Thank God for leather riding boots.
We continued to wrestle until he got the better of me and the knife was at my throat.
With every jab of my elbow and every thrash I could muster, the blade pressed harder into my skin.
“If you’re going to do it, just fucking do it, you good-for-nothing piece of shit!” I bellowed, throwing a few more elbows into his ribcage.
“Fine,” he growled.
I closed my eyes, and instead of feeling my neck being flayed open, I heard a gunshot go off. Pain shot through my shoulder as Alastor’s grip released from behind me.
My eyes flew open to see Katherine standing in the middle of the room with my Springfield XD-S shaking in her hands.
Dropping to her knees, she screamed as the gun fell to the floor. “What have I done?”
I grabbed my shoulder and rushed to Jett to check for a pulse. It was faint, but still there. He was gushy blood from countless knife wounds, but he was still fucking alive.
I fought the bile in the back of my throat and threw Jett over my good shoulder.
Grabbing Katherine’s hand, I ran to my truck. “We have to get out of here.”
As I dragged her along, she whimpered, “Jett?”
“He’s going to be fine, Katherine.” I tossed him onto the back seat as blood flooded and pooled around him.
“Promise?” The agony that leapt from deep within her soul with that one word broke every piece of me.
“Katherine, I need you to focus. Can you do that for me?”
She sniffled and wiped her nose. “I don’t know.”
“You have to get my cellphone out of the glovebox and call Hawk,” I instructed in a low, even tone.
“O-Okay.” She sniveled as her hands shook uncontrollably.
“We have to get to the hospital because Jett and I are both losing a lot of blood. Do you understand? I need your help.”
She finally snapped into action. As she dialed on speakerphone, the droning tone took over the cab.
“Reese?”
“Yeah, man, I need your help.”
“What’s going on?”
“I need you to call the cops and tell them there was a break-in at my house. Don’t give them any more information than that. Just tell them I am going to Mercy Hospital and they can get my statement there. I have Jett and Katherine with me.”
“Are you guys okay?”
“She’s shaken up but fine. Jett is in rough shape but he’ll pull through. I just need some stitches, but I will be good as new soon enough.”
“On it.”
Chapter 13
Katherine
Sitting just outside the room where Reese was getting stitched up, I rocked back and forth in a plastic chair. My eyes were squeezed shut as I tried to force the sight of my wounded brother and Alastor lying dead on the floor out of my mind. It was the worst feeling in the world—to finally be free of Alastor, I’d had to risk the most important people in my life.