Nolan cocked the gun, and the desperation in his eyes told me he was serious.
“Birdie, stop it.” I took her hand in mine and tugged her forward. “Just do what he says.”
She squeezed my hand, trying to convey some unspoken message as we walked back along the edge of the house. I didn’t know what Nolan wanted, but when we reached a freshly broken window in the guest bedroom, it became apparent. He waved the gun toward the frame, which was now fully engulfed in flames. “Get inside.”
“Are you fucking crazy?” Birdie snarled. “You’d have to shoot me before I climbed in there.”
Without warning, Nolan struck out and cracked the gun across Birdie’s face. I screamed in horror as she crumpled to the ground, scrambling to help her, but Nolan wasn’t having it.
“Get up,” he ordered. “And climb into the window.”
“Why are you doing this?” I yelled. “What the hell is wrong with you? Lucian trusted you!”
“I don’t have a choice.” The end of his gun met the skin on my forehead, cold and unforgiving. “Get back into the house.”
It occurred to me then that he didn’t want to shoot me because he wanted to make it look as though we’d died in the fire. That might have bought me some time, if I didn’t also know that he wasn’t past smashing our skulls in and tossing us in the window himself.
“Nolan, look, whatever’s going on, we can work it out,” I tried to bargain.
“No, we can’t,” he gritted out. “You were never supposed to be a part of this. If you hadn’t come along, everything would have been fine. He would have died like he wanted, and everything would have been fine. But you fucking ruined it.”
Birdie stirred on the ground, groaning, and I tried to kneel to help her, but Nolan wouldn’t allow it. “This is your last chance before I put a bullet in her head. I know you don’t want to see that.”
He wasn’t joking. Something was frantic and wild in his eyes, spurring him to do this. The man I’d only ever known to be calm natured was now lost in a sea of despair. “I’m going to count to three, and if you and your sister aren’t climbing into that window—”
A blur moved in behind him, tackling him to the ground and forcing the breath from his chest.
“Lucian!” My voice was too hoarse to yell anymore, but I had never been so happy to see anyone in my life.
He’d pinned Nolan to the ground, shoving his face into the dirt with one hand while he struggled for the gun with the other.
“My wife?” he roared. “My unborn son?”
“I had no choice,” Nolan grunted.
A shot rang out, and I screamed as both men froze. I didn’t know who fired it. I didn’t know who had been hit.
“Lucian?”
He didn’t respond, but it was Nolan who began to cough. “I was going to lose everything.”
“And now, you have.” Lucian raised the gun and held it against Nolan’s jaw. “Just tell me why.”
“The money,” Nolan sputtered. “I needed the money.” Tears streamed down his face as he shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Lucian. I’m sorry I let you down. Please find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Nolan wrapped his bloody hands around Lucian’s. I thought he was going to fight, but instead, in a move that surprised us all, he forced the trigger. Blood exploded across Lucian’s face, and when my eyes moved to the place where Nolan’s face had been, nothing was left but a gaping hole.
Sirens sounded in the distance, and I couldn’t catch my breath. Lucian scrambled away from Nolan and moved toward me slowly, haloed by the light of the fire, the avenging angel I had once declared him to be. Blood and soot smeared his clothes, and his hand was clearly burned, but he was alive. He wrapped his arms around me and whispered the three sweetest words I’d ever heard.
“I’m here, baby.”
“I’M JUST GOING TO RUNto the store.”
Lucian inserted himself between me and the door of the condo we’d rented while the house in Desert Shores was being rebuilt.
“Just tell me what you need, and I’ll have one of Ace’s men get it.”
My fingers brushed over his face, trying to erase the worried lines that formed whenever he felt like I was slipping out his grasp for even a few moments. It had been this way for weeks, and I’d played along for a while, but it was time to address it.