Daddies Brat

My father sent these men to do his dirty work. But why? After all these years why does he now care about the daughter he never wanted?

I scramble out of Grey’s arms. Rough pavement cushions my fall and bits of loose pebbles and broken glass scrape down my bare knees and palms. “Arg!” I cry out, blood oozing from the ragged cuts. I duck for cover as the first rounds embed into the brick wall behind us.

“Damn it, woman!” Grey grabs for me but I’m faster and do my best attempt as a reverse crab walk to the nearest thing I can find, which is a rusted dumpster. I hope like hell it can hold together long enough for me to find a way out of… I scan my surroundings. A back alley? God help me.

“How many men?” That is Drake. He closes the little distance between us. An empty clip clatters to the pavement and he smoothly clicks another one in place with an ease that makes me kind of happy since he’s between me and whoever doesn’t want me shot. Despite that being a good thing, it also means they want me alive.

Not so good given I have a low tolerance to pain and torture.

“Fucking Kane,” Grey roars, fire in his eyes.

“Next time I get my hands on that fucking weasel I’ll kill him just for breathing.” Drake is all but snarling his threat and all the while he keeps his body between me and the others.

I really need to reevaluate my life choices someday. If I survive whatever this is.

I push to my feet, my grand plan to make a mad dash for the club’s back door, but Drake and Grey lock me into place with no way around them.

“Are you crazy? I told you to stay behind us. Do you want to be easy target practice?”Content provided by NôvelDrama.Org.

I pound fists against their backs. “Me? Crazy? I’m not the one having a shootout in a back alley for Christ’s sake!”

Grey draws a second weapon from beneath his jacket, his attention half on me and the other half on the other guys.

Shots ping off metal and it’s all I can do to push my heart out of my throat to breathe so I don’t pass out.

I try for the door again but another heavy hand is there to keep me pinned low. “Behind us, and stay there!”

A rain of bullets zings our way and my kidnappers fall over me, using their bodies as shields.

They must see the fear in my eyes because both men reach out to stroke a finger down my cheeks.

Hugging the pavement, I try to find my breath but it’s locked tight inside my lungs.

“Breathe, Katriona.”

“You’re ours now. No one will harm you, that I promise. Stay behind us. Got it?”

I deftly nod, not really understanding anything. They attempt to usher me closer to the door but we’re pinned down with no other cover than the rusty dumpster. I’m trying hard not to take this as a life metaphor and start crying in the middle of all this. Real hard.

“I swear I knew from the start that slimy fucker would back out on our arrangement.” Drake’s expression darkens with rage.

“Just give her over and we’ll gladly leave.”

“A debt is a debt. We chose how we wanted payment. Now walk away. Tell your boss we’ve collected our end of the deal. We paid his debt. It’s paid in full. All you have to do is walk away,” Grey hurls back, punctuating his words with as many bullets.

“He says he changes his mind. You can’t have the girl. Period.”

Payment? Girl? As in me? Are they wanting me as a payoff for some deal they have with my father? Fuck that!

Drake, Grey, and Sylan close around me to form a tighter human shield. One of them grips me around the waist and I’m back on my feet, against a wall having a gun thrust into my hands.

Sylan.

“You know how to use one of these?”

Eyes wide, my mouth works a couple of times before I get it to spit sounds. “Hell no! Do I look like I know how to use a gun for God’s sake? How to be a mobster is not passed down in DNA!”

Grey winks at me and takes a couple more steps back. This close I can’t breathe without either my nipples touching his back or the bricks behind me digging into mine.

How can these men not be petrified of dying?

A ping of metal hitting metal sends me ducking into their backs, gripping their suit jackets. “This is not my idea of a good time!” I scream to nobody in particular.

“Nor is getting fitted for a toe tag. Stay down!”

“Secure her. Don’t let her move.”

Sylan again.

I already told them I refuse to let anyone control me. And I meant it. They can figure out their shit without me.

Bullets stop flying long enough for me to move and I don’t waste a precious second. I slip around them and duck through the open door Grey just hauled me out of, throwing one last glance over my shoulder.

Big mistake.

Grey.

Everything slows to a crawl and the next few seconds will forever haunt my nightmares. Grey is hot on my ass, his massive arms spread wide between both sides of the frame.

“Get down,” he growls just as another hail of rounds pelts the side of the building.

And him.

“No,” I scream but it’s too late.

The force of a bullet hitting home propels him forward and he falls to his knees.

Blood oozes from his chest and I realize he’s taken a bullet for me. Hot tears pool at the corners of my eyes before rolling down my cheeks.

I tear across the hallway, my safety forgotten. I fall to my knees and take his massive weight against me. “Grey! Grey!” I scream but it sounds like I’m screaming into a vacuum.

Blood smears across my chest. Red. Hot. So damn much of it. Oh God, he’s going to bleed out in my arms. Not for the first time tonight I’m torn between saving myself and caring about the men I should fear.

“Run, Katriona.” His tight voice takes on a growling tone. His warm breath brushes across my ear. He’s struggling to stay up; more of his weight leans on me, and my body trembles from the exertion.

I cast a look around. Help. Who can help?

Drake is across the alley, bleeding across the face but his fists move so fast I don’t think he realizes he’s wounded, too. Sylan. Where is he?

“I… I… Grey?” My words are a little hard to get out. Emotions I don’t understand clog my throat until I force them free. “I can’t leave you, damn it, Grey. Don’t you fucking die! Sylan!” I scream, finally spotting him, but he’s busy burying his fist into the face of Muscles.

I cup Grey’s face. His cheeks are growing colder. He doesn’t have much time.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper.

“Kiss me. One more time, Katriona, and then you have to leave.”

I take his face in my palms again and lower my lips to his, knowing it will be the last I ever see of any of them.

“We will find you,” he grits out. “Go!”

Grey puts a bloody hand on my shoulder, pushing me away. “Go. Run. NOW!” he roars and I stumble back, letting him fall forward, my heart crashing to the floor with him.

The dark flare of rage and fear in his eyes chase me long into the night.