Obsession (A Bad Boy's Secret Baby)(67)

I dove for the only cover in the room, the table we'd had breakfast on, dropping stomach first into the prone position. The bullets trailed me to the floor, easily punching through the flimsy metal that was the only thing between the shooter and myself. I wish I could've claimed otherwise, but it was pure luck that none of them hit me.

“Goran... Goran, are you... awe fuck!” he cried out, rounding the small table. I laid perfectly still as he darted past me, taking for granted that he'd put me down and that I was no longer a threat.

“Branch?” he asked nervously. “Jesus, what the fuck happened here?”

Branch, the second biker, emphatically tried to speak, but couldn't stop choking on his own teeth and blood to get out anything intelligible. He tried to hawk up shattered fragments of bone, but to no avail. Coughing up a small, trickling pool of red bile and saliva, he doubled over and fixed a hateful glare on me.

The latecomer finally followed Branch's eyeline to find me lying on my back, pointing the Serbian's gun directly at him. “Just relax,” I said. “Let's not do anything stup—”

Before I could finish, the final biker jerked his arm up and tried to shoot me. I flat-out had the advantage and put three rounds in his chest. His own twisting motion corkscrewed him, he hit the floor on his back. His white shirt pooled red, it looked like wet, mid spring roses were blooming across his chest.

“That is not how you relax, friend.” I sighed, sharply taking in air. “The opposite, in fact.” I let my head tap lightly against the floor for about a half a second before I remembered that Flora was still outside with Roach.

Scurrying up to my feet again, I bolted towards the back door, hoping I wasn't too late. My mind spun to dark places immediately. After all of that, finding Flora with her head blown off... What a fucking tragic event that would be.

A shuffling sound behind me stopped me cold. I turned, finding Branch, the one that was choking on his own teeth, struggling to get his gun out. He'd landed on top of it when he fell and was too disoriented to get a good grip.

I shot him in the heart without a second thought.

The morality of outright murder didn't so much as slow me down. Besides, I knew what they really came here for. They didn't deserve any better.

I ran for the door.

The wood nearly exploded from the impact of my charging shoulder, but my focus was so singularly narrowed that I barely even felt it. With my eyes locked dead ahead, I spotted them right away.

Roach had Flora kneeling down in front of him, probably because he'd seen too many mafia movies and thought that that was how an execution was done.

He spotted me, fear puckering his tight lips. “Ronin, wait!” The human reptile slunk around behind Flora, trying to use her as a shield. Being that I was the only one to walk out of that building after the gun shots, he'd pieced together what must have happened. “They forced me—”

I put a bullet through Roach's eyebrow.

I'd had to take the shot while I still had it. The more time that passed, the higher chance of Flora getting hurt. I didn't like to kill, but Roach crossed a line—several really—and nothing he could've said would have changed that outcome, so I skipped to the end.

Flora screamed once at the noise, then again when the body fell on top of her. I'd never broken the momentum from my initial run, I was next to her in seconds. Her whole body was shaking from shock and fright as I helped her out from under what was left of Roach.

I quickly looked her over to make sure she wasn't wounded. Aside from some bruising, which stood out on her moon-glow skin, and a few cuts and scrapes, she looked physically fine. It wasn't anything I couldn't patch up.

The inspection complete, Flora abruptly hugged me tighter than anyone ever had. We were both spattered in other people's blood, but it didn't matter.

In that moment, I had her...

And she was safe.

I wanted to console her, to tell her that it was all over now, that everything would be alright. But I didn't want to lie to her. The cold truth of it, was that everything would not be alright.

Under no circumstances would the Knights be willing to let either of us live after what went down today. I'd lost my leverage, and Flora had lost the path to her sister. Not to mention that we were still in hostile territory, and news about my club cutting me loose was just about to break.

Soon, every shit-heel and scumbag would know that I'd lost my protection. I was fair game.

So was anyone stupid enough to be caught with me.

I need to get the fuck out of Dodge, and Flora...

I rested my head on top of hers, breathed her in for what I was sure was the last time. She needed to get as far away from me as possible.

No, everything was most certainly not fine.

We were fucked.