Page 47 of Derick

A blood-coated gun fell in front of me. “Take it, Ruby,” Chris moaned before he sank down before me, bleeding from two bullet wounds.

Grabbing the gun, I got up to see I was close to the other side of the mall. My guards were bleeding from gunshot wounds, and I sobbed as I saw the two cops were down too.

The bike sounds were now almost on me, and I knew in this moment I would go down fighting. I was never going back to my father alive. Hope was safe, and I knew the Silverman family would take her in and adopt her. I could do this. I would take as many as I could with me. I wasn’t a victim anymore.

On a roar, I stood tall and moved from Brand, who looked like a crazed man hanging on by rage alone, covered in blood, with a gun in his hands. I knew the security team had Kevlar vests on, but that just protected their chests.

Bodies were everywhere, and I was happy most of them had a Devil’s Queens vest on. Ignoring the closing in motorbikes behind me, I aimed and shot at the men almost on me until the gun ran out of bullets. I caught one of the men’s gaze and gasped as I saw someone I thought was dead already—Bradly. The grin that spread over his face was one of pure malice.

“Ruby, naughty girl. Your father sent me to teach you what happens when you become a rat. I hope I get to put another kid in you.” Bradly’s grin was truly evil. “Did you know I was one of only two who didn’t wear a condom that night, and I know the other one shot blanks.”

I shook my head, dropped the empty gun, and backed away, trying not to slip on the blood-soaked ground. My mind tried to shut down, but I needed to fight. I couldn’t lose any of my progress. I was not a victim.

“No,” I cried. I thought Toby had killed them all. The ones who had tortured and hurt me when Hope was conceived. “Never again. I hate you.”

Darting my gaze around, I saw Sloane slowly reaching for his ankles, he grabbed a knife out and a smaller gun. He crawled to me, and I felt him reach for my hand as the three men in vests kicked him away and then shot him in the chest.

I screamed and gripped the knife in my hand, hiding it up my sleeve. I switched the small gun to my other hand. I wouldn’t betaken. I couldn’t live through what I had ever again. Gripping the small gun tight, I hid it in my clothes. I needed to be careful and do this right.

I stared at the man who had been in my nightmares for years. The three men, who reached for me, didn’t look to be in good shape. Good. The one on my left was gushing blood from his side, the one on my right was bleeding from his arms, and the devil before me must have been hit somewhere because as Bradly smiled I saw that his teeth were coated with blood.

“Where’s the brat, Ruby?” The devil grabbed my arm and shook me. I tightened my hold on the knife, waiting for the right time to strike.

I smiled. I wasn’t looking forward to what I had to do, but I was going to enjoy it. I was going to free myself. “Bradly. You’re not dead. Pity.” Shrugging, I tried for cute, shy, and sweet, as I inched closer, because I knew that was what this bastard liked.

His laugh sent chills down my spine. “Look at you. You finally got a backbone, bitch. I can’t wait to fuck that out of you. I’m going to give you everything you deserve.” His finger trailed across my collarbone.

“Oh, I got everything I could ever dream of and more.” I moved closer so I was almost against him and slid my hand up his chest. I swallowed the bile that rose at having to touch him, but I was outnumbered, and knew I had to do this right to save myself. Caressing his chest, I brought the knife I’d hidden out carefully, but kept it hidden beneath my hand.

His eyes flared with lust. I held back my shiver of disgust and tried again to keep the bile that kept coming up down. His hands wrapped around my throat, and it was now or never. I let the knife slide down so I could grip the handle, uncaring that I cut myself as it moved into my grip. I stared at my biggest tormentor, ready to end this one way or another.

“Never again,” I rasped out as his grip started tightening on my throat.

I plunged the knife into his chest, putting all my weight into it. The look of surprise on his face gave me just what I needed as his grip loosened, and I pulled the knife out and stabbed again and again until I couldn’t grip the knife due to the amount of blood coating it.

Bradly was quiet, and his hands were still wrapped around me, which helped with the other two men, whose focus seemed to be making sure no one disturbed Bradly and our discussion. When he finally gasped and then roared when I couldn’t pull the knife out again, I pushed him back as I stepped away. I grabbed the gun and turned to my right and shot that guy and then turned to my left and shot the other one. I kept firing until the three men had taken all the bullets I had in the small gun.

Bullets rained at me from down the street as more men made their way to me. My left arm was stinging and so was my right thigh. I could feel the blood dripping down my arm; it was why I’d found it hard to pull the knife out.

As I turned to run, an arm came around my waist and I was flung behind a big body. I gazed up in a daze at the back of my brother, who had a bunch of men with vests fighting guys with the same vest. I knew some of the men with Toby, they were sons of members, and holy shit, there were some women. The women wore armored gear and were covered in weapons.

High on adrenaline, and in shock at having probably just killed people, I realized I might actually live through this.

“Give up now and you might be lucky and get a reduced sentence,” my brother yelled.

“Fuck you, Decker.”

“Kill them.”

“Your father will kill you for this.”

“Shoot to kill.”

“Fucking traitor.”

Was yelled from around us as the bullets started coming at us.

An SUV crashed through the street, speeding toward me. I knew it was Dean in the car. The car screeched to a halt an inch from our group. I stared, my mouth gaping in amazement as the door slammed open, and Evelin appeared. She held two guns, one in each hand, aimed at the group.

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