Page 91 of Ruthless Reign

“This way!” someone called, and I whirled, narrowly dodging a shot meant for my chest from one of our newer soldiers.

“Disable only,” Pauly, my da’s closest man, growled from the other end of the hall as he and the other began to box me in. “Séamas wants the little rat alive.”

Seemed Da wasn’t keeping my secrets for me anymore. More’s the better.

“I don’t want to kill you, Pauly,” I told him. The others were bloodthirsty savages on their good days and far worse things on their bad ones. But Pauly I’d known since I was eight. He had a mean streak to rival even Da’s, but he was a fair man who believed in taking an eye for an eye and nothing more.

Did he know Da hurt Becca without provocation?

Would he care?

I supposed the opinions of dead men wouldn’t matter to anyone.

“Your da wants to talk to you, boy,” he said in an even tone, keeping his weapon trained on me.

“When does it end, Pauly?”

“When he says it ends.”

I shook my head, catching the reflection of the man behind me getting too close. Hearing the other one approaching quietly from the only other exit path.

The one behind me made a run for it and I fired without turning, using the reflection to my advantage. He went quiet as his body slumped to the floor.

Pauly’s hand tightened on his gun, his knuckles turning nearly as white as his bared teeth.

“Traitor,” he shouted, the tremble of rage clear in his voice.

I lifted my gun and his expression shifted, exposing the fear he was trying to hide.

“Da gave you orders to bring me in alive, Pauly. You can’t kill me. But there’s nothing stopping me from killing you.”

“Do it then, huh?” he sneered at me, tossing his gun to the floor. “Go on, boy, do it.”

I flinched.

This was it: the exact thing Da tried to train out of me. My mercy.

“I’m leaving Pauly, and you should, too.”

We likely had less than two minutes before the C4 blew and at least another twenty meters before we could be even remotely safe from the blast.

He widened his stance. “I can’t let you do that.”

I threw down my weapon and charged for him. The others I could end without blinking, but Pauly…

He deserved a fair fight.

Pauly met me stride for stride and we clashed in a fury of knuckle and bone. He clipped my chin with a stunner before I could dodge it, but my shot to his stomach had him doubling over.

When he came up, I was ready with a fist, but his eyes widened at something behind me. “Don’t interfere!”

But it was already too late. The shot exploded in the air and I lurched forward from the impact. My brain taking seconds I didn’t have to catch up to the pain in my shoulder.

Pauly, ever the man not to let an opportunity go unmissed, used the opening to take me to the ground. A booted foot connected with my back. Another with my ribs. I coughed, wet and hard, trying to catch my breath as Pauly tried to keep the other Son from continuing his assault.

“He’s done! He’s done! Help me get him up.”

But the bastard took one more shot for good measure, the hard toe of his boot connecting with the side of my head hard enough for my vision to go dark, returning in splotches through the ringing siren in my head.

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