Page 106 of Darkest Retribution

No.

“Let me guess. You already know Blaze and Brooke’s location, don’t you? And you thought you could escape me before your time ran out?” David shoves the barrel of the gun into Rosie’s curls, and she screams.

I nod, too afraid to struggle.Please don’t kill her.

“Tell me where they are.”

I’m sorry, Dominic.

“Schultz—”

“Schultz Resort in Miami,” Dominic says, stepping into the room and cutting me off. If he’s surprised I was about to say the same thing, he doesn’t show it. Instead, he gives me the smallest of glances before firing at David.

David stumbles backward, dropping his gun and releasing Rosie, as blood sprays from his arm. Rosie runs for Dominic, and he scoops her up with one arm, still aiming at David. He inches forward, kicking David’s gun out of his reach.

With no threat to Rosie’s life anymore, I finally manage to twist around so I’m on my back. I flip Grant off of me. He knees me in the side, and it hurts, but I’m already in so much pain it barely makes it worse.

“Don’t move.”

When I look up, Dominic is pointing his gun at Grant. I crawl away, and just then, Felix and a woman with dark hair burst through the door. Rosie screams, burying her face in Dominic’s chest.

“Shit, he’s going to bleed out,” the woman says. “And I need him alive. He needs to pay for what he’s done.”

David tries to get up, but Felix kicks him in the head.

“Move, and I’ll shoot,” he says.

“Don’t,” the woman snaps.

“I will if I have to.”

“Auntie Jade,” Rosie cries, reaching her arms out to me.

“It’s okay,” I say. It takes more effort than it should to stand, but I manage, moving to her. “C’mere.”

Dominic hands her to me. Every part of my body aches, and holding Rosie doesn’t help, but I don’t care. She clings to me, and I hold her as tightly as I can.

Looking at Dominic, I nod my head toward Felix and the woman. “You trust them?”

“With my life.”

Turning back to the woman, I say, “My brother. Whatever he did to you... I’m sorry.”

“We’re not our family’s choices,” she says. “Trust me.”

Dominic squeezes my arm. “Give me one second.”

He slips out of the library. There’s a gunshot, and then he comes back in.

“The house is clear,” Dominic says to me, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the room. “I’ll be out in a second. I don’t want Rosie to see this.”

In the hallway, a man—Shane, I assume—is on the floor, a bullet hole in his head. I turn so he’s not in Rosie’s view. She’s been through so much tonight. I don’t need to add seeing a corpse to that list.

My god. She’s going to be so traumatized.

“Rosie,” I whisper, watching Dom disappear back inside the library. “I’m so sorry. I promise I’ll never put you through something like this again.”

She sobs, wrapping her trembling arms around my neck.

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