“I always knew there was more fight in you than Lawrence believed. You wouldn’t have survived all those years if there wasn’t.” He chuckles malevolently, like we’re sharing some sort of joke. “You had him fooled though. He thought he had you broken and reliant on him, ready to do just about anything he asked of you.” He tilts his head to the side ever so slightly. “But that wasn’t the case, was it? You’ve been deceiving him—all of us—all these years, planning your little escape.” He shakes his head and sighs, as though he’s disappointed. “But, D, you should have known, you could never have a normal life.” His mocking laugh echoes in my head, along with his next words. “Who would want to be with someone who can’t bear children, after all? Face it, you can never escape your fate.”
Instead of shrinking back from his words, which terrify me more than he could ever know, I match his smirk with one of my own, loving how a little line forms between his eyes as he tries to make sense of my reaction. “Maybe not, but neither can you.”
The gun goes off as I dive to the left, sliding along the gritty concrete floor, ignoring the pain that flares along my side as I reach for my gun. Quickly flipping onto my back, I point the barrel at Bowen as he spins, glowering at Hawk in outrage, adrenaline masking the pain he must be feeling from the bullet wound to his shoulder.
“For Meena, and for me,” I whisper as I fire off a shot, straight into the side of his head, before he can raise the gun at my brother. Enough fucking people have shoved a gun in his face today. I won’t let one more piece-of-shit scumbag get the chance.
His eyes widen comically before he crumples to the ground in a heap. I stare at him, as if expecting him to come back to life and attack us again, as I try to wrap my mind around the fact the man who killed my best friend, who tortured me relentlessly over the years, is dead. It almost feels too easy. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop…but it never comes.
Instead, I feel the warmth of Hawk’s presence at my back as he pulls me into his arms.
“Are you okay? Hadley! You’re bleeding.”
I have to blink several times, but as the adrenaline wears off, the sting of torn flesh along my arm cements me in my reality—one where Bowen truly is dead.
Looking down at my arm, the long Henley I was wearing has been ripped open, and the underlying skin scraped off from where I slid across the ground, leaving it red and raw looking, with bits of blood forming where the grit has broken the skin.
“I’m fine,” I assure him, not that he listens, lifting my arm to inspect it himself. Seeming satisfied, he lets me go, helping me to my feet. My side aches a little, but it’s nothing I can’t live with.
“Where did you get the gun from?” I ask, brushing the dust off myself.
“When you didn’t come right back, I got a weird feeling. Something was just telling me I needed to get in here, so I grabbed it from Cam and came to find you…although it looked like you had everything handled.” One corner of his lip lifts up, and I can see the proud gleam in his eyes.
I scoff. “I don’t know about that. He definitely got the better of me for a second there. I-I kept remembering what it felt like to be back in that compound, chained to his wall.”
Hawk’s eyes darken over, and he places a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll never be back there again. And look at how far you’ve come. You were able to work through the trauma, and fight back. I’m so proud of you, Hadley.”
Tears prick my eyes. “I couldn’t have done it if you hadn't come looking for me.”
He smiles placatingly. “I’m pretty sure you’d have found a way. Now let’s get out of here. The cab should be here, and Cam will be wondering where we are.”
I glance around at the dead bodies strewn over the ground, noticing Hawk’s gaze linger on the unmoving form of his mother, and a look I can’t place passes over him.
I nudge my shoulder against his. “I’m sorry about your mom. I know you wanted to believe the best in her.”
He lets out a long, exhausted sounding sigh. “Yeah, I did.” He shakes his head, as though he’s annoyed at himself. “But she was never the mother I wanted.” When he looks at me, lines mar his forehead. “Did you hear what she said?”
“About how she got rid of me and that I’m supposed to be dead?” I snort. “Yeah…I just don’t understand how she was involved.”
He shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“Lawrence told me Maria and him were meant to get married, until Barton came along. Do you think they were working together?”
Hawk wraps an arm around my shoulders, pulling me in against him. “It sounded that way, but whatever their plan was, it doesn’t matter now. They’re both gone, and we’re still here.”
“Did you hear gunshots?” Cam shouts, rushing into the warehouse. He freezes when he spots Bowen lying on the floor, and his expression darkens. “What the fuck was he doing here?” he snarls.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, repeating Hawk’s words. “Let’s just get the fuck out of here.”
Cam continues to stare at Bowen’s body until Hawk’s phone goes off, drawing each of our attentions.
Pulling it out of his pocket, he puts it on speaker before he answers, “Yeah?”
“They’ve just taken your dad into surgery,” Beck says, his voice sounding grim. “They weren’t able to tell me anything more.”
“Thanks, man. We’ll be there soon.”
“Don’t worry about the warehouse. I’ve spoken to Cain, he knows someone. He’ll get it sorted.”
Before any more assholes can crawl out of the woodwork and attack us, we leave the warehouse behind and head to the hospital. With every passing mile, I pray to god Barton makes it through his surgery. I have lost so much, I can’t lose him too.
Chapter 25
Hours go by as the six of us wait anxiously in the waiting room for news on Barton’s progress. All we know is he’s still alive, but that’s not much comfort considering he’s been in surgery for the last four hours and could still die at any moment.
The only positive is that West has no lasting damage; just some bruising that will heal in a few days.
Beck’s phone buzzes, and he looks at the screen before showing it to me. There’s a picture of a building being ravaged by flames, and it takes me a second to realize it’s the warehouse from earlier.
I guess Cain’s man came through. At least that’s one less thing to worry about. I smile at Beck. “Thanks for taking care of that.”
He wraps his arm around my shoulder and kisses my temple. “You know it.”
We lapse into silence, Hawk’s foot tapping incessantly against the linoleum tiles slowly driving me insane. He’s had a scowl on his face since he sat down, but he’s gotten increasingly more worked up the longer we’ve been sitting here, and I can’t tell if he’s just worried about Barton or if something else is bothering him.
Eventually, he lets out a long, frustrated sigh, and runs his hand through his hair. “What did Bowen mean when he said you can’t have children?”
My throat is dry as I stare wide-eyed at him. Shit. I didn’t know he heard that.
He stares at me with a look I can’t quite place—a half-plead, half blood-thirsty rage. I’m incapable of forming any sort of response as I swallow around the lump in my throat.