Swallow (Kindred Book 2)

by Scarlett Finn

  Groveling wasn’t beneath her. She’d do anything to save their lives. “Please,” she said, willing to beg for mercy. Art’s death had proved just how quickly one curl of a finger around a trigger could steal life. Panic fueled her desperation. “I’ll never see him again. I swear to you. We’ll walk out of here and I will never see him or talk to him. I won’t have any contact, I promise.”

  She’d rather know that Brodie was alive without her than dead because he loved her too much to let her go. Giving her life for his would be an easy choice for her to make. But after witnessing the torment he suffered at losing Art, she couldn’t burden him with the loss of her life too. He’d have no one to bring him back from that.

  Her pleas received no answer from the bully before them. Her love snubbed her appeal and took control. “Put a bullet in me,” Brodie said and she shrieked.

  “No! No, please, Grant!”

  “Don’t have much to live for if I don’t got my girl, do I?” Brodie said. He remained tense with his eyes trained on his brother and she wished he would turn and look at her because if he did, she might be able to get through to him. Losing his parents and Art, coupled with his previous assertions that he wasn’t good for her, Zara couldn’t exclude the possibility that Brodie would welcome death.

  “Beau—“

  “Quiet,” he said and didn’t flinch.

  Caine was just inside the door and was watching the events like they were a theatre performance. He leaned back against the doorframe and a smile bent his lips. “This is fucking good entertainment.”

  “Murder isn’t in his blood,” Tuck said and looked at her before turning to Grant. But his words weren’t reassuring when Grant was the only one holding a weapon. She searched the floor and saw that there were other guns scattered around, her hope was snatched when Tuck caught her looking. “They’re all empty. He’s the only one with a clip left. The coward hid and used everyone else as shields.”

  Human shields. The man she’d worked alongside for five years was a monster. “Oh my God,” she breathed.

  “If murder is in his blood then it’s in mine,” Grant snarled. Brodie’s form vibrated with taut fortitude. “Get over here or I’ll shoot him.” Grant swung his aim to Tuck. “Then I’ll shoot her.” He moved the gun past Brodie and onto her.

  Tuck stepped up. “By the time the round hits me, Rave will have that weapon from your hand and if he won’t put a bullet between your eyes, I’ll do it,” he said.

  Usually she would guess it wasn’t a good idea to tell the guy with the gun the plan. But Grant was enough of a coward that the warning might prevent him from shooting. She didn’t want Tuck to sacrifice himself either, she wanted them all to walk out of here alive, but that was looking decreasingly likely.

  “Good thing I have backup,” Grant said. “Ben?”

  Up until now, Benedict Leatt had stayed quiet in his position behind and to the right of Grant. Now he reached behind him and produced a gun, a reserve weapon that no one had known was there.

  “Ben,” she pleaded as tears cascaded down her face. “Please, don’t do this. Why would you follow Grant? You barely know him!”

  Grant scoffed. “Wasn’t so difficult to convince him your lover was the one who murdered Sutcliffe when he found out he killed Tim too.”

  That was one truth they couldn’t refute, not when Sutcliffe would have pinned Tim’s murder on the enigmatic Raven too. Ben knew her friend had shot Tim, he hadn’t known that friend was also her lover.

  “Come over here,” Grant said and Brodie took a step.

  “No!” she cried out and grabbed Brodie’s arm. Grant could only want him closer to shoot point blank. Grant wouldn’t want to risk aiming wrong, he wanted to look in his brother’s eyes as he delivered the death shot.

  Twisting toward her, Brodie turned his back to Grant to curl his hand around the back of her neck. “Close your eyes, baby. Let me go and turn your back. You don’t need to watch this.”

  She shook her head fast and more tears coated her cheeks. “I won’t let you go. Without you I... I can’t breathe.”

  “You follow orders, Swallow,” he said but his severity didn’t compel her to comply.

  Digging her nails in deeper, she couldn’t release him. “I love you,” she said, drowning in his determination because this wasn’t a decision she could support.

  “You’ll be taken care of,” he said and as he peeled her fingers from his flesh, he glanced to Tuck.

  Putting her hand into Tuck’s, Brodie began to back off and Tuck took her shoulders to turn her away. She sobbed as she lost her view of Brodie. Tuck pulled her downward and she was happy to collapse into a crouch while he held her. Before she could drag in a breath, the distinctive bang of a gunshot made her scream.

  A body hit the floor. She whirled up and around, rushing forward at the same time, and came up short against the solid barrier of Brodie’s back. He wasn’t dead. Relief lightened her body, but it didn’t slow her tears. Lifting his arm, Brodie curled it back to snag her body to haul it against his and it was then that she saw the body on the floor: Grant.

  “Oh my God,” she gasped and hid her face against Brodie who was squeezing her tight.

  “Why did you do that?” Tuck asked. She peeked out to see that Ben was holding the smoking firearm.

  He’d shot Grant. From the awkward way Grant was lying with the gun skittered away from his fingers, she could only assume he was dead. The threat was gone so she was relieved, until she saw whose boots were beside the weapon. Caine ducked down to pick it up and his conceited pleasure made her nauseous. They couldn’t appeal to him for mercy.

  “Ben?” she asked, although when she tried to move away from Brodie, he yanked her back to him. “You didn’t believe Grant when he…? When he said Raven shot Sutcliffe?”

  The only reason Ben would have to shoot Grant was if he was protecting her or the Kindred. Except when his brow lowered, the glare he wore wasn’t one of camaraderie. “Albert Sutcliffe had his share of enemies, Grant McCormack did too. You have no idea how deep this goes.” She couldn’t believe it. He was more furious than Grant had been. “My superior has their own plans.”

  Rigor stood up now and in spite of the blood staining his clothes, he came to their side. “I checked you out, you motherfucker, you’re a nobody.”

  “You’ve only known Albert Sutcliffe a few months,” she said, having believed they’d met when Sutcliffe was rehabbing from his Atlas injury. “You didn’t even know Tim.”

  “Intriguing, isn’t it?” Ben sneered. She’d never seen him look so wicked. Moving until his back was against the wall, he turned on Rigor. “Bet you didn’t look too hard, did you? You found out about my practice, my work with Sutcliffe, that’s all legit. You don’t know the half of it.”

  The past wasn’t as crucial to her as this moment was. “What are you going to do, Ben?” she asked, putting her hand into Brodie’s back pocket then curling her nails into the denim beneath her palm. Getting rid of Grant hadn’t solved their problem.

  “I’m giving you thirty seconds to get the hell out of here,” he said and she was so surprised, she gaped. “I’ve got work to do and I’m on a clock. You need to get the fuck out before I start shooting… You can have the place back when I’m done.”

  “You’re abandoning the compound?” Brodie asked.

  “Want to ask questions? Or do you want to split before I change my mind and finish you all?”

  Caine was still smiling, but pushed open the door and gestured for them to exit. They didn’t need another invitation. With a sideways nod, Brodie indicated to Tuck they were leaving. He held her tight as they slipped out the exit with Tuck and Rigor in their wake. Brodie got them around the house, but didn’t go on the road.

  He snatched her hand and pulled her a few feet into the trees, then stopped short and at first she didn’t know why. Tuck and Rigor rushed past them and pulled open the doors of a black jeep almost indecipherable in the thick night and dense envir
onment.

  Brodie shoved her into the back, then jumped in beside her. Rigor started driving before the door was closed. They bumped as they drove toward the road and Brodie grabbed her neck, but it wasn’t a sign of affection. He shoved her face down into his lap and then turned to glance backward before bending to take something from the floor: Maverick, his rifle.

  “You see anyone?” Tuck asked.

  “Stay down,” Brodie said to her and turned to kneel on the back seat, positioning the rifle on the backrest to aim it out the back. He didn’t fire any shots but kept his eye on the scope, which would give him a better view of what was going on behind them.

  She began to push up, but Brodie shoved her head back down without ever taking his eye away from the sight. “Rave?” Rigor asked, colored with worry.

  “We’re clear. Keep it moving,” Brodie said, maintaining his position.

  Curling into herself, she lay on her side on the backseat and closed her eyes. Grant was dead. But they were free. Brodie had lost another family member, a man she’d helped drive insane. She feared that Brodie could return to his grief. Right now, he was focused and heroic, but she had no idea what the future would hold for them and the Kindred.

  Thank you for sharing this adventure!

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