The Gender Plan (The Gender Game #6)(106)

Cody’s cries grew, and I gave up and turned back to see him still following us, fat tears rolling down his cheeks and snot dripping from his nose. “Please,” he begged hoarsely. “Please don’t leave me!”

“I’m not your mother!” Desmond snapped, whipping around. “I have no interest in being your mother! You are a weak, spineless thing, and I could never be a mother to something so pitiable. Now go away!”

Cody’s face fell, devastation and heart-rending disbelief on his face. “You’re lying,” he stammered, his voice coming out at a high-pitched warble that made it sound like his vocal cords were frozen. “You’re lying because of Violet. You want me to meet you somewhere—”

A gunshot followed by a loud splash cut off whatever Cody was going to say, and Desmond jerked me farther around, using me as a brace to look back around the curved edges of the pond. Morgan stood at the edge of the pool, her foot planted in Lena’s limp back, and as we watched, she pushed her sister’s body farther out into the water, a look of grim triumph on her face. Then she looked over at us, the satisfaction on her face vanishing, and she spat out a curse.

“Shoot her!” Desmond screamed over her shoulder just as the guards began to fire in Morgan’s direction. The dark-haired woman sprang into action, seeming to move through the bullets, her body twisting around impossibly as she raced across the ground toward us.

Desmond tugged my arm, propelling me forward a few more steps, then paused, turning to where Cody was still following us, tears pouring down his face. She made an irritated growl and whipped around, her gun leaving my side and aiming for the little boy behind us.

I saw Cody’s eyes flash up toward her face, and his name was barely a consonant in the back of my mouth when a shadow darted forward from the left, slamming into the boy and pushing him into the pool we stood next to.

Desmond’s gun went off with a loud bang, and my heart stopped as I saw Jay look up at me from the spot where the younger boy had stood a moment ago, a hand fluttering to his stomach and blood rushing between his fingers, his mouth opening in an ‘O’ of surprise.

My throat felt frozen, the muscles in my chest so tight, it was as if the scream that refused to come from my throat was trying to rip the flesh from my bones. Jay dropped to his knees and sagged back, sitting on his heels. “Mom?” he asked, his gaze jerking to Desmond, his eyes those of a young, frightened boy.

Desmond expelled a little breath, the gun in her hand shaking. My eyes dragged over to her, as hard as I tried to stop them. I knew I couldn’t see her look guilty. I wouldn’t forgive her for it. She had no right to that feeling anymore—it was her fault all of this was even going on! I knew that if she looked guilty, nothing would stop me from strangling the life out of her right then and there, no matter who tried to stop me, no matter how many times they shot me. But my eyes went to her face anyway.

Guilty wasn’t even the word for it. The look on Desmond’s face was the truest emotion I’d ever seen on her countenance, and it was twisted into a grotesque mask of raw horror. The gun in her hand was trembling so violently that her grip would give out soon. Jay gave a strangled breath, and it seemed to break the spell she was under. “Jay?” she gasped, moving toward him.

Jay saw her coming and recoiled, painfully dragging himself across the ground away from her, blood spilling from the wound in his stomach.

“Jay, we have the heloship! Let me take you to Matrus! The hospitals there are intact, I—”

“NO!” rasped Jay as he whipped himself around to glare at her. He held himself up by his arms, and I could tell by the way they quivered that even he was running short on strength. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

Desmond turned to where the wardens were standing. They had stopped firing, uncertain. I looked around for a sign of Morgan—or her body—but saw neither. Too many things raced through my mind, and I couldn’t stop staring at Jay—Jay—I needed to help him—

“You. Get him on the ship,” Desmond said to the wardens, and in spite of the panic radiating from her, her voice held the weight of command.

“Ma’am—”

“DO IT,” Desmond bellowed, and the warden blinked, and then moved toward Jay, her jaw clenched tightly.

Jay watched her come, his expression thunderous through the pain in his face, and then directed his gaze back to his mother, shaking his head. “You don’t get it!” he stated bitterly. “I’d rather be dead than go with you.”

He stared at her for a heartbeat longer, and then, with the wardens approaching, pulled himself over the short distance to the pool, throwing himself into the water with a splash.

The fugue of fear and anger that had rooted me to the spot where Desmond had left me was suddenly broken as he disappeared into the water, and I leapt forward, searching it for him. My eyes didn’t find him in the ripples of dark water—but there was Cody, splashing several feet deep inside, his limbs swinging awkwardly.

“Jay!” Desmond screamed, rushing over to the water’s edge, and I changed tact—I would push her into the pool if it was the last thing I did—when one of the wardens gave a shout cut short by a bullet. I looked over to see Morgan charging for us from just past where Desmond stood, her body springing forward across the grass.

The remaining warden fired on her, and Morgan weaved and dipped, her progress slowing as she was forced to find a less direct route. I felt the gun jab into my ribs again and bit back a curse, turning to see Desmond back at my side—the moment I’d been distracted by Morgan had been a moment too long. Desmond pushed me forward, and I resisted weakly, torn between all the things that needed my attention right now.