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CHAPTER THIRTY

ROYCE

The sight of Jace’s head being slammed into the black siding on the front porch is a sight I don’t think I’m ever going to live to forget.

He groans as I grab him by the throat, shoving him harder into the wall, and I bring the gun to his head. When he swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobs against my hand.

I can almost smell the fear rolling off him in waves.

The silencer breaks the sound of the gunshot as the bullet pierces through his head, killing him instantly. It might not be as satisfying a death as I was looking for, but I have to get to Gia and Bianca.

More men pour out of the front door and Aiden stands to the side, shooting one after another until four bodies are crumpled on the porch with Jace.

Aiden wipes some of the blood splatter from his face as he steps over the bodies and into the house. “You have to wonder how a man like Noah is considered dangerous when his people are barely trained.”

I keep my gun raised, peeking around the corner to see the people tied together in the corner with two more of Noah’s men standing in front of them. Skyla makes eye contact with me before looking toward the stairs.

Aiden steps beside me. “I’ll take them, you go get Gia.”

Nodding, I wait until Aiden rushes out and shoots the first man before I rush up the stairs.

Noah is standing in the hallway when I get to the top of the stairs, his arms crossed over his chest. “I was wondering when you were going to make an appearance.”

I lunge for him, swinging the gun into the side of his head hard. He stumbles into the wall as he laughs, shaking his head and looking at me like this is all just one big game for him.

“I should’ve killed you after what you did to Ellie.”

He reaches for the gun, knocking it from my hand. “You should’ve killed me then, but don’t worry. I’ve been taking good care of your family.”

Red floods across my vision as I get my hands around his neck.

A muffled scream comes from inside one of the rooms as Noah twists and shoves me back into the other wall, the plaster cracking and white dust falling around my shoulders at the impact.

Without hesitation, I shift and throw Noah down the stairs, his head cracking hard against two steps before he lands at the bottom with a groan. His leg is jerked to the side at an unnatural angle.

I grab my gun from the ground, aiming at him and taking a shot.

“He’s dead!” A man appears at the foot of the stairs beside Noah’s body, his fingers pressed against the side of Noah’s neck.

They come away red with blood as he lurches up the stairs with another man trailing behind him.

As they get closer, I kick the first man hard in the chest, sending him sailing down the stairs. He collides with the other one and they both land in a heap before struggling to get to their feet.

The second man climbs the stairs two at a time, grabbing my ankle when I go to kick him and sending me onto my back.

He’s on me in an instant, his fist connecting with my jaw.

I rear up and slam my head into his before whipping my gun against his temple. The man groans and falls to the side as the other appears in front of me.

Though I try to get to my feet, the men are on me again. Fists find flesh, pain shooting through my body until one of them is shoved to the side. The other hits the ground, Sean and Aiden on top of them.

“Go!” Skyla shouts, holding her hand to her side where blood is seeping through her fingers.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“I was shot again.” She jerks her head down the hall to the first bedroom. “Gia’s up here.”

“The three of you need to get out of here.” I wince as Aiden delivers a particularly nasty punch to the one man.

“I’m not leaving,” Ellie says as she rushes to the stairs. “Skyla is going to bleed out if I don’t help her and there was a gunshot up here. Gia might be hurt.”

Without a second thought, I shoot both of my attackers in their chests, leaving them to bleed out.

My stomach plummets to my feet as I look between them. “Noah is dead. Call the cleaning team.”

Aiden shakes his head and nods to Sean. “We’re going to clear the rest of the property.”

Ellie loops her arm around Skyla’s waist, tugging her back toward the stairs. “We need to go down to the kitchen. The first aid kit is there, and I need to sew you up.”

Skyla waves her off. “I’m fine. We need to get Gia and make sure that she’s okay. I told her that I would protect Bianca, and I couldn’t do that.”

For the first time in years, tears shine in her eyes as she looks at me. I can’t remember when I last saw Skyla anything other than angry or nonchalant about everything going on around her.

I clear my throat. “Ellie, take Skyla to the car and patch her up there. She needs to be taken care of. Get Sean and Aiden and get out of here.”

Skyla stands tall, moaning as something pulls on her wound, the blood between her fingers getting thicker. “Look, just make sure she’s okay.”

“I will. Get out of here.” I glance toward one of the rooms as another muffled noise comes from inside. My heart seizes.

Gia.

Spinning, I head into the first bedroom, holding my breath. I don’t know what I’m going to find in there. Gia could be dead. Bianca could already be gone.

It would be all my fault.

I should’ve been here with them. I never should’ve gone back to New York with Aiden.

If I had stayed in Vermont with my family, Noah wouldn’t have beat us here. He wouldn’t have hurt Gia, and I wouldn’t be wondering if the woman I love is dead on the floor.

As I step into the room, I let out the breath. Gia is on the floor and though she looks like she’s taken a trip through a woodchipper, she’s alive.

She struggles against the silk pillowcase stuffed in her mouth, straining at the matching sheets wrapped tight around her body like a rope.

Her eyes widen when she sees me—or at least I think they do. It’s hard to tell with the swelling in her face and the deep purple bruises that cover it.

She trembles as I get closer to her, fighting to move back against a wall.

“It’s me, baby.” I keep my tone soft as I tuck my gun back into my waistband. “It’s just me, baby. Nobody else is here. Nobody else is going to hurt you. I love you. Nobody is going to hurt you.”

Gia rocks back and forth a little as I pull the gag from her mouth. “Royce.”

My name falls from her lips in a broken voice, tears leaking over her puffy cheeks and rolling down to her chin. Her tongue darts out to wet her cracked bottom lip and she hisses when it skates over a cut.

I crouch in front of her, loosening the knot keeping the sheet tied tight around her body. The fabric falls away as she pulls her knees to her chest, shrinking in on herself as much as she can.

Whether it’s because she’s terrified or trying to hold herself together, I don’t know. All I do know is that when we get out of here, I’m going to do everything I can to help her and figure out what a normal life looks like for us.

It sure as hell isn’t this.

“Where’s Bia?” I ask, glancing around the room, looking for another person wrapped in a sheet.

My heart breaks when I don’t see one.

Was I too late?

Did Noah get Bianca off the property before I even got here?

Gia clears her throat and nods to a bookshelf covered in blood with several broken shelves. The shattered pieces of a blue lamp lay on the floor in front of it, more blood mixed with them.

“She’s in the panic room.”

Relief floods my chest as I tug on the book that opens the keypad. I punch in the code and the door slides out of the way to reveal Bianca sleeping soundly in her crib, her hair a mess and one leg out of her onesie.

“Bia bean.” I grin as she yawns and rolls, opening her eyes and looking up at me.

She giggles and gets to her feet, bouncing on her mattress while holding on to the railing of her crib. “Dada!”

Gia stays to the side as I leave the room with Bianca in my arms. “I don’t want her to see me like this. It’s going to scare her.”

My eyebrows climb as I look over at her. “I don’t think it will. You’re still her mom and you fought to protect her.”

Gia bites her bottom lip, more tears rolling down her cheeks and mixing with the blood. “Not hard enough. He told me that I had to kill you; otherwise, he was going to take her from me.”

“Noah?”

She nods, her breathing coming in short pants. “Yes.”

“That’s not going to happen, Gia. He’s dead now. I killed him and he’s never going to be able to hurt you again. He won’t take Bianca.”

I grab the diaper bag in the corner, stuffing it with essentials while keeping Bianca balanced on one hip. When I try to pass her to Gia, she takes a step back and shakes her head, her arms wrapping around her body.

Silent sobs shake her as I sling the diaper bag over my shoulder before reaching for her. “I don’t think we’re safe, Royce.”

“We’re safe.” I kiss her temple. “We just need to get to the car, and then we’re going to get the hell out of here and have you looked over by a doctor.”

“Hell!” Bianca says the word like it’s her new favorite.

I wince as Gia shoots me a dirty look. “Oops?”

“After everything that’s happened today, all you have to say is oops?”

“Hell! Hell. Hell!” Bianca claps her hands in time with the words, getting a laugh out of Gia as she shakes her head and walks with me down the stairs.

“I can’t believe you taught our sweet little baby to swear.”

“At least her first word wasn’t fu?—”

Gia clamps her hand over my mouth as we hit the bottom step. “Don’t you dare say it. If we have to explain to your family why their niece if cussing like a sailor, then you and I are going to have a problem.”

I open the car door and put Bianca into her car seat. “Fine. I won’t teach her yet. We can change her diaper once we get away from here. I don’t want to be here when the cleaning crew comes.”

My phone buzzes and when I pull it out, there’s a picture of Noah’s dead body slumped against some shelving in one of the closets.

AIDEN: DIDN’T THINK GIA SHOULD HAVE TO SEE THIS. IN FRONT HALL CLOSET. CLEANERS KNOW.

AIDEN: CONGRATULATIONS ON FINALLY PUTTING THE BASTARD DOWN.

Gia settles into the passenger seat, reclining and closing her eyes. “My entire body hurts.”

“I know, baby, but we’re going to be at the safe house before you know it and everything is going to be?—”

“If you say some variation of fine or okay, I’m throwing myself out of this car. Everything is not fine. Nothing is okay.”

“We’re going to be safe.”

“You don’t know that,” she says as I start the car. “You have no way of knowing that a bigger chain of events hasn’t been started from this.”

* * *

Gia yawns later that night as she settles into bed beside me, her fingers brushing against one of several bandages on her face to protect the stitches. “Thank you for coming for us.”

I loop my arm over her shoulder, easing her into my side, needing to feel her close to me, knowing that nobody is ever going to be able to get close to her again. She’s going to stay safe with me.

My lips press against her temple before I brush them over her lips, trying not to hurt her more than she already is. “I’m never going to leave you again. I hope you know that by now.”

She presses her head to my chest. “I just want this to all be done.”

“It is done.” I comb my fingers through her damp hair.

“Are there any other enemies I should know about?”

Chuckling, I kiss her again. “If you think that anyone is going to take you or Bianca away from me again, you should know that they’ll have to rip you from my cold, dead arms.”

“Romantic.” She rolls her eyes but the corner of her mouth twitches.

“Anything for you.”