My heart froze in place as I watched Scott lift Sloane’s pistol to my chest.
“Scott, wait!”I pleaded, knowing that running at this point would be completely futile.This fucking guy was literally going to kill me.And he still believed I was pregnant!
Dammit!
“I’m sorry, Jaden,” he said, and then slid the hammer back with his thumb.
But before he could pull the trigger, a large figure slammed into his back, the gun discharging the bullet into the wall beside me as he doubled over.My eyes widened as I watched Sloane completely body slam Scott right into a fucking glass display case, knocking the gun from his hand to fling over the damn banister and down to the first floor.
Ugh!I could have used that!
With blood now covering Scott’s face and broken glass all over the floor, Scott kicked off from the display case, pushing Sloane back as she held him in a tight hold that shifted into some kind of chokehold.
“What the fuck are you doing?”Scott barked as he tried to wrestle his way out of Sloane’s hold.But she used his momentum against him and managed to pin him against the wall.
“You will not touch her,” she growled into his face.
“She’s a fucking traitor!”he argued back, lifting his knee to slam into her gut.“And now, so are you!”She took the hit but hauled him away from the wall, her fist connecting with his jaw before landing a kick into his ribs.
“Not your call,” she replied coldly as she continued her brutal assault.
Dodging her latest strike, Scott maneuvered to the left and tackled her to the ground.
“The fuck it isn’t my call!”he shouted as he landed on top of her.“Your job might be to protect her, but mine is to protect him!And that supersedes you!”
Sloane’s powerful legs reached up to wrap around Scott’s torso and shoulders and pulled him all the way back so that she could sit up and roll on top of him.“We’ll see if he actually agrees with that.”
The two of them rolled back and forth on the floor, fists and legs flying in all directions until they both finally stood up, Sloane blocking me with her body.
“Who’s fucking side are you on, Sloane?”Scott raged, his chest heaving just as much as hers.
“The side I also vowed to protect,” she bit back.
“I can’t believe I actually fucking vouched for you,” he growled, shaking his head.
A tiny smirk formed in the corner of Sloane’s mouth.“It’s a good thing you did.A lesser candidate might have just let you kill her.”
Practically snarling, the two went at it like wild animals at the very top of the food chain.I watched, completely entranced, as the two of them wrestled back and forth on the floor, exchanging blow after vicious blow.
Despite Sloane’s female biology, her large size was nearly comparable to Scott’s.While his frame maintained greater muscle density, Sloane’s lean form hardly lacked any comparable capacity.She kept up with Scott easily, taking strike after strike while delivering just as much punishment in return.
I found myself frozen on the spot, stunned and oddly mesmerized, watching what could only feel like two lions fighting for territory rights.Sloane was incredible to see in action.I couldn’t take my eyes off her.No wonder she had cleared all the competition before her.She was a remarkable fighter.
The sound of heavy gunfire in various directions of the house instantly broke the spectator's spell, compelling my body back into action.Scott had managed to slam Sloane into the wall, his body pinning hers against it while his hands wrapped around her neck.
I raced for the long table runner that had fallen under the now broken credenza and rushed toward Scott’s exposed back.Wrapping the runner around both my hands, I quickly draped it in front of his neck and yanked back hard, twisting my body to tighten the thin fabric around his throat.All the while, shouting of epic proportions matched the rapid gunfire as all the guards mobilized to fight back against the attack that was clearly now on our doorstep.
Even as the gunfire made its way into the house, I held tight to the runner, using my weight to crush Scott’s fragile airways.With his body bent backward, he instinctively reached for his neck, struggling to grab at my hands clenching the fabric behind him.Explosions rattled the windows of the house, making me clench tighter before Scott managed to grab one of my wrists.
Except he didn’t get much of a chance to fight me when Sloane abruptly held up the gun she must have stolen from his holster.She pulled the trigger without hesitation, Scott’s head jerking back as the bullet burst through his skull, blood and brain matter splashing across my face.I instantly dropped the ends of the table runner to move out of the way as his body fell backward and over the banister, falling straight to the lobby floor and landing with a crunching thud.
My hands clutched at the banister as I looked down to see Scott’s body lying limp on the tile floor, blood pooling from his head as his open eyes gazed into the distance.Even as the house continued to erupt around me, I found my jaw was still hanging loose when Sloane joined me at the banister to look down at her kill.
“Holy shit,” I muttered to myself.“That really just happened.”
Scott was dead.Darren’s right-hand man was fucking dead.And I had helped.
The reality of what was happening suddenly had my breath coming up incredibly short.The end really was here.