CUT (New Adult Dark Romance) (24 page)

He didn’t see death coming.

There was no going back. Two men rushed toward the big truck as I ran away. Three bullets waited in the smoking gun, a lingering threat. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. I did the only thing I could and charged toward the violence before me.

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“JUDE!”

The shout came from the side, a shattering roar of a sound. It was Black. It had to be. I made my way toward the sound as more gunfire erupted behind me. If Jude thought this was going to be fast and easy he underestimated the Rampant. Hell, I underestimated the Rampant. The shipment was stuck behind a smashed truck cab. Three Kings were dead by my hands and the rest seemed pinned down near the water. Whatever plan Jude put into motion out here, it didn’t seem to be working.

I threw myself up hard against a concrete wall, the shouts of Kings and explosions of bullets rattling me. Ahead, an open space was all that separated me from where Black had shouted, but there was no way I could cross it. That was no mans land, a strip between two armies. Five bodies lay dead and gone against the cool ground, not all of them Kings.

“JUDE WE CAN MAKE A DEAL!”

A few more shots rang out, but the night became quieter again as a second voice joined the fray.

“NO DEAL BLACK. YOU FUCKED IT ALL UP. YOU FUCKED EVERYTHING UP!”

It was Jude, and his voice wasn’t nearly as steadfast and sure as I was expecting.

“I JUST WANT THE GIRL JUDE! KEEP YOUR FUCKING DRUGS, KEEP THE DOCK, I WANT THE GIRL!

A relative quiet fell again, stretching out too long. Where were the sirens? Where were the cops? I looked back up the dock listening to the sounds echoing over the water. The crane operator continued his work, unloading the ship. It didn’t take me long to realize no help was coming. Blind eyes and plugged ears, even if they saw something, they’d know better than to report it.

Fuck.

“SHE’S DEAD BLACK. DEAD AND FUCKING BURIED!”

I stared out in the direction of the voice. The Kings were crouched behind any cover they could find but from my angle I could make out at least ten of them looking toward Black’s side of no mans land. It wasn’t clear which one was Jude. My hand trembled as I pressed myself harder into my little wall, wishing I were invisible. If any of them turned this way, even for a minute…

There was no response. No continuation of the conversation. I spun my head, staring off into the darkness.

“YOU’RE DEAD TOO YOU STUPID FUCK!” Jude shouted one final time. Suddenly, it became clear why I was looking at so few Kings. Explosions of gunfire came from beyond where Black’s voice originated, and Jude’s group started right back up firing in their direction. Gears rolled in my head. This whole thing, the men down here on the low ground, it was all just a distraction while Jude’s men circled round. Black was surrounded, pinned….

Dead…

I had to let him know I was here. Without a care for my own safety I leveled the gun at one of the crouching men. From this distance, there was no question what was about to happen. I stared down the barrel, my hand steady as I pulled back the trigger.

The unexpected direction of fire caught the Kings off guard. I watched several of them turn my direction as I dove away, my knees smashing into the concrete while bullets chipped concrete above me.

“BLACK! HELP ME! I’M ALIVE!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Another shower of concrete fell above as I crawled backwards towards the maze of steel containers. Maybe if I could make it to them… Shouting and confusion seemed to be coming from both sides as the battle raged on. I could hear Jude among them, his voice wild as it was terrifying.

“YOU FUCKING WHORE!”

He wasn’t going to stay with the men. He was coming for me. I knew more than anything what I needed to do was run. My feet fought for traction as I pressed myself up from the ground, body launching itself toward the containers to my left. A guttural scream of rage followed me, the sound almost chilling enough to stop me in my tracks. Jude had seen me, and now, nothing would stop him. Like some kind of horrible wrecking ball of destruction, he was coming. A rattle of gunfire burst behind me as I gripped the edge of a container and pulled myself round wildly.

That was no handgun.
I thought to myself, feet aching and knees bleeding as I kept moving, round another stack I went, bursting between the metal towers that seemed to close in around me. The darkness was absolute, but it offered no protection. Boots crashed behind me as bursts of gunfire followed my path. My lungs burned and knees ached. I ran for my life even as screams of pain and death echoed in the distance.

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Dead end.

My feet carried me round another stack only to find them lined solid to the wall of the dock. I ran the final steps, my hand slamming down on the concrete as if willing it to move. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Steel rose up four stacks high on either side, a makeshift prison every bit as oppressive as the little dungeon I’d spent the last week inside. Darkness wrapped around me like a blanket, and I spun round, collapsing to the ground.

Not like this…

I lifted the gun toward the opening. Where I was cool and ready, now the barrel shook in my vision, tears pouring from my eyes as I hyperventilated uncontrollably. Forty feet away, the darkness loomed. Boots crashed, the monster of my nightmares for so many years coming round the edge of corrugated metal, his hulking visage terrifying in the dark. I fired, the bullet sailing past him and slamming into another container as he ducked back away from the opening.

I’ve seen terrifying things in my life, I’ve heard terrifying things, but nothing prepared me for the laughter. Wild and without any hint of happiness. It was maniacal in its breathless wonder, and it shook me as deeply as anything ever had.

“Like a rat in a fucking cage, aren’t you baby?”

Jude’s voice echoed round to my little metal prison. I shook and shivered, tears pouring from my cheeks. I’d hardly even noticed the rain that was starting to fall. Fitting. Dying in the rain…

“Let me go…” I said, my voice carrying down between the crates. Jude’s laugh tore through me again. I watched the shadow of his gun appear as he held it round the corner, letting out a small burst of bullets that slammed into the crate and wall above me. My body curled tighter, knees tucked to my chest as I shook, the gun waving wildly toward the open space.

“Why don’t you just end it baby? Save me the trouble.”

“Jude… Just go… Go with the Kings, take your drugs, go…”

His laughter rose even higher. I sat shivering through every single gasping breath. When his voice returned, it was colder. “Do you think I care about the Kings? Think I want the fucking money? The drugs? The pussy?”

“What do you want Jude?” I asked, afraid of the answer.

“All I ever wanted was you baby… All I ever fucking wanted was you.”

He wasn’t laughing anymore. I listened to his sobs, his guttural wail.

“I won’t fucking live without you. You’re little whore brain can’t wrap itself around that. Can it?”

I stood up, my feet flat against the cool ground. The tears wouldn’t stop falling and I didn’t want them to stop.

“Gave you everything you fucking bitch. I suffered. I did everything for you. All of it! FUCKING ALL OF IT!”

My feet padded forward, silent steps, the wailing and broken man so close. I could hear his fist slamming against the metal container. I could imagine the battered and bloodied knuckles and damaged mind behind them. Jude was my monster. I’d helped him live in this world. I’d given him hope.

I’d made a mistake… I’d made a mistake every time I’d looked at the gun I had hidden in my closet and decided not to fucking use it.

“Jude…” I whispered, stepping into the open space.

Fear had drained away. My mind went blank as my ears closed off the gunfire in the distance. Nothing mattered. Nothing ever mattered. I was colder than I had ever been.

He stared at me, the gun held tight in his hands, fingers running across the stamped metal of a beastly looking assault rifle. It rose up, aiming at my chest. Eyes shined at me in the darkness, no hint of the evil they contained. My stomach collapsed.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Jude asked as my hand moved upward, lifting the revolver.

“Kattlyn. Fucking stop.”

I closed my eyes, tucked myself away somewhere deep inside. It was safe in here, a calm place where nobody could ever hurt me. There was no more time for talk. It was kill or be killed.

I couldn’t pull the trigger… I barely heard the shot.

“Kattlyn. MOVE!”

My knees ached on the pavement. I’d fallen, the emotions crashing over me. Was I dead? I couldn’t feel the pain of his bullets…

“
I SAID GET UP!
”

I was still alive. My eyes flashed open and I saw him. Black was pressed up against a container, a cannon of a handgun still pointed at Jude’s collapsed body. He’d followed us… He’d saved me. My hands dropped, the revolver clattering to the ground next to Jude. I looked to the rifle still beneath Jude’s cold hands. Outside of our little hiding spot, the battle was still raging. I’d outlived my purpose, survived my monster.

Take it.

The little voice inside me was driven. Warmth was coming back to my body little by little as I pulled the weapon free of Jude’s dead grasp. I looked up at the maze I’d run through, standing again. With the gun held in both hands the pants fell, my long and blood soaked shirt acting as a makeshift dress. In another place I might have been modest. Looking down at my bleeding knees, I could only imagine the horror I had become.

Run.

There was nothing else to do. It was time to end this. I grabbed the gun and ran toward the Black without any regard to my own safety. No dark night could terrify me more than the one I’d survived. My finger itched on the trigger as I rounded the crates with Black, moving toward the whittling gunfire. An unholy scream erupted from my lungs as I broke free of the space and charged the King’s little hiding space from behind. My voice was drowned out by the rattle of the gun in my hands, fighting to hold the recoil down as I sprayed left across the small handful of men still crouched behind a retaining wall. Black was right alongside me, firing into the chaos. An explosion flashed out unexpectedly before me, light and color filling my eyes.