Page 3 of Oathbreaker

“Hunter, it’s not about what I want. It’s about what you will do. You are going to put a single bullet in each of these men’s heads one by one. Got it?”

I want to scream. I want to run away.

Instead, I tremble.

My brain tries to come up with a way out of this—a way to not cross this line. Out of the corner of my eye, I look at the men. Johan has been my father’s butler since I was a child. He used to give me sweet bread at night when Father said I didn’t earn dinner. He wrapped my injuries and cleaned my cuts.

No solutions surface.

“I should do it too,” I hear from over my shoulder. Leo walks across the sand to stand near me and my father. He looks over to his dad. The elder Polanco flicks his cigarette butt into the sand and shrugs.

Leo has to see the terror on my face. “They tried to disrespect the Polanco name,” he says. “It’s not just a betrayal of your family, Mr. Brigham.”

Father sniffs and raises his eyebrow at Leo. “Whatever,” Father finally adds.

Leo walks back toward his father, who waves his hand at one of his guards to give him a weapon.

Mr. Polanco looks beyond bored.

Beretta in his possession, Leo walks back to me and nods. So much is communicated in the action, but the loudest message is: I’m with you in this.

“Well, what the fuck are you two gonna do, start kissing each other? Get the fuck on with it,” Father says, and one of his guards laughs. Alistair releases an amused huff of air.

“Right,” I say more clearly than I thought I could.

Leo and I take matching steps toward the men.

“It’s going to be okay, H,” Leo whispers to me, his gaze on the shoreline.

The ocean, for once, is calm.

“I’ll take as many of them as I can, but you have to do at least one, okay?” Leo’s still not looking at me, but I glance at him out the side of my eye. His face is blank.

“Okay,” I whisper back to him.

We part ways, him going to one end of the line and I to the other. I look to my father, and when I do, he waves his hand in the air as if to say, “Hurry up.”

I inhale past the restriction in my throat and look at Leo. He’s raised his gun, pointing it straight at the man’s forehead. I look away and squeeze my eyes shut.

Pop. Thud.

One.

My heartbeat is violent between my ears, a rapid woosh-woosh-woosh as my body urges me to flee.

Pop. Thud.

Two.

Bile surges up my stomach, balling in my throat. I’m going to vomit right at this man’s feet, and I’m sure Father will punish me soundly simply for embarrassing him.

Pop. Thud.

Three.

I close my eyes and think of the rose garden at Amelia Manor, my little sister’s laughter, and my mother’s smile when she’d visit me at school despite Father’s command not to.

Pop. Thud.

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