*Audry*At first, the car ride there was surprisingly uneventful. One of the large bodyguards took my phone away. Aaron sat in the backseat with me. He sat annoyingly close, something that pissed me off. But I couldn’t voice my opinions because there were three other bodyguards in the car with us all who had their hands on their guns. Even the man who was driving had his gun in the drink holder.I contemplated whether I should try and reach out to snatch it, then I could shoot Aaron. But I wouldn’t even get the chance, because his bodyguards would shoot me before I could even get a good grip on the weapon. Aaron knew he had me trapped. I glanced over at him and he had a smirk on his face. His plan had worked. He was going to use me as bait. Could he somehow know about the ‘relationship’ I had with Daniel? Did he think Daniel would come to rescue me once he heard about my kidnapping? Did Aaron think the Moltons’ son cared about me that much?Because of the way thing
“What would you like to talk about?” I asked Aaron. He took his time answering me. Aaron got up from his desk, walked around it, leaned his legs back on the wood, and crossed his arms. I wanted to roll my eyes. I wished he would just get to the point. But where was the fun in that? The longer he drew this out, the more enjoyment he received from watching me squirm.Was he planning on torturing me in his professionally looking office? He definitely was twisted enough. “Well, I just want to make sure you have all the facts to the story before you decide whose side you are on,” Aaron said calmly. “What story?” I asked suspiciously. I couldn’t control my emotions anymore. I let my guard down and I bet he could see every thought on my face now. But it seemed like he was done playing games. Aaron was ready to tell me the real reason he kidnapped and brought me to his home. “The real story of the night your father died,” Aaron replied, picking up a manilla f
*Daniel*The plan was in place. A group of us were going to collect Audry. Which included my father, Jace, Uncle Gabriel, Franky, Lyle, Mina, Sara Walker, and some of her team. We were all gathered in the meeting room for a debriefing of the plan. Chief Walker was on speaker phone; she and the team she was able to gather on such short notice were meeting us at the Taddeos’ home base. It had been my idea to offer a new peace treaty. That was the bullshit deal I was offering Aaron. But I wanted to end this tonight. I was going to end this long war with the Taddeos once and for all. I was pretty certain Aaron could see right through my offer. Just because he was an awful person, it didn’t mean he was dumb. Tonight was going to end in a shootout. I thought we were all aware of that. Uncle Gabriel and Jace were tasked with the job to get all of our weapons from the vault in the basement. They were handing them out now. Franky was explaining to Lyle how to hold and shoot a g
*Audry*I held on tight to the gun as Aaron led me through the large house. It was completely different than twenty minutes ago. I watched as the Taddeos ran around the house to prepare for the trade-off with their biggest enemies. I watched in horror as everyone collected guns from hidden places around the house.I clutched my weapon and stared at the huge firearms the members were arming themselves with. I noticed that most of Taddeos’ members were burly men with serious expressions on their faces. The Moltons were sure to be outnumbered. I was fearful for Franky, Lyle, Mina, and all the other friends who made up the Molton Family.I wondered if Sara Walker was going to be present at the trade-off. Would she be bringing her team? “I thought you wanted peace?” I asked Aaron, and looked pointedly at his team preparing for battle. He was leading me to a sitting room with his hands behind his back. “Just because I want peace, doesn’t mean I’m a fool,” Aar
Chaos ensued and for a moment, I didn’t know which way was up. On pure instinct, I crouched down and covered my head as bullets flew through the air. I army crawled to the Moltons’ side because that was my best chance at survival.I heard gasps of pain and thuds as people fell. I just hoped that it wasn’t any of my friends. My jeans tore on a rock and I felt warm blood seeping through the hole in my pants, but I kept going. I couldn’t afford to stop.Now I was public enemy number one. I had just tried to kill Taddeos’ gang leader.How had I not noticed that the gun wasn’t loaded? I wasn’t in my right mind, to be fair. I had been so focused on wanting to kill my father’s murderer that I hadn’t inspected the weapon I was given to do it. I should have finished the cadets. I dropped out before target practice. I kept crawling over to the Moltons’ side and made my way slowly but surely. My heart felt like it was pounding in my ears. It felt like someone was controlling
I didn’t even lift my gun to defend myself against Aaron. I didn’t have enough time and all the fight seemed to have seeped out of me now that Daniel was lying motionless at my feet. In the back of my mind, I realized that I could hear again. But what did anything matter if Daniel was dead? I knew I should be angry and screaming with rage right now. But I felt paralyzed by my numbness. My brain refused to accept what I knew to be true. I wouldn’t even allow myself to look down. I couldn’t.So much had happened tonight that I couldn’t process Daniel was dead and I was about to be shot. Was this really how our story was going to end? After everything we had been through this past month, this was how it all ended? I just hoped that someone took out Aaron after he shot me.I closed my eyes, accepting my fate. Then something amazing happened. I heard someone grunt on the ground. It sounded like Daniel, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Could it be my imagina
After I shot Aaron, I immediately turned to Dominic.“I’m so sorry. I-I…” But I didn’t have an excuse other than the fact that I thought it was the right thing to do. The right thing for me anyway. Even though we had technically agreed that I could be the one to kill Aaron at our last meeting, it felt like the situation had changed. I didn’t regret shooting him, not even for a second, but now I was scared of how everyone was going to react. Mr. Molton was the leader and it was his decision. I was hoping he wasn’t mad at me. Also, the Chief of Police was here. Sara could easily arrest me for what I just did. It could be technically counted as murder because Aaron hadn’t been pointing a gun at me when I shot him. There were many witnesses to my crime. All these scenarios were going through my mind in rapid succession and I was beginning to feel dizzy.“I understand why you shot him, Audry,” Mr. Molton told me. He patted my shoulder in a fatherly sort of way. Dominic
Daniel was standing in the middle of the room holding a bouquet of orange tulips and plastic black flowers. I loved the color palette he had chosen because I automatically knew what he was going for—Halloween colors. “What did I do to deserve these?” I asked as I walked over to where he was standing and took the flowers from him. My cheeks began to warm as I held the bouquet, chewing on my bottom lip.Daniel shrugged. “I owe you a lot more than flowers,” he said with a grin. “This is only the start of the surprises though. I’m taking you out of town. I think we could both use a little getaway.” My heart began beating with excitement as I gripped the flowers.“Pack a bag. We are going somewhere for two nights.” I opened my mouth to ask more questions, but he held up his hands. “That’s all I’m going to say right now.”I tried to get it out of him while I packed, but he wouldn’t say a word. I was so excited to leave this city behind us for a little while. We had