Page 136 of Mask and the Magnolia

“The thing is,” he says as he stands, dragging the muzzle up my cheek and over my black eye until it’s right in the middle of my forehead. “I do. I really want to kill you, Magnolia. I was going to sell you to the Hardens tomorrow night, after the wedding. I was trying to decide if I wanted to do it before we got to the airport or after, but now? Now I think I’m just going to kill you myself because?—“

Something sprays all over my face before he gets to finish, something warm and thick splattering over my neck and chest, and I swear I just went deaf. I blink repeatedly as Camden stands there gaping at me, his eyes wide, his mouth opening and closing like a beached fish. His arm drops to his side, the gun clattering to the floor in a single bullet explosion through the glass behind me. Camden falls to the floor but doesn’t flinch at the sound, hejust lays there staring up at me with wide eyes as an enormous red spot starts spreading under his head.

“Magnolia.”

I turn to my left, blinking over and over as the masked man with blue neon comes racing toward me, holstering one of his guns seconds before his gloved palm slides against my cheek.

“Fuck, Magnolia.” He starts brushing what I can only imagine is bits of Camden’s skull off my face, his chest heaving as he does. “Maggie, sugar?—“

“I knew it was you,” I whisper as I still Korvin’s hand, leaning into his touch as I breathe his thunderstorm deep into my lungs. “I knew it.”

He steps closer, carefully sliding his fingers down over his mark as he says, “We will always come for you, Maggie. You’re ours and not one fucking thing is going to change that.” We both turn to the sound of voices, of loud footsteps heading our way. “That said, we need to get you the fuck out of here.”

I barely bod in response before Vin is lifting me, tossing me over his shoulder and booking it back toward the banquet hall.

I can hear him talking, not through the voice box on the mask, not even inside it, no, I hear Korvin talking inside my head and I don’t really know what to make of that.

Apparently it’s a bond link. We’re still figuring it out but it’s pretty fucking handy.

I nod, my face nearly level with Korvin’s ass as we race down a hall that’s going to take us to the golf course.

How did you know where to go?Might as well give the link a try.

Eve, Vin grunts.Drew us a map but I made sure to pay attention to alternate routes.

Thank god for that.

I love Evie and should have known she was behind this but she probably gave them the straightest shot to where I was.While there’s nothing wrong with that, it didn’t really account for shit going sideways. Now I just have to hope we find our boys before something happens to them.

“Run!”

I push up on Vin’s ass to see none other than those three running as fast as they can down an intersecting hall, rounding the corner quickly as they catch up.

“We are running,” I say, as I push up a little higher.

“Run faster!” Des, I can tell by his size up this close, says as he starts to laugh. “We have seconds.”

“Before what?”

The one in green holds up his finger and spins something around it and I squint. Then my eyes go wide.

“Is that a pin from a grenade?!”

“Ah shit,” Vin grunts as he kicks into high gear. “I didn’t think you were gonna toss it while we were still inside.”

Thankfully, we make it outside literally seconds before we hear the explosion, racing across the lawn toward the course as what looks like half of the country club blasts into the front courtyard.

“Go, go, go!” Korvin shouts as he tosses me in the back of a fucking van, the rest of our pack hopping in behind me as he make sure they all clear the back before he jumps in and slams the door.

We tear across the golf course like a bat out of hell, my eyes welling with tears as each of my men remove their masks and smile at me.

“Ew, are those pieces of my brother on your dress?”

I turn toward the front to see Evie smiling so wide, tears in her eyes, too as she looks me over.

“Yes,” I say with a sniffle.

She nods. “Good. Fuck that asshole. I hope he rots.”

---