Page 162 of Like Grim Death: Part One
And when I swallow, my ears pop at the exact same time I see Nikita is lying on the pavement, his arms splayed out beside him, head turned to the side, his gun by his torso. There’s a hole in his temple, blood oozing down his white skin, other wounds along his chest.
I stumble backward, and Ezra’s hand grips my shoulder. I hear someone groaning, but when I shift my gaze to the right, I don’t see Raz.
It’s not Maverick, either. Not Ella or Atlas or Cain.
My wife is standing there in an oversized shirt hanging down to her knees, her hair a mess, ends curling upward, she’s barefoot, but she’s got both hands wrapped around a gun, arms extended, and she’s still aiming at Nikita, dead on the ground.
Her gray eyes flicker to mine.
My knees feel weak, and I bow over, my hands on my thighs, gun still in hand. I’m breathing hard,panting,and I’m not even sure it’s all from what we just survived.
I think it’s because my dick is so hard right now staring at my wife—who justmurderedsomeone for me—there’s no blood circulating elsewhere in my body.
“Holy fuck.” I whisper it. I can barely hear the words, a tinny sound still berating my ears, but I say it again anyway.“Holy fuck.”
A smile curves her lips, but her eyes betray a different story. There’s relief there.ReliefI’m alive, and Nikita is dead.
Before I can soak in this moment, I see behind her his henchman, Raz, is crawling backward on his elbows, his feet shuffling along the pavement. She must have shot him too, but he’s not dead yet.
She tracks my gaze though, and without hesitating, as he reaches for his gun a few feet away, she pulls the trigger twice, shooting him in the chest.
He falls backward, and he doesn’t move anymore.
But in that moment, I remember Nikita’s words. The reason I turned my back to him at all.
Three people.
Leon.
I straighten so fast I stumble, nearly falling to the pavement, but Ezra’s grip on my arm keeps me steady. I open my mouth to ask where Rain is when I hear a grunt.
Spinning, holding tight to my gun and stepping to the side so I can block Sid from anyone’s aim, it takes me a second to realize what I’m looking at.
Maverick, his blond hair lighting up the night. He’s on his knees, straddling a figure on the ground.
Ella is behind him, a hand over her mouth.
And he’s cocking his elbow back and landing his fist in Leon’s face. There are two guns on the asphalt beside them, and my mind races as I quickly put together the pieces. Leon probably found Ella and Mav, but got toherunder the cover of night since Mav didn’t know there were three people. Leon probably forced her at gunpoint to walk toward us. He was the one talking about her getting on her knees.
Mav’s fist launches forward again as I lift my head and see two of my guards lurking in the night.
“Sevryn,” I hiss, jerking my chin toward my car. They nod, running to the BMW. I turn to Ezra, “Go find Rain.” He immediately sprints toward my house.
Without saying a word to each other, Sid and I walk side by side to Mav, standing near Ella, over by the ditch, barely on the pavement.
She doesn’t take her eyes off her boyfriend.
I don’t know what the fuck she was doing running this street in the middle of the night, unless she’s taking up a new fucking hobby or…
I lift my gaze to hers, guilt choking my lungs.
But she doesn’t even look at me.
The man Maverick is beating the fuck out of screams in the night.
“Shut the fuck up,”my brother snarls, and he snatches up the gun by his side, slamming the butt of it against Leon’s temple.
Leon is dressed in red too, brown hair, a bloody face, I can’t make out a single feature of his.
