Page 43 of Assassin's Heart
No! No. I wouldn’t think that way. We were getting her out. Nothing else was acceptable.
“I didn’t know they’d be here, Leah,” Ross said. “It was supposed to be you and me, that’s all.”
Southerland lifted his gun without looking away from me and pulled the trigger. Brooke’s scream mingled with mine.
Ross dropped to his knees, leaning heavily against Brooke’s chair, a hand clutching his side. Red washed through his fingers. “Leah—” he wheezed.
“He’s no longer of use to me,” Southerland said, lowering his gun to Brooke’s head again. “If she’s not either, you know what happens next.”
“No! Don’t hurt her.” I took a step forward.
Remi grabbed my arm, stopping me. “We told Ross and we’ll tell you,” he said. “Leah doesn’t have the recordings. She never did. The fact that your men were too incompetent to find them in Angelo’s things is your problem, not ours.”
Southerland cocked his head, his stare boring into Remi. “I’ve heard of you. You took out Jonathan Axe’s team a while back.”
“The whole team,” Remi said. I could hear the satisfaction filling his voice, and shivered. “But you got one thing wrong.”
Southerland smirked. “What’s that?”
“I didn’t take out Axe’s team. My brother did.” Remi grinned, the sight sadistic in its amusement. “One man, one team. But there are three of us now.”
The men behind Southerland shifted uneasily, more than one glancing up at the few windows giving meager light to the room.
Not Southerland. “Three what?”
“Three brothers, motherfucker,” Remi said. And grinned. Outside, the distinct sound of gunshots filled the air. Six shots, so loud I ducked.
Southerland swung toward the nearest window, eyes going wide. Remi charged.
“Brooke!”
I was halfway across the room when she slipped from her chair, Ross still pulling at the ropes. “Mommy!”
Trusting Remi to deal with Southerland, I rushed forward. Shouts came from the back of the room. Shots echoed, deafeningly loud in the empty space. I ignored it all to complete the one mission I had come here for: to get my daughter. Scooping her tiny body up in my arms, I turned to run for the door, terror racing through me with every step, every heartbeat.
But Remi had promised, and he delivered. I burst through the door into the sunlight, my baby clutched in my arms. Brooke was sobbing, her fingers digging into my neck, her arms practically strangling me. I didn’t stop.Get to the truck. Get to the truck.Only when I had Brooke safely inside the SUV with the doors locked did I even breathe.
And that’s when I lost it.
I have no idea how long we sat there, Brooke and me, hugging and crying and rocking. How many times I whispered “I love you” and “Mommy is here” and “you’re safe now.” I only knew that when knuckles rapped on the window near my head, I actually screamed.
Eli stood outside, his stare intent as he waited for me to open the door.
I pushed at the latch. “Yes?”
He gripped the door, swinging it wide. “You need to come back inside,” he said. “I can keep her for you.”
“No, Eli, she stays with me.”
He shook his head. “You don’t want her to see what’s in there, Leah. Trust me.” He glanced from Brooke, still clutching my neck, her head turned away as if she couldn’t bear to look at anyone right now. “It’s Ross. You need to come.”
Ross had been shot. I squeezed Brooke closer. “I am— Okay.”
But Brooke was having none of her letting me go.
“Can you cover…whatever she’d see?” I asked.
“We can’t. Too much evidence left behind,” he explained. Over a dozen bodies? Yeah, I bet that was too much evidence already. I doubted the guys carried sheets or whatever to cover dead bodies. And carting them all out of here would be impossible.
