Page 71 of Ravaged and Ruined
Sophia’s standing at the threshold, her red dress soaked in blood that’s not her own. Her hair’s wild, her lipstick smeared and Lacey’s in front of her. A gun jammed into her stomach.
Sophia’s arm is locked tight around her, dragging her backward like a human shield. Lacey’s hands are up, her eyes locked on mine, wide, pleading, furious.
“Back the fuck off!” Sophia snarls at the room, her voice cracking with hysteria and hate. “I swear to God I’ll paint the walls with her.”
My body goes rigid.
Lacey stumbles, trying to dig her heels in, but Sophia jerks her forward, digging the barrel in deeper. Lacey lets out a sharp cry, biting it back through gritted teeth. She’s scared. But she’s fighting.
I take one step toward them, just one, and Sophia’s eyes flick to mine.
“You think you won?” she spits. “You think I’m going to let you ride off with her and play happy fucking family after you killed mine?”
Her voice turns into a hiss. “I told you. You’d regret leaving me.”
Then she drags Lacey out the door, the gun never leaving her belly.
I lose it.
“Lacey!” I roar, rage in my blood like wildfire.
I charge after them through the smoke. Sophia whips around. Her dress is torn, blood on her cheek from where Lacey is clawing at her. The look on Sophia’s face is madness. Feral, and desperate, teeth clenched like she’s choking on everything she can’t control. Her grip tightens on Lacey, nails digging into soft skin.
“Let her go!” I growl, barreling through the wreckage.
Sophia lifts her arm. Metal flashes in the light. Then thunder cracks.
Pain erupts in my side. The bullet punches through me just above the hip. My legs falter. Air catches in my lungs like broken glass. I drop to my knees with a grunt, blood flooding down the inside of my jeans, hot and thick.
“Aero!” Lacey screams, twisting in Sophia’s grasp, but Sophia yanks her closer, backing toward the far door.
“I warned you, didn’t I? You shouldn’t have walked away from me like I was nothing.” Sophia hisses, dragging Lacey with her like some twisted trophy.
“You were nothing,” I bite out, choking on blood. “And you still are.”
She sneers, raising the gun again.
Lacey shifts. Her eyes catch mine. Not fear. Not panic.
Fury.
Pure and righteous.
Sophia doesn’t see it coming.
Lacey’s hand flashes to the small of her back, where she stashed an extra pistol taken off one of her fallen men. She jerks it free, spins in one motion, and with both hands gripping the weapon, she shouts, “Get your fucking hands off me!”
The shot echoes around us.
Sophia’s eyes widen. Her mouth opens, but no sound comes out. Her grip slips. The gun falls from her hand before she does, blood blooming red across the bodice of her dress. She crashes to the ground at Lacey’s feet like a marionette with its strings cut.
Lacey doesn’t look away. Doesn’t blink. She just breathes hard, shoulders shaking, staring down at the woman who nearly destroyed everything.
“There’s nothing I won’t do to protect my baby.”
Sophia coughs, blood flecking her lips. Her hand scrapes weakly toward the fallen pistol. Lacey kicks it away.
“Aero’s baby.” She serves Sophia one final dig.
