Page 91 of Darkest Game

“You idiot!” she screams and kicks Denis in the stomach. His gun is laying on the ground. “You would turn on me? I have all the power you will ever need. All the people. And yet, you would choose your pathetic niece over me?”

I lunge for the gun and pick it up, pushing myself to my feet. Everyone goes still.

“I will shoot,” I warn Elaine. “I will kill you. Bringing my sister here was your mistake. If you had wanted to break me down, you should have just ended me when you had the chance. But you gave me a reason to fight.”

“Then do it,” Elaine taunts. “Kill me. But I don’t think you have the guts. You’re a weak little girl. You can’t run with the big dogs. So set the gun down.”

“And what? Just accept my fate? Roll over and let you torture me? No. I have had enough, Elaine. Enough.”

I put my finger on the trigger…

But before I can shoot, another man runs into me and pushes me to the ground. The gun skids across the floor and ends up at Elaine’s feet.

She picks it up and places the gun to Ana’s head. The whimper that leaves Ana breaks my heart. I try to fight against the man holding me down but he’s too strong.

“She will die because of you. This will break her down.”

I inhale as Elaine puts her finger onto the trigger. Ana is going to die. I couldn’t save her.

Ana meets my eyes and doesn’t look away. I try to silently tell her that I love her but I’m not sure she understands.

“Say goodbye,” Elaine taunts.

“Goodbye,” another voice says. A voice I recognize. A voice I know well, despite having only first heard it over a week ago.

Liam has shown up.

He rushes into the room, followed by multiple men. His men start shooting down Elaine’s men before they can even react.

Elaine takes off running, but stops when she yanks Ana off the floor and drags her behind her. Liam hesitates to shoot at her since Ana could get hurt which gives Elaine the chance to run out a back door with Ana.

Liam shoots the man on top of me through the head. His blood splatters onto my face, coating me in red.

He kicks the man off me and helps me stand up.

“Ana,” I gasp. “We have to save my sister.”

“What about him?” Liam asks, nodding down at Denis.

“Leave him. We have to save Ana.”

“I need to call Nico,” Liam says. “He needs to know we’re here. Jimmy! Call Nico. Now.”

One of Liam’s men nods and pulls out his phone.

Liam takes my arm. “Are you hurt?”

“No. Save Ana.”

He runs out the backdoor where Elaine went. I follow more slowly behind. Liam’s men have killed a lot of Elaine’s men, though some of them manage to escape. The death and destruction is sickening.

We make it out to the back yard where Elaine is. She has a gun pressed to Ana’s head.

“Let me go,” Elaine orders. “And I won’t kill the girl.”

“Lower your gun,” Liam growls.

Elaine turns her gun onto me. “I am going to take you down with me.” And then she pulls the trigger.