Page 100 of His Deadly Lies

CARTER

Mia’s there across the room, pale and dark-eyed, with her hair a wreck and her clothing pushed up in a way that suggests the worst. My vision goes red. The rest of me is hot and tight and active at the same time, energy barely contained. To the point where I have no fucks left to give about my own wounds or the damage to my ribs.

I explode into motion.

Ready to destroy everything and everyone. I reach for her at the same time bodies rush at my back.

I have a gun in hand and drag the other out of the holster at my lower back, bullets flying at them. Mia ducks down to avoid getting caught in the crossfire, and I turn to block her with my body.

No time for questions or hesitation.

There’s only her, the fuckers who took her, and me. Half my attention spots the body on the ground with fresh blood gushing from the stab wound, then it’s only Mia. Mia, Mia.

I pull her closer, backing up a step so that she’s between me and the desk as one of the men gets too close. Accardi’s men. Mia yelps and grabs me around the waist, her fingers biting into my skin.

“Touch her, and you’ll die. Slowly,” I tell him, keeping the gun trained directly between his eyes.

The man pauses for a brief second, glancing down at the body before his expression screws, and then he starts to move forward. So I shoot to kill, the bullet taking the man through the cheek when he turns at the last minute. His eyes go wide, but he’s not falling, so I stop on the top of his foot and follow it with a kick.

He finally drops to the floor, and I turn, clasping Mia around the waist to keep her close and shooting as I go. My arm is locked. The gunplay in the hallway hasn’t slowed either. It’s not safe to get her out of the room right now. I’ll take down as many as I can to clear a path and try to get her to the car quickly.

“You’re supposed to be in the hospital!” Mia yells close to my ear, struggling to be overheard in the chaos.

“And you’re fucking nuts if you think I won’t destroy anyone standing between me and you,” I tell her.

The doors to the room are already open, and I’m on my last bullet, ready to switch to a new cartridge, when more men pour in through the entrance. Most of my guys and the Balestras. Rafel catches my eye and nods once before firing off and taking out the last of the Accardi goons in the room.

The silence is deafening.

“Come on.”

I wrap my arm around Mia’s shoulder, gathering her to my side, and Rafel leads the way. We make it as far as the now empty room where we found the tied-up journalist before we’re joined by another round of Accardi men. These at least have the decency to size us up before they start.

I catch only a singular glimpse of Accardi himself, ducking behind a giant armoire and firing off shots at random. He’s not the best aim, which leaves me wondering how often the old man has gotten in on the action.

How many times he’s gone to a gun range for target practice. Or not.

My breathing loud, I finger the trigger. Hell fucking no, I’m not letting any of these assholes take me out. Take us out. I didn’t come all this way to die in a basement. I pump the trigger harder, and the room fills with yells, my ears ringing.

Mia grips my shoulders as we inch our way toward the door. Her fingers press down a little too hard to get my attention, and she nudges me, forcing me to look.

“Stop shooting!”

Accardi stands with his hands raised in front of him, open and empty. Rafel sheaths his gun in his holster, and bodies decorate the floor between us.

“Truce!” Accardi yells out. His face is tired, the wrinkles around his eyes pronounced, and his skin a strange shade of pale yellow. Not quite the imposing figure he cut the last time I saw him.

The tails of his shirt are untucked, and blood speckles decorate the white. The fallen king.

“Like you really expect that to work? You’re only saying that because your men are dead,” I reply, my fingers tightening around the hilt of my pistol. Not quite as willing as Rafel to believe Hector.

And his son is nowhere to be seen. The little fucking creep.

“Cease fire.” Accardi slowly steps out from behind the armoire and drops down to his knees. “This has to stop. I’m out of bullets, and goddamn it, I’m out of options.”

“Carter.” Mia’s voice trembles, and although red still dances around the edge of my vision, I’ve come back to myself well enough to realize she’s trying to get through to me.

“What?” I ask in an undertone.

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