Say It's Forever (Redemption Hills #2)(115)

I tried to yank free of his hold. “No, you didn’t have to do it,” I shouted. “You didn’t. You lied to me. You lied to me.”

I rushed toward the door. He grabbed me again. “What did you expect me to do, Salem? Let you keep running forever? What kind of life would that be? For you and for your daughter? How was Juni ever going to feel secure? Grow up? Go to school? How? I had to do something.”

Disbelief coiled in my spirit. “And what you did was destroy our chance.”

I whipped the door back open and rushed out, hauling Juni behind me. Darius followed, coming around to my side, trying to get in my face. “Listen to me, you’re safe. He gave me his word.”

The vile, cruel laughter that echoed from the end of the walk had me freezing in place.

Ice slipped down my spine.

My hand curled tighter on my daughter’s hand.

“It’s been such a long time, Pupa. Look at you…as beautiful as ever.” Carlo’s voice was close to casual from where he leaned on the driver’s side door of my SUV, wearing a suit, his hands mindlessly stuffed in his pockets as if he weren’t there to destroy.

I knew better.

Terror seized me.

Rocketed through the air in fiery bolts.

I tried to breathe, to think, to plan.

Because I wasn’t going out without a fight.

I screamed when Darius was suddenly yanked back and forced to his knees with his hands behind his back. A gun was pressed to the back of his head by one of Carlo’s men.

Another man lurked behind them.

“What are you doing?” Darius seethed. I could feel his fear rush through his muscles, the way they bunched and sweat dripped down the side of his face.

Carlo laughed a condescending sound. “It seems I’ve had a change of heart.”

Darius thrashed. “No. You promised. I gave you the information you wanted on Jud. You have him. Now let Salem go.”

“I’ve learned there’s something he wants more.” Cocking his head, Carlo grinned at me.

Without another warning, a gunshot rang out. Darius slumped to the sidewalk, blood pooling around him.

A scream ripped from my soul.

A scream of agony.

Of disbelief.

Of horror.

Of fear.

“No,” I whimpered as I grabbed my daughter and hid her face against my body, desperate to protect her from the cruelty that had found us.

My eyes darted everywhere as I looked for a path. For a direction to run. For a way out of this place.

I would fight.

I would fight.

“Come here, Pupa,” Carlo quietly coaxed, as if I were precious. “Bring my daughter to me. I’d like to meet her.” His head cocked to the side and his mouth twisted in an annoyed sneer. “As for you…it’s a shame you already used your second chance. We could have been so good together.”

“No.” My head shook, my veins filling with a frenzy as I searched for a way out.

He tsked.

In a flash, I scooped up Juni and took the chance.

I ran, my feet frantic as I raced across the lawn in the opposite direction of Carlo and toward the street with my daughter in my arms.

Mimi shouted, and out of my periphery, I could see she was running for Carlo with her arms waving above her head.

Oh god, no.

“Mimi, no!” I shouted into the air, still running, praying for her to come to her senses.

Another shot rang out.

A grunt and a crash and her voice was silenced.

Agony ripped through me.

Staggering.

Unimaginable.

But I kept running.

I had to. I had to.

Another shot. This one from the other side of the street. Then shots began to fire from every side.

What was happening? What was happening?

A disorder engulfed. Chaos.

I curled down and kept rushing away, my arms around Juni’s head as if I could protect her from the hail of bullets.

Through it, I somehow saw as both of Carlo’s men fell.

It was one second before Carlo’s arms wrapped around me from behind.

He yanked me against him. Hard and vicious.

A scream yelped from my throat.

We toppled to the ground in a heap, the vicious man’s arms chains around my body.

But not before I let Juni go.

Not before I screamed, “Run, Juni, run! Run and don’t look back.”





THIRTY-FIVE





JUD





Helplessly, I watched her peel out of the lot, the SUV accelerating quickly before it disappeared at the end of the street.

“Fuck! Salem!”

I sucked for a breath I couldn’t find.

I felt like I’d gotten torn right in two.

By the memories of what I’d done, but more so, by hers.

The truth coming to light. I couldn’t process the magnitude of her loss. Of what she’d been through.

And I’d been there that night.

I wanted to claw my fucking heart out of my chest.

But that urge? It only came in as a close second to the burning need I felt to hop on my bike.

To hunt Carlo down.

Like I’d said, all I needed was a name. And now that I had one? I wouldn’t stop until it was finished.

Wondered if it was fate that name was already written in vengeance.