Page 88 of Hers To Keep
Suddenly…
BANG!
Marchesi shoots Wesley once more in the shoulder, and he falls back on the floor beside my mother’s feet. Marchesi reaches over to kick away Wesley’s gun.
“You son of a bitch, you won’t get away with this!” Wesley shouts, suddenly pulls out a lighter from his coat pocket and throws it toward the curtains, in the far end of the room, doused in gasoline. Instantly a blazing fire erupts, quickly igniting the curtains in bright red and orange flames.
At the sight of the flames, Ace pulls me toward the door but not before I rush over to pick up Wesley’s gun from the floor before me. Marchesi realizes what I’m doing, but it’s too late. The gun is in my hand pointed directly at him. His smile widens at my obvious anxiousness, the gun trembling in my hand.
“Now, now, little bird, no need to be stupid. We’re on the same side, my darling,” he says moving forward as if I don’t have a gun in my hands. I hear the click of Marchesi’s gun reloading and I freeze knowing well enough what he’s planning on doing,but before he can, I lower the gun to his feet pulling the trigger?—
BANG!
“You fucking bitch!” he shouts, as he falters back hopping on one foot while I use the distraction to run into Ace’s arms. “Not so fast, you two,” he adds, and I know he now has the gun pointed at us. I turn slowly, meeting the barrel directed at not me but Ace. “I believe the flames were supposed to consume the two of you. After all, that was his plan, I can’t let it go.”
BANG!
A fifth gunshot rings, this one louder than all the others as Ace grabs me tightly, throwing himself on top of me, the two of us landing roughly against the floor. His body shields me from the bullet coming from outside the hallway.
“Leave my daughter alone!” Maxwell shouts, as he appears in the doorway, his dark blond hair clearly disheveled while he glares fiercely at Marchesi. I have to blink a few times to make sure what I’m seeing before me is real. My father has come to save us.
Marchesi cries out in pain, falling to the floor with a bullet in his chest, blood pooling all around him. Wesley and my mother writhe in pain beside him, as the flames threaten to consume them.
“Maxwell!” I cry out, a sense of relief flooding me as I see him.
“Scarlett, Ace,” he yells, stepping into the room. “We have to go now! The fire is spreading fast. There’s gasoline all over the house, we have little time.” Maxwell reaches out and grabs my arm pulling me out toward the door when suddenly?—
BANG!
Maxwell’s hold on me loosens as he falls to his knees, blood spewing out of a bullet wound on his neck. I look up and find Marchesi, barely able to stand, pointing the gun at me, but before he can shoot, Ace bends to pick up the gun my father had in his hand, shooting Marchesi right between his eyes.
BANG!
I close my eyes tightly, not wanting to see Marchesi’s brains flyout of his head, nearly stumbling as I turn away, but Ace is there grabbing me by my waist, steadying me as I look down at my father who now lays in a puddle of his own blood spilling along the marble floor at our feet.
No! God no!This can’t be happening. Not him, not Maxwell. Not my father who was only here because of me. I can’t bear to lose him. I’ve only just found him.
My chest constricts, my lungs threatening to give out on me as I drop to kneel before my father, placing my hands against the gunshot wound on his neck, applying as much pressure as my weakened state allows.
“Ace, please, you have to do something!” I cry out, the flames of the fire coming closer, threatening to entrap us. I can smell the smoke suffocating us, my lungs burning as I heave. Ace paces the floor beside me, not knowing what his next move is.
“Scarlett, please we have to go, I can’t,” Ace mutters desperately, his hands running anxiously through hair as I hopelessly try to stop the blood gushing out of Maxwell’s wound.
“Darling, he’s right,” Maxwell stutters, choking on his own blood. “You must go. This fire will soon be uncontainable, explosive, and I need you to get out of here.”
“No! Please no, I can’t leave!” I shout out in between helpless sobs. “We didn’t get any time, Dad. I need more time.” It’s the first time I've ever called him anything other than Maxwell, and the pride in his eyes as say the word Dad, makes me shudder from the heart-wrenching sadness. “I ignored you, pushed you away, fought our relationship. I didn’t allow myself to get to know you and now I never will. I can’t lose you, please not you too.”
His right hand reaches for me, cupping my face in his palm as he speaks. “I know enough to be proud. You have turned out to be an extraordinarily brave young woman, despite your upbringing, despite the obstacles you’ve endured. You prevailed, my dear, and it’s all I ever would have wanted for you.”
“Ace, please,” I plead, his eyes somber and full of tears as helooks down at my dying father and me. For once, the Horseman, the king is utterly helpless, not some ruthless soldier but a mere mortal like the rest of us.
“Scarlett, please, leave me. You need to save yourselves. The love you have in here,” he slowly reaches his hand to my chest, placing it above my heart, the painful agony he feels clear in his eyes. “This is the most rewarding thing I couldn’t have hoped for you. Love is beautiful. It’s painful and irritating at times, but it’s the greatest gift one could give and hope to receive. To love and to be loved, and you love fervently. But most importantly, you are loved unconditionally. By me, by your chosen family—your friends, by your sister, but most importantly by the boy who gave up everything he was to become the man worthy of receiving this absolute gift.” His gaze moves to Ace, as he looks at him with contentment.
I can’t accept this is our fate. I can’t lose my father, it’s not fair to lose everything at once. Not after everything I’ve already lost. “But I want more, I need my father by my side. I just got you, I don’t want to lose you,” I cough loudly, choking on the thick cloud of smoke hovering over us—the flames coming closer as the walls around us cave in, the ceiling threatening to come down upon us.
“You won’t, I’ll be in here. In your thoughts, in your dreams, you’ll find me and can always reach out and talk to me. I’ll be everywhere you are, my dear daughter. Always.” His voice now sounds like he’s choking on his own blood as he tries to speak, his eyes red and bulging out.
“Scarlett, we need to go now!” Ace shouts, grabbing me by the shoulders and pulling me up.