Page 68 of King of Malice

My mouth opens to shout my objection as she fires. I hear the shot, feel it move the air. One second and then two passes before my father stumbles back.

And then the world explodes.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Ava

Everything happens at once.

I’m under Dimitri before I can even scream, the bullet having passed so close to me, I think it singed my hair.

“My sisters,” Dimitri yells, and the men around us burst into action. But he doesn’t move. His arms wrap around me, enveloping me in a cocoon. “Don’t you ever do that again.”

He sounds angry. He’s never spoken to me with a tone like that before, but I know it’s just the fear talking. So, I wrap my arms around his neck. “I love you too.”

He chokes squeezing me tight.

“Dimitri,” I whisper. “Go get your sisters. Cadence will keep me safe.”

He lifts his head, looking down at me with dark and stormy eyes. “I keep you safe. Always.”

“Go,” I say back. “Once you have them, we’ll all be safe.”

He lifts off me, Cadence standing just to our right with the gun in her hand. Zane rips it from her fingers. “I’ll keep them both safe.”

Dimitri nods and then he’s out the door. The moment he’s gone, Zane spits at Cadence. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

I open my mouth to answer, assuming he’s talking about my move to hand myself over, but it’s Cadence who puffs out her chest, her chin lifting. “I’ll keep them both safe?” She spits back. “I want to be clear about something. I can let go of unnecessary violence, but I’m not turning into some helpless female.” She steps up, to Zane, tilting her chin to glare in his eyes. She’s tall but he’s way taller, his tattooed biceps rippling as he clenches a fist. “I already told you. Saving my best friend doesn’t count as unnecessary violence.”

“You shot a man!” Zane throws his hands in the air.

I’m still lying on the floor. I pull myself up very slowly, not wanting to interrupt.

“To be fair, I only hit his arm.” Cadence shrugs. “That’s progress for me.”

Zane reaches a hand down to me, pulling me up to my feet before he’s ushering us both behind the kitchen island where we’ve got some small bit of protection and we’re hidden from view.

Once we’re behind the cabinet, he rumbles, “How is this progress?”

I shift my attention back to the action outside, realizing the two of them are having nothing more than a squabble. I peek around the cabinet trying to catch a glimpse of Dimitri. Is he all right?

Cadence scoffs next to me. “The last man who attacked Cadence, I stabbed in the throat with an ice pick.”

That turns my head back to my friend and her man. “I’m still really grateful for that.”

“You’re grateful she stabbed a man?” Zane gives me the sort of hard look that makes me shrink.

Cadence leans forward, cutting of Zane’s view of me and putting herself between us. “Don’t look at her like that.”

“Like what?” Zane asks, sounding confused.

I draw in a deep breath. “I was being raped by our foster father.” It’s getting easier to say the words. They really did need to be let out and the more I do, the more I feel the fear receding.

Zane makes a noise that I don’t understand. “That’s why you stabbed him?” His voice is quiet. “Is that why you have the dreams?”

“I know I need towork on the anger,” Cadence’s voice has calmed. “But sometimes…”

“You’re the warrior,” he answers. “I know, sweetheart. But it eats you too. You need to let someone else fight sometimes so that you can have some peace.”