Page 74 of With This Ring

He nods and pushes me away. Even in a situation like this, he’s not into public displays of affection. “Yeah, thanks. Where are they?”

“Follow me.” I limp outside, not wanting to put too much weight on my leg.

Declan and I grab another man we encounter on our way out and wait by the garage door. A few moments later, it starts to rise. We fire a few shots into the garage before the door rises completely. With the sound of gunfire in the enclosed space, the Fensters don’t know we’re there until they’re hit.

“Fuck!” Anthony exclaims, holding his leg. I shoot at his gun hand before he can raise it up to fire at us. The other people around him are dispatched quickly, including the woman thatfucked Sam on Charlie’s grave. Blood flows down the driveway, like a river of red pooling around my feet.

Declan and the other man that joined us, Bruce, moves through the garage quickly, killing the Fenster men that didn’t notice us. It takes less than thirty seconds for them to clear the garage of Fenster men. Bruce and a few other men go back into the house to clear it of other men while Kai, Declan, Nico, and Gavin rush over to me.

Nico, Gavin and Declan hold a gun to Sam and Anthony while I hug Kai tightly. I let out a shuddering breath when I have him in my arms, safe and whole. I pull back to look him over. He has a scratch under his eye and he’s holding his wrist close to his chest.

“What happened?” I ask.

“Fell down the stairs. Landed wrong. Probably just a sprain though.” He looks down at my leg and growls. “Someone shot you?”

Declan chuckles, but it sounds empty. “I killed him for his trouble. Sorry.” Declan doesn’t sound sorry at all. “He killed Hendrix.”

It makes sense why he plugged him more than once.

Anthony looks up at us with fire in his eyes. “Fucking St. Clair’s and Whitlock’s. Didn’t think you had it in you.” He hisses when he tries to get to his feet. Declan shoots him in the opposite leg, making him crumple to the ground. “Hold up. Wait. We can talk about this.”

Kai extracts himself from my arms, taking several steps closer to Sam and Anthony. “You fucked on my father’s grave,” he says to Sam. To his credit, Sam just eyes him, not backing down. “And you pissed on it after your scumbag son jerked off on the headstone. There’s nothing to fucking talk about.”

With that, Kai turns his gun and shoots Sam three times in the chest. Anthony cries out, dragging himself over to hisgasping son. He cradles Sam’s head in his lap, rocking back and forth. We all watch as Sam drags in a shuddering breath, then goes still.

Limping over to them, I kneel beside Anthony who looks devastated. I want to add salt to the wound. “Gabbi is dead. I put a bullet between her eyes myself.” His face turns stormy, and he swipes at me. But I move back, dodging his fist effortlessly. “We took your whole family. Now we’ll take your fucking empire. You fucked up when you targeted us.”

Standing, I aim at Anthony’s forehead and let off three rounds. His head kicks back and his skull explodes.

Pulling out my phone, I snap a picture and send it to Dad. He wanted to come with us, but he’s not as young as he used to be. I’m not saying he would have slowed us down, but he would have been a liability. Kai lost Charlie and he went half out of his mind, and he didn’t even like his dad. I knew if I lost my father, I’d scorch the fucking earth in my anger.

Declan points to a few cans of gas that we placed by the sheds and some of our guys run over and grab them. They started a path from the garage back inside the house, some going through the front door and around the house. A few gunshots can be heard, probably our guys killing anyone that’s still alive.

Once they’re done spreading the gasoline, they come back out, tossing the cans inside the house, crowding around us. Wrapping an arm around Kai’s shoulders, I kiss his temple, whispering that I love him as we walk away. He returns my affection, brushing his lips across my cheek.

When we get about fifty yards from the house, I turn to Declan and tell him, “When we get to our cars, blow it up.”

Last night, when we figured out the floor plan and got our weapons together, Declan suggested he and a few of the guys rig explosives to the house after they planted the gas cans. Either we were going to get out alive or we’d take everyone down withus. All around the perimeter of the house, there are enough explosives to level the entire house. Security was more lax than it should have been, so they got everything done and the Fensters were none the wiser.

We’re hoping with the explosion and the gas we spread across every surface of the house, the bodies and all evidence will be burned away.

It takes us about five minutes to get to our cars, then Declan pulls a remote from his pocket and presses a button. The sound is deafening, causing all of us to slam our hands over our ears. The plume of fire and smoke rise high in the air. Hopefully by the time first responders arrive, everything will be burnt to ash.

I climb into the back of the SUV, pushing myself against the door of the car. Kai slides in beside me, drawing my leg over his thighs. I hiss when he pulls my pants from the top of my boots and draws it up my leg.

He turns my leg to the side, examining it as the car starts rolling. We gain speed, flying down the road to put as much distance between us and the house we just blew up as we can.

Kai pokes and prods at my leg. I have to grit my teeth to keep from yelling. “Looks like a through and through,” he says tightly. “You have an entrance and exit wound, so it won’t be too hard to patch you up.”

I nod. We anticipated having some injuries when we returned. Our family doc is waiting at Dad’s house. From what I saw, a few of the men are worse off than me, so they’ll be seen first. All I need is a few stitches and some antibiotics and I’ll be good to go.

Sighing, Kai slides closer to me, planting his lips against mine. “I was fucking worried about you. If something like this happens again, I’m not leaving your side. Got it?”

Nodding, I pull him closer to me, kissing him harder. “It won’t. I could hardly think because I was worried that you were hurt, and I couldn’t help you. I just about went fucking crazy.”

An hour later, we’re back at Dad’s house. He and two people in scrubs stand outside, waiting for us to park. When Declan gets out of the car, Dad rushes over to him, hugging him and checking him over. As far as I can tell, Declan is unhurt, besides a few scratches.

When Kai and I step out, Dad narrows his eyes. “I should have known two of my boys would have been hurt, but I had money on Declan and Carter. You surprised me, Kaison.”

---