Page 81 of Gemini
Then I blinked, confused as I was still able to see and was aware of everything around me. Maybe it was the initial shock but I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. Simon tugged me up from the ground and wrapped an arm around me. His gun pressed against me once again. It became clear that his gun had slipped in his fall and he had missed me, maybe by only inches.
“Stay the fuck back or next time I won’t miss,” he said as the bikers circled us. His voice was distant, I couldn’t even hear it in my right ear. I felt his chest rumbling against my back as he laughed.
I couldn’t measure how long we sat there, I was so disoriented, the ringing in my head growing louder. Maybe I had passed out for a mere second because I closed my eyes then was shaken awake. The red truck from earlier came into view, stopping some distance away, the headlights just barely reaching us. The bikers were now sitting in semi circle around us like phantoms in the dark. Out of the truck stepped several Gemini members including Leslie, still wearing his sinister mask.
He stalked toward us a few feet then stopped as Simon pressed his gun into me, making me wince.
“You’re one tough motherfucker, I’ll give you that,” Simon said. “How’s your brother by the way?”
Leslie responded by taking another step and Simon pulled my head back. “I’d stop walking if I were you.” He chuckled. “You and your brother were a real pain in the ass. Jasper messed up letting you two get away. You betrayed your old clan and that just doesn’t sit right with me. Now I’d say this is a pretty good trade. The clan dies but you lose everything. A snake takes down its prey even if it has to sacrifice its life. So I go, she goes.”
Leslie and the others didn’t move as Simon removed the gun momentarily from my head to wave it at them, his laughter growing. “Well, come on and try. It’s no fun if you don’t at least try to save her. Show us that desperate will to stop the inevitable. Run, shoot, pretend to compromise, beg.” His free hand slid up to my throat. I couldn’t see his face but I knew he had to be grinning. “Come on, do it for your girl. Don’t leave her hanging. Give her some comfort at least. Tell her it’s going to be okay.”
Leslie didn’t move, didn’t say a word. Funny, I was happy he was staying defiant, not giving the asshole the satisfaction. I stared straight at him, hoping he could see the look in my eyes and know that I was so grateful that he tried. That I was just happy I got to see him one last time. Glad he was the last thing I would ever see.
Simon grunted in annoyance. “You fucking prick. You still think you’re so much better even now.” His hand tightened on my throat. “Come on, motherfucker, do something!” he shouted. “Do someth—”
THUNK.
Simon went limp, his arms dropping, his body slumping against me until I pushed him off and he fell the other way. Confused, I looked around at him. He was lying on the ground, blood pooling under his head where a knife had been embedded into the back of his skull.
My eyes drifted upward and caught another man in a mask behind us by the barn, a knife in his hand.
For one insane moment I thought it was Dom. He wore his mask after all, the one with the stitched up smile. But as he stormed toward us, he took off his mask and I saw it was Leslie.
I frowned, glancing back at the man in the sinister mask. He slipped his off and I saw it was Xavier. Leslie came from behind and pulled me away from Simon’s corpse.
My head swam, trying to comprehend what had happened as Leslie moved over to Simon and put a boot on his chest. It wasn’t until he was pulling the knife out of Simon’s head that I understood. He’d switched masks with Xavier in order to sneak up behind and take Simon out when he wasn’t looking. The biker who had left the group on the hill must have gone to warn him.
Leslie kneeled on Simon’s body and started swinging.
Blood. So much blood. Splashing everywhere as Leslie stabbed Simon in the throat and chest again and again. Each violent stroke made my gut twist and yet I couldn’t look away. Only when I brought myself back to reality did I see he was pulverizing a dead man.
I tried to rise on shaking legs but fell back instantly. Instead, I got on my knees and crawled, trying to get his attention. “Leslie…Leslie it’s okay. He’s dead.”
He must not have heard me. I could hardly hear myself with one ear popped and all the ringing. Thankfully, several of the guys including Xaviar surrounded Leslie and pulled him off. He turned on them and they moved back as if confronted by a tiger, hands up in defense.
“He’s dead,” Xavier repeated.
The look on Leslie face saidnot dead enough. He turned back, ready to continue, then froze when he saw me. He stared at me as if uncertain if I was real, then he staggered over to me and dropped to his knees, pulling me into his chest with one arm.
“Mine…Mine…” he murmured over and over in my good ear.
Shuddering, I drew my arms around him, ignoring the fact my white dress was now red. “I’m here.”
Something was off. It was like he had cracked. I held him close and he kept repeating that word.Mine.
I pulled away so I could take his face in my hands, forcing him to look me in the eye. “I’m right here. I’m yours. But we need to get out of here now, okay? My sister is back at the house with Trevor. She’s not safe.”
“Trevor is dead,” Xaviar interjected. “Leslie got to his ass quick.”
“And my sister?”
“Safe in one of the cars that didn’t crash into the house.”
I didn’t ask what he meant. I just looked back at Leslie. “Get us out of here, okay?”
He dropped his blade, bringing his hand up to brush a lock of hair from my face then wipe the blood from my cheek. He pocketed his knives and pulled me up with him before tucking his arm under my legs and lifting me, carrying me back to the truck. As he deposited me in the back seat, I heard sirens in the distance. He slid in with me as Xaviar took the wheel and the rest of the guys not on bikes hopped inside. As we drove across the field back onto a dirt road toward the house, I saw orange light in the distance. When the lodge came into view, the front door was gone, the roof on one side caved in. A large truck and a silver SUV that were backing away from the house had their front ends broken and bent. Now I understood what Xaviar meant by crashing into the house. There were several other cars, at least half a dozen in the chaos, driving out of the yard and the driveway. One of them had my sister. Leslie kept a firm grasp on me as the truck sped off into the dark, and I held on to him the whole way, not once looking back.
