Page 119 of The Midnight Club

“Ori!’

She could hear sirens now, so close to safety, so close to love. Then she heard Seth’s roar and knew—she hadn’t killed him, and now he was coming for her. She heard him storming after her, and when the first crossbow bolt hit the wall beside her, she faltered.

Don’t give up, don’t give up …

“Ori!” This time it was Seth roaring her name, his voice bruised and gravelly. Murderous. If she stalled for one second, she would be dead. She heard Maceo’s desperate shouts for her, and as she reached the front door finally and wrenched it open, she could see her lover running towards her, coming to save her, followed by shouting police officers.

A sudden searing, burning pain hit her right kidney, and she knew she’d been hit, but staggered out of the door, throwing herself down the stone steps into Maceo’s arms.

“He’s coming,” she managed to say to him, seeing the panic in his green eyes. Seconds later, Seth came raging from the building, dropping the crossbow and barreling into the couple. All three were sent sprawling to the gravel. Maceo shoved Ori away before he set upon Seth again.

Ori crawled away, groping around to her back and, giving a scream, wrenched the bolt from her flesh. She could feel sticky blood on her hands but ignored it. She heard shouting, more sirens, but all she could think of was getting to Maceo, helping to fight Seth, saving at least one of them.

Maceo was pounding on Seth, but the other man managed to flip him and plowed his fist into Maceo’s jaw. But Maceo was raging, his adrenaline flooding his system and he once again got the advantage, yelling in Italian, then in English.“Non sarai mai toccare di nuovo il suo. figlio di una cagna!You’ll never touch her again, you son of a bitch!’

Seth kicked him away and staggered to his feet, reaching into his pocket and bringing out the gun, leveling it at Maceo.

Maceo stared at his friend—the friend who was aiming the gun at his chest—and he shook his head. “So, this is the way it ends?”

His friend nodded. “This is the way it ends.”

There was a long silence, as if his friend couldn’t decide whether to pull the trigger or not. He decided to take the chance and ask the question he so desperately needed the answer to.

“Then why all this, old friend? I get framing Alex, but why kill Netta? Why did she have to die? Why stab Ori? She did nothing wrong except love me with her whole heart, and you butchered her.”

Seth smiled. “You don’t get it, do you? She was dead the second you touched her. And now I’m going to kill both of you.”

And he pulled the trigger. Maceo threw himself to the floor as, behind Seth, a furious and desperate Ori tackled him. She leaped onto his back, as lithe as a monkey, and clawed at his face. Seth’s gun went skittering across the ground as Maceo launched an attack from the front. Seth threw Ori to the ground—hard—and Maceo yelled his anger, crashing into Seth with all of his strength.

As Seth fought back, Ori managed to stand up and stagger towards the two men. Seth had Maceo’s throat and was squeezing, his eyes bulging with the effort. Ori saw his fingers digging into Maceo’s windpipe. Maceo choked, and Ori gave a banshee yell and threw herself at Seth, raising the bloody crossbow bolt he had shot her with. She brought it down hard, not caring where it hit him as long as he released Maceo.

Maceo, freed, jerked away from Seth and then pulled a bloodied Ori away from him too. Seth’s limbs were jerking, spasming. Death throes. Ori had slammed the bolt through Seth’s eye into his brain. It was over.

Maceo wrapped his arms around her as the adrenaline left them both, and they held each other as the police arrived to help them. “You and me,bella,”Maceo whispered to her as she was loaded into the ambulance, “You and me forever now.”

And Ori smiled just once before she passed out.

Two years later …

Shiloh hoisted Lilyonto her hip, ignoring the toddler’s whining, and went out into the garden. Benoit, tanned and smiling from a week in Monte Carlo, came to kiss her and relieve her of their child. Lily giggled as her father threw her into the air and caught her.

“Tell me all kids are like that,” said a heavily pregnant Kate as she moved her chair out of the Argentinian sun. Shiloh laughed.

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew what the little horror was really like.” She sat down with her friends and looked at her watch. “I hope Ori and Maceo won’t be too long; lunch is nearly ready.”

Lisander rolled his eyes. “You know what they’re like; probably stopped to have sex along the way. Even now, they’re rolling around in a field of pampas grass.”

They all laughed. “Good grief, what a pair of kids. About time they had themselves some kids.” Kate nodded sagely, but a grinning Shiloh poked her.

“You just want everyone to suffer along with you. I don’t blame you, I was the same.”

“She was; she almost broke my hand in the delivery room.” Benoit put his arm around his fiancée, who poked her tongue out at him.

“Mr. Duarte, I think your guests are here.” The maid smiled at him, and Lisander thanked her.

Ori and Maceo joined them, smiling, happy, holding hands. The friends greeted them. Then Kate, ever watchful, started to laugh.

“What is it?” Ori looked confused. “Do I have something in my teeth?”

Kate shook her head and reached to pluck something out of Ori’s hair. She held it up. “No, sweetheart. You just have some pampas grass in your hair …”

The End