Page 70 of When Sinners Fear
“Knox?”
“Hmm.”
“What happens now? What do I do?”
“You stay tucked in real tight to me. Do everything I say. We’re not moving until Logan’s guys are gone.”
“But how–” The sudden sound of gunfire shuts her right down, and I watch Reed buckle to the ground and grab for his thigh.
Abel’s dark shadow walks out of the gloom, and he keeps his gun pointed at Reed and Reed alone. Good job, too, because the next round fires straight out of his gun the second Reed tries for his own piece. His hand gets blown straight through, and the gun scatters to the ground.
A sharp breath pulls in next to me. “Oh my God.”
Dante’s next out. He comes out behind all the other guys, followed by Kai and Mariana on the furthest side. Four guns pointed – three pissed Cortez attitudes firing.
“Leave,” Abel says.
Half a breath holds in me, and I unclick the door handle quietly in case Logan was playing with us. “Stay here.” My foot hits the ground silently, and I raise my own gun and move over the alley, ready. No need, though, because they all turn and start walking for their cars again.
One stops before getting in. “Logan sends his regards. Says enjoy yourself.” A smile broadens on my face, odious and full of Cortez intent. Still, I wait, making sure, and watch until both cars peel out of the area. Dante moves quicker than that, and he’s dragging a shouting Reed towards an old building before they’re fully gone.
“Zero fucking patience,” I mutter, going back to get Peyton. She looks up at me as I open her door and offer my hand. “You ready?”
“Stay close; tuck in tight to you,” she says.
“Every step of the way until it’s done. Use me as a shield.”
“Okay.”
CHAPTER TWENTY - SIX
PEYTON
The group of men leaving in the cars brings back the memory of our initial kidnap – my confusion and panic as it happened. But watching Reed amongst the Cortez family and remembering he’s the reason we’re all here, seems to settle something inside of me. It’s as if my internal moral scales have tipped in my favour, as opposed to the thought of right and wrong. I can’t even begin to rationalise right or wrong after everything Knox said to me.
There’s no right. It’s all wrong. And terrifying. It doesn’t shift the part of my heart that seems to ignore my mind and logic, though. I’m still clinging to the small signs ofkindness he’s shown me. And that was there before his speech, before the words he just confessed.
I wring my hands together in my lap and look out toward Knox, but the sharp shot of gunfire makes me shrink down in the seat. Who’s firing at whom? My gut turns at the thought of harm coming to any more of Knox’s siblings – he doesn’t deserve that.
No.
I can’t think that way anymore. He’s not innocent.
“Come on.” Knox opens the car door for me as I watch the others circle and drag Reed off.
“Where are we going?” I ask as we pace through the damp ground in pursuit.
His arm is holding me closely, keeping me tight in against him. “To get what we came here for.”
My adrenalin starts to kick in as we enter a building through the tumbled-down bricks and foliage. A cracked streetlight illuminates the inside with an orange haze, and I wonder what vision is waiting for me. Reed is in the middle of the room, clutching his hand as everyone circles him.
The air is stifled, thick with danger and tension. With anticipation.
It smells dirty and damp and cold – not unlike where Reed kept us.
They seem to be waiting. And then I realise it’s for us. We join them, or Knox does, taking his place amongst his siblings as I remain a step behind, still uncertain and scared.
Abel’s gun is trained on Reed, who’s kneeling in the centre. The blood trickling down his wrist looks like tar oozing out of his wound in the light – another flashback to Knox’s face and his leg. I remember braving to touch my face after getting a beating, pulling away my fingertips to see the dark, viscous substance coating them.