The Dark Forest: A Collection Of Erotic Fairytales(150)

He’d protected her, taken the bullet her father had meant for her. In a panic she reached over his broad shoulders to search for the wound, and when her fingers found it he hissed air through his teeth.

“Why did you do that? WHY?” she shouted at him, confused and terrified.

A rough laugh slipped from him as he turned his neck to look up at her. “I have no idea. Being a fucking fool must run in the family.”

His words made her chest ache and she looked back at her father, and then at William. “You have to get help, you have to—”

“Oh, no, we don’t have to do anything, Rebecca, and we will definitely not be bringing any police into this.” Lifting the gun to point it at her again, her father shrugged. “It’s such a pity to lose you, you did look so nice during the photo ops.”

She flinched, and just as she prepared for the gun to fire again, William touched her father’s arm. “Sir, I can handle this. There’s no need for you to be the one.”

Daniel Sinclair sighed, his tone frigid when he spoke. “Well, you took care of the mother, might as well handle this as well.”

The words stole the last of the air from her lungs on a sob, and she looked up at William to see if he would argue it, to see if it was a lie—but she could tell it wasn’t. He wouldn’t even meet her eyes.

Monsters. She’d been surrounded by monsters and lies her entire life.

Tears streaked her cheeks, but she felt Adam squeeze her arm and she looked down at him. His voice was weak, but she could still hear him. “I guess I should have left you in The Tower, princess, inside the fairytale. This wasn’t—” A fit of coughs cut him off, blurs of red on his lips when he stopped and she shook her head.

“Uncle Will, you can’t do this.”

“Handle it, William. I’ll be in the hall.” Her father passed the gun off like a dirty object, and turned to leave as she stared after him in disbelief.

“Close your eyes, Rebecca.” William spoke but he wasn’t looking at her. He moved the gun into his firing hand, raised it to Daniel Sinclair’s head—and fired.

The spray of blood and other matter made her scream. It was unreal, a nightmare. She covered her eyes as the dull sound of her father’s body collapsing to the floor filled her ears, and then there was a strange, buzzing silence.

“Rebecca, sweetheart, are you all right? I—” Will’s voice was like a knife twisting between her ribs.

“Don’t.” With a steadying breath, she looked at the man she had viewed as family her whole life, and felt a wave of disgust. “You killed my mother?”

“I’ve always regretted—”

“You knew about the other women. You knew what he was doing.”

“It was my job, Rebecca. I’ve just done my job for your father, but you… I couldn’t let him hurt you. He didn’t even want to respond to the videos. He said he wasn’t going to negotiate, I had to beg him to help you, and—shit, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“You think sorry is enough for this? For everything you’ve done?”

“No.” William looked down, wiping the gun off on his shirt before he placed it back into her father’s hand, wrapping his hand around it a few times. He stayed in a crouch beside the shape that had been her father. The monster. The man who had wanted to keep her like a prize, locked up in The Tower forever. William sighed and stood. “What can I do?”

“Save him.” She looked down at Adam who opened his eyes to look at her, his brows pulled together in pain.

Will scoffed. “Absolutely not, he—”

“I said to save him. He’s the only bastard in this room who hasn’t lied to me. He’s the only one who will tell me the truth. I don’t care what else happens, but he lives. Understand?”

William paused for a moment longer than she wanted, but eventually he nodded and dragged over the cot lifting Adam face down onto it with her help. Snagging a towel and the bottle of vodka, he poured the alcohol over his back, which made Adam jerk and groan, and then he splashed some on the towel before pushing it into her hand. “If you want him to live, apply pressure, push as hard as you can. I have some calls to make.”

Moving to her knees beside the cot, she overlapped her hands and pressed. A deep groan escaped him, and she could hear William in the hallway on the phone, but her mind was still a chaotic blur. “Listen to me, Adam. You don’t get to die. You’re not getting off that easily. You promised you’d answer any of my questions, and you don’t break promises, remember? You don’t lie. You don’t fucking lie, and so you can’t die now.”

“Now, you’re starting to sound like a bossy princess.” His voice was slurring, and then he coughed again.

She rolled her eyes. “Shut up and focus on not bleeding to death.”

“You should be nicer, I saved your life. I—” Adam’s voice trailed off and she leaned forward to see his eyes closed. A rush of panic surged inside her.

“Uncle Will! Tell them to hurry, he’s not awake!”

“Apply pressure!” he yelled back into the room and she did, putting as much of her weight as she could onto the spot. Shaking her head, she stared at his profile. Those angelic features combining with the memory of every twisted thing he’d done, and she hated him for putting her in this situation. The place where she had to admit he had saved her life in more ways than one. Saved her from a bullet, from her father’s lies, from a life of forced ignorance. Nothing in her life had been real.