Page 135 of Mask and the Magnolia

The closer they get, the faster my heart starts to beat, and if it wasn’t completely impossible, I’d think these were my mates who came to rescue me.

My father takes a step in their direction, raising his hands in surrender as the one in front spins on him and takes aim. “What is it that you want?”

“Flowers.” He stops about five feet from where we are, his gun trained on The Dean. “We’ve come for your flowers, Byron.”

“Pardon?”

He nods and steps out the way as the one from the back comes forward, the two in the sides closing ranks while they cut off the stairs from the rest of the room.

“If you want money, there’s plenty of that here. Money, jewelry. Whatever you want, we can get it together for you and?—“

The shotgun goes off again as the one in pink laughs. “I said flowers, man. More specifically, we want Magnolia.”

About four hundred butterflies take flight in my belly, flapping their wings so hard I feel like I might be floating in the air.

They did come.

Somehow, my mates got out and they came for me, and I really don’t give a shit because they’re here. My pack came for me.

“You can’t have her, not without?—“

Camden swallows his words right along with the tough guy act as the one in blue moves forward quickly, pressing one of those glocks to his forehead right between his eyes.

“Give me a fucking reason,” the one in blue says as he hands his other gun to the one in pink before motioning to me. “Let’s go.”

You don’t have to tell me twice.

Frankly, even if they weren’t my mates I’d still go. Getting kidnapped by strangers with guns seems like a better alternative to marrying Camden.

But just as I’m about to jump off the step and run to freedom, my father grabs me by the hair and yanks me back toward him.

Then all hell breaks loose.

A few security guards come running through the crowd with their measly pistols, yelling at my pack to drop their guns. Women scream, a lot of the men do, too, as people start racing around like a bunch of headless chickens.

My mates fire a warning shot to regain control, spinning on the group to try to keep this from turning into a full blown mess but all it does is scare the older security team and send them firing blindly into the room.

“Goddamnit,” my father barks as he goes down, shoving me toward Camden while cradling his arm. “Run!”

Grabbing my bicep and using me as a fucking human shield, this horrible man takes his opportunity and slides past while people lose their minds. He drags me behind the stairs and through the crowd, pushing past terrified men and knocking down screaming women. Camden even crashes into a security guard and instead of doing anything any normal human would, he punches him in the face, takes his gun, and keeps running.

“What are you doing?!” I screech, his hold so tight I’m worried he’s going to dislocate my shoulder again. “Camden!”

“Shut up!” He leads us down an empty hall, searching for an emergency exit but there isn’t one.

So, instead, Camden shoves me up against the wall, backhands me with the gun then aims it at me because he’s officially lost his fucking mind.

“This is all your fault, Magnolia!” He barks as he cocks the hammer. “You. You did this to me. If you’d have just agreedto marry me, just obeyed me from the beginning, none of this would have happened.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It would have been easier. So much easier. Just let me have you, let me bond and you wouldn’t have had to worry about anything for the rest of your life. You would have been taken care of, Magnolia!” He shakes the gun at my face, emphasizing his words with a hard point in my direction. “I would have taken care of you.”

Camden comes at me quickly, shoving the gun under my chin as he presses his nose to my cheek. “You would have had anything you wanted, the world would have been your playground. But you didn’t want that. Couldn’t be happy with something like that so you went and bonded with those deviants.”

He drags his nose down my neck but growls and gags as he gets close to Korvin’s mate mark.

“Camden,” I plead as the gun digs into my chin. “Camden, please. You don’t want to do this, not really. You?—“

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