Page 95 of Unveiled

“Cain!” Ainsley screams from behind me. I turn around as her hands lose their grip on my shirt, making it snap into my back from how hard she pulled on it.

As I turn around, finding her trapped in the arms of the man I’m supposed to call father, my mind goes into a panic. He has one arm wrapped around her neck and another around her waist from pulling her away from me. She’s kicking and struggling, losing energy quickly as she tries unsuccessfully to escape his hold.

“Ainsley,” I call to her, trying to keep my voice steady to calm her. It doesn’t work. She continues struggling, my voice not being heard as her wide eyes meet mine. As she looks at me, seeing the pleading in my eyes for her to calm down, she stops her struggle and waits for me to save her.

“You’re not taking her back,” he spits at me once she stops screaming. He’s holding her close to his body, too close for me to intervene.

Faking more calmness, I laugh at him and relax my posture, showing him I’m unbothered. “You think she’s going to want to come back with me? I’m the reason she was almost sold, again. Just let me give her to Jonah so she can go back to her normal life, without me.”

Her eyes widen from my words, but I don’t turn my attention to her. I can’t lose my focus for even a second here.

“You think I’m going to believe that?” my father asks. Sweat beads his brow as his eyes dart around the room, seeing that he’s drastically outnumbered. He’s never going to make it out of this alive, and from the look in his eyes, I can tell he doesn’t plan on going down alone. But it’s not my men he wants to bring with him. “You’ll keep pursuing her. Your obsession with her will destroy everything I worked for, and I refuse to let that happen.”

As he speaks, he unwraps his arm from around her waist and reaches around to his back. The second I realize what he’s doing, my gun is already trained on his head, as is the gun of every man watching him.

He doesn’t fear death. That much is obvious from the manic gleam in his eyes.

Ainsley is in a full panic now as he raises the gun and points it at her head. A maniacal grin is plastered on my father’s face, making him look like he’s had a psychotic break.

“I wonder what’s running through your mind right now. He forced you into this life, and here you are, about to die for something you never wanted,” he laughs into Ainsley’s ear.

Tears slip from her eyes as she squeezes them shut, looking away from me for the first time. The fight in her dies as she realizes there’s no way out. Even if I shoot him now, he’ll pull the trigger on the gun pointed at her temple, and she’ll die with him.

“Little one, look at me,” I command her. Her eyes snap open, red and puffy from the tears she’s trying to keep from falling. I rack my brain, trying to think of what to say to her. My words can’t be too obvious, but they need to be obvious enough to her. “Nice try, little seductress, but your words won’t work every time. You’ll need to try again.”

I plead with her through my eyes, begging her to remember what I’m trying to tell her. She returns my stare, but hers is full of questions. She doesn’t understand what I’m trying to tell her.

“You need to see me as the monster if this is going to work, baby. Do I need to make you mad?”

The words I said to her that day dance through my mind, tearing a hole through my heart. Never would I have imagined that this would happen all over again, but here we are. It’s my fault, again.

Recognition colors her eyes as my words finally strike home, but she doesn’t react yet. She doesn’t have the opening she needs.

As I step forward, my father’s attention is drawn to me. He’s nervous, especially as I move closer, which makes him take the gun away from her and aim it at me. I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing this is the opening she needs. If he shoots me in the process, it will be worth it.

My eyes scream at Ainsley, Now. But she doesn’t listen. She shakes her head slightly, telling me she won’t do it. Not while the gun is pointed at me.

I need to stall.

“Shoot me, I dare you. Then what will happen to your precious cartel?”

His gun stays steady, but I watch as his finger becomes lighter on the trigger. Shooting me would go against everything he was trying to accomplish here. But, with his gun now on me, I don’t have to worry about him shooting Ainsley if I shoot him.

He realizes it at the same time I do. Ainsley is pulled in front of him, blocking the clear shot of his head I had. Cursing under my breath, I keep my gun pointed in his direction, but it’s useless. I’m not going to take the shot if there’s even a chance that I could hurt Ainsley.

“Now, baby,” I command her through gritted teeth, waiting to be part of the collateral damage. I can already feel the sting of the bullet biting into my skin, but I don’t let it show on my face. “Be a good girl and escape.”

As I say the last word, the back of her head slams into his face. The sound of his gun going off rings through the room as the arm that was wrapped around her throat reaches for his face, wanting to hold his nose to stop the blood from gushing out.

As soon as she’s free, she runs from him. Somewhere behind me, Jonah is gesturing for her to come to him, just as we planned. He’s going to get her out of here while I make sure this never happens again.

As I’m lowering my gun, ready to torture the man that raised me for thinking he could sell her again, I watch in horror as he holds his own gun with a steady hand and aims it, pulling the trigger before I have a chance to react.

The scream that fills the room when the ringing is done shatters my heart into a million pieces. My gun raises quickly, and before I can change my mind, the bullet lands directly between his eyes. He falls back as blood and pieces of his brain splatter against the wall behind him, but by the time he hits the floor, I’m already turned around and running to Ainsley.

“Little bird, answer me,” I hear Jonah pleading through my earpiece.

My eyes refuse to believe what they’re seeing, but it’s clear as day. Ainsley is lying in Jonah’s arms, blood quickly spreading across the white fabric strip barely covering her stomach.

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