Page 57 of Fatal Vengeance

"I won't leave you," I tell him sternly.

My father bellows a raucous laugh, chilling me right down to my very bones. "Oh, what a sad little sight you four make. None of you are getting away, though, so why don't you and your whore step away from my sacrifices," he says with a sick smile. I scoff at him, ready to tear him a new asshole, but then he pulls out a pistol and levels it on Prudence. "Now. Before I paint this room with her brains."

Prudence sucks in a shuddering breath while Griffin, Creed, and I all growl and hiss and cuss my father out. The three of us must look like fucking animals, especially with the way Griffin jerks forward and strains against his bindings, his muscles trembling with rage. Meanwhile, Creed just sits perfectly still and glares, like a deadly snake coiled and waiting for his kill.

I stand and step away from Griffin, nodding at Prudence to do the same. I hold my arm out, beckoning her to my side, but my father tuts at her and waves the gun. "Not another step, little girl. This ends tonight."

Prudence's lips curl into a sneer as she stares down the man who had a hand in hurting her mom. As if on cue, her own father steps out from the hallway, followed by several more Celestials in those creepy robes. He comes up and stops next to my father, his shock of red hair drawing my gaze as looks at each of us with an excited glint in his eyes.

"Good, you're all here!" He claps his hands together like a fucking lunatic, and Prudence jumps from the loud noise. "Now the fun can begin."

35

Prudence

I’ve never been so scared out of my mind in my entire life, and really, after the shit hand I was dealt, that’s saying a lot.

“Please,” I croak as I look into my father’s eyes, hoping beyond all hope that I might find some kind of hesitancy. But no, there’s nothing there. No sympathy or guilt or remorse for what’s to come. He simply tilts his head as he studies me and then smiles.

Fine, then.

I drop my gaze to the ground at my feet, shutting out all these white-robed fuckers. Not a single one of them deserves my attention.

Creed shifts on his knees beside me and I glance down to check him over. When we’d walked in and found them, I thought my heart fell right out of my ass. My guys were hurt and bloody, and for a second, that was all I could see. Not that they were struggling to get free, not the ragged rise and fall of their chests, just all the blood, and I thought… I thought I lost them.

“Eyes on me, Prudence Cate,” Asher’s father coos, and when I look up, he’s standing several feet closer. My muscles twitch with the urge to run in the opposite direction, but with that gun aimed my way, I don’t dare move an inch.

“It’ll be okay, baby,” Asher promises fiercely, his eyes shining like he's got a secret weapon, but fuck if he's let me in on it. “He won’t shoot you because he knows if he does, he’ll be guaranteeing his own death. It won't end well for him.”

I swallow thickly, nodding to let Asher know I heard him. Both our fathers chuckle like we’re just silly children playing at grown up games, but little do they know, none of us will give up this fight so easily.

“Is that so?” Asher’s father steps closer still, close enough that I could touch the gun if I reached out. "Shall we test that theory? See what's faster? You or a bullet," he muses, and then with a wild glint in his dark green eyes, he swings the gun at Asher and pulls the trigger.

My world stops.

The shot rings out in my ears on an endless loop, so loud that it takes me a few seconds to realize I’m screaming. I press my hand over my heart, positive it’s stopped beating as I stare at Asher lying on the ground on the other side of Griffin. My giant of a man is blocking most of my view, made worse by his wild thrashing while he tries to break his binds, but I see Asher’s legs and the top of his head, and it’s clear enough that he’s not moving.

He’s… gone. Right as we had found our way together. I didn’t get enough time with him, and now I never will.

Grief hits me like a ten-ton truck, making my knees weak, but I manage not to collapse. Just barely because right on the tail of my grief is another, all-consuming emotion that swirls in my stomach and shoots outward, filling me so completely that I’m not sure I’ll ever feel anything else.

Pure, lethal rage.

“You bastard! How could you shoot him?! Your son, he was your fucking son!” I shout, lunging forward to wring his goddamn neck. Griffin and Creed are both speaking urgently, trying to tell me something, but I can’t make out a single thing aside from my sudden violent need to choke this motherfucker until his face turns blue.

But then several things happen within seconds of each other.

Asher’s father turns to me before I can reach him and whips the pistol across my face, knocking me to the ground as blood fills my mouth and stars dance in my vision.

Creed launches to his feet with an almighty roar, grabs the asshole’s head, and twists. His neck breaks before any of the other elders realize what’s happened, and his body hits the ground before the gun does.

And last, but not at all least, an FBI tactical team storms in through both passages leading into this hellish room, so many that I can’t easily count them. All the Celestial fucks in the room pull guns or knives from their robes and then an all out war breaks out.

Creed dives on top of me, cradling my head in case of stray bullets while I shriek in alarm. “Ember, breathe. Breathe for me, baby, calm down. It’s all gonna be fine. I'll get you out of here,” Creed whispers urgently in my ear as bullets fly around the room and men grunt and groan in pain.

“N-nothing is f-fine,” I stutter out, shaking like a fucking leak now that my rage doesn’t have an outlet and the overwhelming pain of losing Asher is seeping back in. “He’s dead, Creed! And you’re hurt, so is Griffin— Oh my god, Griffin!” I gasp in alarm and try to squirm out from under Creed, desperate to help Griffin out of his bindings. He’s stuck there in the middle of a gunfight, completely helpless and if I don’t get to him right now, he could die too.

I can’t lose another piece of my soul. I won’t.

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