Nicole. He won’t follow us. He’ll go to Poison’s next.”
“I’m scared, Jace,” she whispered. “I’m so scared.”
Stopping at our back door, I wrapped her up into my arms. “We’re so close to finishing this,” I whispered, stroking her hair. “We’re so fucking close, baby. After your mother gets an abortion, we’ll be fucking free, and I can kill that son of a bitch.”
“Why can’t we do it now?” she asked, brows drawn together.
“Because he won’t let her out of his sight. And he’d make sure to kill her before I could even get close enough to kill him.”
