Page 80 of (Un)Spoken

But it almost died out when a sound came from the front of the office, the shuffling sound of the door being slowly pushed open. All my limbs suddenly went numb as footsteps walk toward us. “No, no, no,” I whispered, arching my back to try to see more clearly. My heart pounded in my chest, praying Victoria hadn’t turned herself over to try to save me.

But my thoughts died out when Eloise shrieked in disappointment, “You’re not supposed to be here! Where is she?” She waved her gun toward the person, “Where is she?”

“At home,” a deep voice called out, and a weight dropped in the center of my chest.Cole.He stepped forward, and I could make out the outline of his shadow through the window. I strained closer, trying to pick up on their conversation. Cole’s voice was muffled, but I could make out most of his words. “I know what you want, Eloise, but I can’t let you take her, not when I just got her back. So I’m here instead, willing to take her place.”

“This is all wrong,” she cried out. “None of you weresupposed to be here. Do you think I want to kill you too?” She hit the gun against her head, pulling out strands of hair with her free fingers. “All I needed was Adam. That’s all I wanted. I wanted to be left alone, to die withAdam.” She lunged toward him, shoving the gun in his face. “But now, you’ve all fucked everything up!”

As Cole said something else to Eloise, my attention shifted to the window on the other side of our room. The bottom creaked, wiggling slightly before it popped up with a spring. I exhaled a sharp breath as I saw a crowbar continue to pry it open, ruining the seal on the antique windows. But any relief I felt died in my chest as Victoria squeezed through the small opening to lift herself into the room with us. She landed quietly and shifted to her knees, her gaze immediately meeting mine.

I didn’t know what to do, paralyzed by the fear coursing through my veins. While I was more relieved than I could put into words to see her face, deep terror froze all my muscles. When she dropped to my side, tucking behind my shoulder, I shifted to try to stare at her, emotions making it hard to speak. “You shouldn’t be here, baby.”

“Neither should you,” she whispered back. As the knot came undone behind me, I brought my hands back to my front, rubbing the raw skin. Before Victoria could move, I pulled her in, kissing her deeply. “How did you know something was wrong?”

“In your message, you called me Victoria. You’ve never done that before, so I knew something was off.”

“God, I love you,” I said. “Please tell me you have the cops outside?”

“They’re down the block,” she admitted, chewing on her lower lip. “We might have lied and said we’d wait for them before we tried to get inside.”

“Jesus Christ, Tori, are you trying to kill me?”

“The words you’re looking for arethank you.”

“No, no, please keep going,” Theo’s voice called out, now barely above a whisper. “I’m just bleeding out over here. Don’t let it ruin your moment.”

“Oh my God,” Victoria hissed as she dropped to his side. Her hands shook as she looked at his wound, as if unsure how even to move him without shifting the knife. Her wide eyes met mine, trying to decipher what we should do.

I shook my head, looking over at her. “You go back out the window. Get an ambulance here as quickly as possible.”

“What about you?”

I pressed a kiss to her lips, trying to pour in as much devotion as I could with one single touch. “I’m going to deal with Eloise.”

Once I wassure Victoria was a reasonable distance away and Theo could hold on a little longer, I stood, trying to ignore the trembling in my legs. Armed with only the crowbar, I walked toward the main part of the office, saving one last look for my friend in the corner.

All night, I’d been drenched in terror, trying to keep my emotions in check so I wouldn’t risk angering Eloise. But now that I knew help was closing in, I let that rage wash over me, let it reinforce my determination to bring this whole mess to rest. My hands tightened on the cold metal as I twisted the door’s handle, slowly pushing it open a crack. Through the sliver, I surveyed the scene, ignoring the tremble in my hands. As I pushed it open a little more, Ifound Cole standing by the front door, his hands in the air as he stared down Eloise.

But when I looked toward Cole, his face wasn’t what I saw.

I only saw the gun pointed at his chest.

“You shouldn’t be here. You’re not supposed to be here.” Eloise glared at Cole, raising her voice. She stood only a couple feet away, her arm waving as she became more and more incensed. While Cole was the picture of calm composure, Eloise was unraveling, a ticking time bomb in front of our eyes. “She should be here!”

As I pushed the door a little more, I snuck around the other side, hiding behind a bookcase so Eloise couldn’t spot me. She never even turned as I walked into the room, too focused on Cole. When I got into position, Cole met my eye, giving me a subtle nod. After decades of friendship, we’d gotten pretty good at reading each other’s cues, so I hoped like hell he could read mine now. All we needed was a distraction, something to get Eloise to lower her weapon long enough to subdue her.

Cole’s eyes shifted to Eloise, almost as if he was telling me to get ready. Seeing him so composed made me wonder what he had seen in the military and if this was the first time he had faced someone so dangerous. He was a fortress, and his words and body language were completely at ease despite the tension filling the room.

I, on the other hand, could feel my nerves coming out to play, my fingers trembling as I tightened my hand around the bar. As I moved a little closer, the floor creaked underneath my weight, and Eloise started to turn in my direction.

“I’m begging you,” Cole called out, pulling her attention back to him. “Take me instead. Let everyone else go, and I’llstay with you. Just…” He exhaled slowly. “Leave my sister alone.”

She cocked her head, studying him like the predator she was. “You love your sister?”

“Very much,” Cole nodded. “From the moment Tori was born, all I ever wanted to do was protect her, to make sure she was safe. I might have failed her before, but I’m not letting that happen again.” His eyes narrowed at Eloise. “I won’t let you hurt her.”

“Well, you made my decision easier, then,” she sighed, toying with the gun in her hand. She laughed to herself, the sound hollow and frightful to my ears. “I was going to kill her, but there might be something even more poetic about this.” Eloise twisted the gun, moving closer to Cole. “Fine. You can sacrifice yourself for her. Maybe once she loses you, she’ll know how it feels when someone steals the person you love most.”

My arm swung out as her finger started to squeeze the trigger, using all my force to bring the crowbar to the side of her head. She let out a little yelp as she collapsed to the floor. Her body crumpled into a heap, and the gun broke out of her grip, landing on the carpet near Cole’s feet. As soon as she was down, Cole leaped on top of her, pulling her arms around her back. With one hand holding her wrists, the other dug in his pocket, pulling out a pair of handcuffs.

---