Echo (Black Lotus #2)(79)

LACHLAN AND I located the rental car a while ago with no traces of where they could be. We’re wasting delicate time wandering around the usually busy streets of downtown, but it’s the middle of the night, and Lachlan and I are the only ones lurking around.

“This is f*cking useless,” I gripe in frustration. “Every business is closed and locked up. They could be anywhere.”

“What do you want to do?”

Huffing out an angry breath, I let my head fall back as I look up into the dark of night. We’ve been scouring these streets for hours, and nothing. For all I know, this car could’ve been ditched for another and they could already be in another country.

Lifting my head, I turn to look down the narrow close that’s to my right. There are so many of these alleyways in the city, and we’ve been walking through them all night it seems.

I’m plagued with an unsettling sense of doom that I’ll never find her. The thought grabs ahold of me, twisting my gut as I think about not being able to see her face again or hear her say my name in her sweet American accent. I can’t stand the thought of her never knowing the truth of my heart. She deserves to have the peace of knowing that I still care about her. After everything she’s been through, and even after all the corruption within her, she still deserves to know.

Pulling out my cell, I begin to walk again and decide to call her phone once more. I dial the number, and after the first ring, I startle when I hear a loud crack that splits the night.

“You hear that?” I ask Lachlan, the words flying out of my mouth.

His eyes are wide, alarmed, saying, “That was a gunshot.”

Grabbing my gun from its holster, I fly down the steps of the alley, because that sounded like it came from beneath me. My body surges in a rush of power as I go into overdrive.

“McKinnon!”

Darting down the stairs, I don’t stop as I shout over my shoulder, “Keep a lookout!”

A man’s torturous screaming fuels me, and I follow the echoes into the underground vaults. My heart has never raced so fast when a woman’s screams filter in through the man’s. With my gun in my hand, I run as fast as my legs will move through the narrow passageways. In an instant, I kick through a door to find a scene so disturbing, my gun immediately finds it target.

Their screams bounce off the cement of the small vault, piercing my ears. I’m horrified as my eyes flick back and forth between the two of them while my mind tries to grasp what’s in front of me.

A man I don’t recognize is crumpled on the floor, his face utterly pale as he begins choking on his breath. His pants are down, and his lap is covered in blood, and when I look over to see Elizabeth, I turn sick. She stands there naked with only a cut up shirt and bra hanging off her arms. Her mouth is covered in blood, and when I jerk my head back to the guy, I realize that the blood on her is from that bastard’s dick.

Cries slice through her screams as her whole body shakes while she steps towards the man with her arm outstretched, holding a pistol.

“Elizabeth, no!” I shout when she rams the muzzle of the gun into his forehead and keeps it there.

She doesn’t respond to me in any way as she stares down at the man.

“Don’t pull the trigger!” I order, my words coming out fast while I have my own gun aimed at the man.

Her screams are replaced by staggering breaths hissing through her teeth, and I know that any second, she’s going to murder him.

“Elizabeth, look at me,” I urge. “Don’t kill him.”

“Why?” she seethes.

“Because you already know it’s not going to make you feel better.”

“You MOTHERFUCKER!” she screams hysterically at him like a crazed animal.

I take a couple steps closer to her, but she snaps, “Stay away from me!”

“Please,” I beg. “No more killing.”

“If not for me, then I’ll do it for you,” she says cryptically. “Consider this a gift.”

“What are you talking about?”

She cocks the hammer back before finally looking over at me, and says, “He’s the one that killed your mother.”

Looking over to him, I pull back the slide on my gun to chamber a round; the metallic click is all I hear in this moment. I can feel the beast inside, digging his claws into the most wounded parts of me. It takes control of me, and without hesitation or question, I squeeze the trigger and put a bullet in his head.

I can’t look away from him as blood sprays and chunks of his head fling across the room. His body tips over, still as death takes him instantly, dark blood draining from his mouth.

Elizabeth continues to aim her gun at him, trembling in shock with wide eyes, and I move cautiously over to her. Not taking a moment to process what I just did, my concern goes straight to the distraught girl in front of me.

When I reach out, she snaps, “Don’t touch me!” and I immediately recant.

“Let me have the gun.”

“No.”

“He’s dead,” I tell her, but she doesn’t respond as she keeps her gun pointed at him. “Look at me.”

“No.”

Her body is battered beyond belief as I scan over her. Added to her self-inflicted bruises is a nasty wound on her cheek covered in crusted blood, swollen contusions on her face, and a black eye. She’s not only covered in her own blood, but also the blood from the man who lies dead at her feet.