Page 102 of West Bound

“We’ll wait. They’ll come up here eventually.”

“I don’t want to die.” I hate the way my voice breaks in frustration.

“Neither do I. But you brought them into my fucking house. You let them come here and disrespect me like this, didn’t you? For what?”

“I want to know what you did to my mom. I want to know why Grandad hated you. Why you’d kill their parents. All forwhat? A treasure hunt? Some relics?” I press him. I know it’s dangerous, but it’s the only way I can imagine I’ll get answers.

“Your mom was in an institution. You know this. Your grandad blamed me. He was always trying to blame someone else for his faults.”

“Was it your fault? Did you drive her there?”

“Your mother just couldn’t accept the terms I offered her. She thought she could tell me what to do. Just like you now. I should have given you up for adoption. It would have spared me so much trouble over the years.”

I won’t let him see me cry again. I refuse.

“What do these relics have to do with anything?” I change the subject. Maybe I can at least get some information out of him. An answer or two would be better than nothing at all.

I hear my father’s comms crackle with voices. They’re counting the bodies. Someone’s asking for more rounds of ammunition. Another is screaming that he’s bleeding out on the stairs.

My father’s face blanches. He’s doing the math, and it must be in Levi’s favor.

“Why are you collecting relics? Why did you have the Stocktons steal them? I want to understand.”

“They belonged to your grandfather, and I wanted them back. They should be in this family where they belong. I was just trying to hit two birds with one stone. But no one in this business is fucking reliable. If they’d just done what they were told, this would have been over a long fucking time ago.”

“What do you mean?”

He doesn’t get to answer, though, because the door bursts open, and it’s a familiar face that’s aiming the gun in our direction.

Levi.He’s alive, and he’s here. My heart riots in celebration for all of half a second until I feel the gun against my temple.

“I’ll kill her.” My father warns him. “Do anything stupid, and I’ll kill her.”

FORTY-FOUR

Levi

“Let her go.She’s your own daughter, you sick fuck,” I demand, but I can hear footfalls down the hallway. My words are an empty threat. We’ll be dead in a matter of moments. Or at least I will be, and I’ll have left her to whatever fate he’s divined for her. If Corey was his first choice, I can’t imagine what he’ll do to her now. My stomach churns with the thought.

“No daughter of mine would debase herself like she has. Working with scum like you against her own family. It’s disgusting.” He spits on her cheek, and my finger twitches on the trigger.

“Let her go.”

“Shoot me, and see what happens. You’ll both be in a thousand bloody pieces,” the governor threatens, and I feel the blunt end of a barrel bump the back of my head. “Drop the gun.”

“No.”

“Drop the fucking gun, Stockton.” The governor’s face is bright red and he spits as he yells, his mouth twisted with theeffort and his normally perfectly styled hair shaken loose from the confines of his pomade.

“No.”

“You won’t like the alternative,” he seethes, pressing his gun to her head as the guy behind me nudges me forward a step with pressure from the barrel.

“Neither will you.” I aim my gun at his head.

“Fine. We’ll do this your way.” He tilts his head to the side, a quick gesture of hand and I see black.

There’s a loud bang. Deafening in my right ear, in fact. Followed by a searing pain in my shoulder. My finger twitches, and my gun goes off as it falls from my hand. I can’t hold the grip any longer. It all happens in a fraction of a second, and suddenly I drop to my knees. My fingers go to the wound in my shoulder, blood pouring out through the hole there and down onto my shirt, between my fingers. It races down my wrist and my forearm. I’m in shock for a moment, trying to process what’s happening until her screaming pulls me out of it.