Page 72 of Surprise Baby for the Enemy

“He’smine, Silver,” Raleigh says, a hint of anger creeping into her tone. My chest inflates with pride. “And he’s going to stay that way. You want him so bad? Just try to take him from me.”

“Fine then.” Silver tilts his head. “Fellas?”

One of the goons behind him puts a hand underneath his trench coat. The hairs on the back of my neck prickle. Iris rips her gun from its holster, but I grab for Raleigh and get her behind me. Which means I have no time to pull my own weapon when the shooting starts.

An explosive sound fills the room, setting my ears ringing. Heat flashes past my shoulder, so hot I’m not sure if it breaks my skin or just burns my shirt. I jerk aside, pulling Raleigh with me so we have the pool table between us and the enemy. Silver, too, lunges back behind his bodyguards- just as one falls with Iris’s bullet ripping through his throat.

The body drops like a sack of flour.

Two more gunshots ring out. Iris grunts, doubling over, and I fire to cover her while she ducks behind a chair. My bullet takes the other goon in the collarbone, and he screams before my second buries itself in his skull.

Silver ducks behind the pool table, but when he comes back up, he has his own gun in his hand. I fire a shot, but he’s not trying to be part of this fight. He tries to sprint past me for the door, and Iris’s impossibly long leg sweeps out to trip him. Silver vaults it just as I lunge. Inches from the exit, I catch him around the waist, and we slam to the floor.

The gun in Silver’s hand goes off, inches from my ear. Raleigh screams. My chest turns to ice.

If that wild shot hit her-

An elbow catches my jaw. Blood fills my mouth when my teeth rip through my tongue. Silver’s knee drives up into my stomach, but my body armor dampens the blow. I spit blood inhis eyes, and his flinch gives me a chance to punch him square in the face. His hood falls back, and short platinum hair spills out.

Silver starts thrashing like a creature possessed. Now that I’m on top of him, I feel how small his body is under all his baggy clothes. I probably outweigh him by fifty pounds at least. I drop that extra weight on him, knocking the air out of his lungs. He’s stunned, but not for long. I grab for his gun hand, but it’s already swinging at my head.

Iris’s heel flashes across my eyes. Silver screams when it connects with his hand, sending the gun flying and breaking more than one finger with a horrible snap. There’s something…wrongabout that scream.

I grab a handful of his hair right at the roots and slam his head back against the floor. His eyes lose focus. He fights to blink back the sky full of stars he’s probably seeing now. But this time, he can’t recover quick enough. I get my feet beneath me and drag his limp body up. Before he can get his senses back, I get my arms around his neck in a headlock. He claws at my arms, but then Iris steps in front of him, her gun’s barrel pressed under his chin.

My eyes search for Raleigh and find her, grabbing Silver’s discarded gun off the floor. She straightens, and the wildness in her hazel eyes makes me think for a second that she intends to shoot Silver right here, right now, even if I’m standing right behind him. But then she blinks, and that ferocity is tempered. She meets my eyes, and I feel my world refocus.

“Are you hurt?” I demand, looking her over with my heart in my throat.

Her eyes are too wide. She’s staring at my face. “Derrick-”

“Are.You.Hurt?”

She shakes her head. “I’m fine. But you-”

Finally, I can exhale. “I’m okay. I just bit my tongue.” I turn to Iris. “And you?”

“Bruised my pretty abs,” Iris grunts, feeling at the two holes where the bullets hit her stomach. “And my fucking shirt’s ruined. But I’ll live. Can we kill this shithead now?”

“Yeah, sure,” Raleigh agrees eagerly. “Just one last thing. For closure.”

She reaches out and rips the cloth mask off Silver’s face. I watch her blink in shock and take an alarmed step back.

And in stunned silence for a moment, I’m struck by the softness of the curve of Silver’s cheek, which is all I can see with his head locked in my arms. Raleigh is the one to give an answer to what I’m seeing, but when she says the name, I only have more questions.

“E-Emma Clarke?!”

CHAPTER 39

Raleigh

Maybe I should be surprised.But looking back on all the insane, half-cocked things I’ve done in my life, I’m really not.

Emma Clarke lets Derrick push her down into a kneeling position in front of me. Now that her bodyguards are dead and her identity is revealed, the fight’s gone out of her, but just in case. Derrick keeps a firm grip on her shoulder, and Iris stands on her other side, gun still in hand.

Needless to say, the surprise ruined our bloodlust. My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat. I keep looking at the singed fabric on Derrick’s shoulder. He came so close to injury, and that makes me want to scream at this girl with all the air in my lungs.

But that won’t get me answers, which now I really,reallywant. And looking at the deadness in Emma’s gray eyes, I wonder if screaming is the least of what she expects now that she’s been found out.

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