Page 131 of Hidden Memories

My voice is husky with the quiet fury of a mother with nothing left to lose. “Take that gun off my son.”

He responds by pressing it more firmly.

Santi breaks. “You touch that trigger, and I’ll fucking kill you. I’ll rip you apart, do you hear me?”

The guard cocks his gun at Santi’s ribs.

“Go ahead,” Santi snarls, baring his teeth. “Fucking shoot me. See what happens next.”

Nic only smirks, like he enjoys the sound of Santi coming undone. Like he enjoys knowing we’re powerless.

“Drop the fucking gun, Nic!” I shout before this standoff becomes a blood bath.

“You mean this gun?”

Nic lifts the pistol and wiggles it to taunt me.

A game. Afuckinggame.

All he thinks I am. All he thinks I’ll ever be.

Something inside me fractures. Not a break. Adetonation.

Nic is laughing. Theo is trembling. Santi is behind me, steady as a heartbeat.

With the gun now off Theo, I take my chance and lunge, oblivious to how, this time, Nic might kill me.

Chapter Thirty-Three

PRESENT

Kat’s ragepushes her forward before I process what’s happening. She dives at Nic, her hands clawing at him with a ferocity that would make anyone think twice about standing in her way.

Time slows.

She tackles him, her momentum knocking him back. The gun in his hand swings wildly as he tries to regain control. My heart pounds against my ribs like a war drum telling me to attack.

I lay an elbow into the unprepared guard next to me, sendinghim to the floor. My feet propel me forward, closing the distance between us in an instant. Kat struggles with Nic, but the guard who was on me, now dazed to the side, found his gun again, and it’s trained on Kat and Nic.

“Get off her!” Theo plows his foot into Nic’s side, desperate to help his mom.

“Theo! Stand back!” I order. I can’t have him in the line of fire, too.

I have to protect her… I dive in the direction of the tornado of action, and that’s when the sharp crack of a gunshot echoes through the room, deafening.

My ears ring. Panic courses through my body.

But Kat still wrestles with Nic.

I flick my gaze backward. Blood blooms on the guard’s pants, shot in the thigh. By who?

Anton and Gabriel…

Kat uses all her strength to restrain Nic. His fingers are inches from his gun when my fist connects with his jaw.

Marta makes a move toward Nic’s gun. Kat jumps off and kicks it across the room.

I rain blow after blow. Bone and cartilage crunch under my knuckles. Nic slumps, his fight draining.

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