Taking Meghan: Disciples 5

by Sweet, Izzy

  “Yeah, fucking cop is trying to tell us to go away,” Johnathan says.

  “Shit. I’m getting a bad live feed from your vehicle’s cam,” Simon says.

  Slowly pulling off to the side, behind our guy’s vehicles, I make sure to pull far enough over that I’m in the grass and able to get a better view of what’s happening.

  “He’s radioing something in,” Andrew spits out.

  “Motherfucking simple-minded fucks,” I spit out.

  The chief of police exits his vehicle and starts walking over to us.

  Fuck!

  Hitting reverse, I slam on the gas while saying, “They’re going to bolt if we don’t get ahead of them.”

  “Get around them and hold them there!” Simon hisses loudly in my earbud.

  Meghan whimpers loudly as I tear back out of the grass and then shift into drive. Pushing the peddle down hard, I whip us around the cars in the back.

  What a fucking mess this shit is. Everything’s going to going to hell in a handbasket.

  Slamming on the brakes in front of the cars, I twist the wheel so that my car is almost fully sideways as we come to a stop to block them. Looking at the cars, I yank my door open and grab Meghan by the shoulder strap of her vest, pulling her along with me.

  “What the fuck?” she yelps as she finally gets her body under control and exits the car through my door.

  “Soon they’re going to know exactly who the fuck you are and I want a car between us if the bullets start flying,” I say as I yank the back door open and pull out my AR-15.

  Switching the safety off the semi-auto machine gun, I resist the urge to aim it at Alexei’s car and start pulling the trigger.

  “Oh god, what the hell are we going—” Meghan says, worried, then suddenly falls silent as she motions to something behind me.

  Turning to look around, I groan inwardly. Two fast approaching state police cars are heading our way with their lights flashing.

  Then their sirens suddenly turn on.

  “Fuck!” I yell loudly. “Simon, we’ve got two state police cars coming in hot.”

  “Goddammit!” Simon snarls into the comms.

  “Can you get rid of the extras, Simon?” Johnathan asks.

  Turning back to the car Andrew and Johnathan are trying to exit, I see that this whole fucking thing is turning into a shit show.

  Especially when I spot Meghan’s dad climbing out of Alexei’s car and standing behind a door.

  Fuck me.

  The two state police cars screech their tires behind me, and it’s in the moment that I turn to see them that I also see a flash of gunfire.

  Ducking down behind the car, I aim my AR-15 down at the ground as the police behind us jump out of their cars and aim their pistols at us.

  “Chief’s down. Someone in one of the Russian cars shot him,” Johnathan yells in the ear comms.

  “Goddammit!” Lucifer bellows into the ear comms as well.

  A couple of shots ring out behind me and then I see Meghan taking a step around the back of our car before she starts rushing toward her father.

  18

  Meghan

  I know what I’m doing is stupid. I know it will probably get me hurt or killed. But once I lay eyes on my father, there’s only one path forward for me. I need to reach him. I need to know who the fuck killed my mother if it wasn’t the Italians.

  And if was him…

  I need to fucking kill him.

  Gabriel told me to focus, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. Focusing on my target.

  Orders to freeze are shouted behind me, but I ignore them. Gabriel roars my name, but I ignore him too.

  Gunfire erupts from somewhere close by, but I don’t care.

  Dashing across the fifteen feet that separates Gabriel’s Lexus from the black Audi my father ducked out of, all the craziness that’s going down is just background noise.

  I don’t see the flashing red and blue lights. I don’t smell the blood and lead on the air.

  I only have one purpose, one goal. To reach my father and get the truth out of him before someone else kills him.

  “Meghan!” Gabriel roars again, and I almost hesitate.

  Almost.

  But then my father slowly turns my way.

  “Meghan,” he gasps as I run up on him, his face draining of color.

  He looks at me like he’s just seen a ghost.

  Multiple blasts of gunfire suddenly ring out and my father shakes his head, seemingly snapping out of it.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he hisses as he jumps forward, grabs me by the arm and yanks me down behind the car. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

  Shots ping off the front of the Audi and my father curses under his breath.

  I let him drag me down. I let him think he’s protecting me. But when I hear a car door opening behind me, I grab my gun from my holster.

  My father turns away, his wide, anxious gaze darting around, seeking out the sources of danger surrounding us, and I bring my gun up.

  I aim it at the back of his head.

  When he finally turns back to look at me, he’s got the barrel of my pistol in his face.

  “What—” he starts to say and then looks in my eyes.

  Whatever he sees there causes him to freeze.

  Taking a deep breath, I slip my finger over the trigger and resist the urge to pull it now.

  For so long he lied to me… lied to my fucking face. Lied to me while he held me in his arms as I sobbed over my mother’s closed casket. The betrayal cuts and burns like nothing I’ve ever felt before, eating me from the inside out like boiling acid.

  The words want to stick in my throat, unsure if they want to be a whisper or a shout, but I force them out, my voice cracking. “Who the fuck killed mom?”

  He turns his face away and tries to hide the flash of panic in his eyes, but I catch it. I fucking latch onto it. “Why are you asking me this? You know who killed your mother, it was the Italians.”

  Looking back to me, he meets my eyes again and tries to hold my gaze, expecting me to buy his bullshit.

  But I’m not buying it.

  As I just stare at him, he must realize it.

  Switching tactics, he acts as if I’m a child and he’s exasperated. “We don’t have time for this, lass…”

  “Don’t call me lass,” I snap out and take another deep breath, trying to keep myself calm.

  Trying to keep my hand from shaking.

  There’s just so much going on inside me, though. A maelstrom of anger, confusion, and hurt is swirling inside me and I’m on the verge of completely losing it.

  Steadying my hand, I lift the barrel up, aiming it between his blue eyes. “I know it wasn’t the Italians. Stop fucking lying to me!”

  This time my father can’t hide the panic he’s feeling as he looks to the barrel of the gun and back to me.

  It’s plain on his face.

  He knows the truth, has known it all along, and doesn’t want me to know it.

  “Meghan, love, now is not the time to be discussing this. We can talk about this later,” he says calmly, completely avoiding the question.

  I shake my head. With all the shit going on around us, there might not be a later. And I’ve believed his lie for so long, I need the truth now.

  “Was it you? Did you kill her?”

  Just speaking the words out loud causes tears to prick at the corners of my eyes.

  I think deep down a part of me has always suspected he did it. Did it because she wasn’t onboard with starting a war.

  “No,” he breathes out in shock and then shakes his head in denial. “No. I didn’t kill her.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  Why should I believe anything his lying mouth says?

  One heartbeat passes, then another as we stare at each other. So many emotions pass over my father’s face, I can’t keep track of them.

  Then he seems to crumble in on himself with a look of pur
e devastation. “Because I loved her, lass. Loved her with all my heart. She was my sun and my moon.”

  Something inside me rips open to hear him say that. I can’t even count how many times I heard him calling her his sun and moon over the years with pure adoration.

  And god, the way she would smile at him just before she kissed him…

  His own eyes full of unshed tears, his voice cracks. “I still love her. I love her as much as I love you.”

  I’ve never seen my father cry before, not even at my mother’s funeral. I always wondered if it was because he didn’t feel enough to do so, or if it was a front for the rest of the family.

  But that’s what he’s doing right now. Crying and standing in front of me with the posture of a broken man.

  And I believe him.

  I believe him so much I start crying with him.

  He didn’t kill her, I’m sure of it now, and I should be relieved, but all I feel is the same devastation mirrored on his expression.

  Oh god, how did we come to this? What the fuck happened?

  “If…” I start and have to stop to swallow back a sob. “If you didn’t kill her, who did?”

  I watch my father’s mouth open. I watch as a shadow passes over his face and it doesn’t even register why that might be happening. I’m so focused on him, on the answer he’s about to give me, I don’t realize the danger before it’s too late.

  The hair on the back of my neck suddenly stands on end as my father closes his mouth, pressing his lips together with a look of resignation.

  I straighten as I sense someone behind me and then a body is pushing into my back.

  I try to whip around, but I’m too damn slow. A strong, hard arm comes around my middle, locking me in place while a hand covers my hand over the gun.

  As the hand covering mine presses against my trigger finger, I freeze, afraid I might accidentally fire my weapon.

  Alexei’s voice slides into my ear, chilling me to the very marrow of bones. “Hello, Meghan. So glad you’ve decided to return me.”

  Everything inside me shuts down in shock. I can’t breathe, I can’t think.

  I can’t fucking fight back.

  Alexei’s nose rubs against my ear before he asks, “Did you miss me?”

  My body begins to tremble and I squeeze my knees together, afraid I might embarrass myself like that damn priest.

  Alexei chuckles, his breath moving my hair as the arm wrapped around my middle begins to drift down. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “Alexei…” my father says cautiously as he straightens in front of us.

  His tears are gone as he squares his shoulders. The faint tracks down his cheeks the only proof that they ever existed.

  I sense Alexei moving his head, and then his damn hand is forcing me to move the gun.

  Forcing me to lift it up to aim it at my father’s head.

  I close my eyes and open them, hoping that what is playing out in front of me will change.

  “Ah, yes. Your father was about to tell you who killed your mother before I so rudely interrupted… Well, go on, Brady, tell her,” Alexei says with a hint of laughter.

  My father looks from me to Alexei and then his forehead creases with worry. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her. That was our deal.”

  “And I won’t… even though our deal was broken.”

  My father stiffens and narrows his eyes at the gun pointed at him. “Hurt comes in many forms.”

  Alexei sighs and his grip on my hand forces me to wave the gun at my father. “Just answer the fucking question.”

  My father’s eyes meet mine once more, full of shame and apology. And I know the answer before it even passes his lips. “Alexei killed your mother.”

  A sob escapes my throat and my knees threaten to give out.

  Alexei killed my mother and my father tried to marry me to him…

  My father flinches at the look I give him.

  Before I can even muster up the strength to ask how could you, my father explains, “He killed her when I refused his offer of alliance. Then threatened to kill you if I refused again.”

  “Yes,” Alexei says with absolutely no shame or remorse. “I’m so glad you came to your senses, for Meghan’s sake.”

  My father shoots Alexei a glare full of murder and his hands squeeze into fists. “Since accepting his alliance, he’s used us to do all his dirty work for him.”

  “Well, not all of my dirty work,” Alexei snickers.

  A look of pure disgust washes over my father’s face before he tears his attention away from Alexei and looks to me again.

  His eyes are begging me for forgiveness, a forgiveness I’m not sure I can give, as he says, “I’m sorry, Meghan. I tried to send you away. Tried to—”

  A sharp pain shoots up my arm as Alexei forces his finger over mine and the gun goes off in my hand.

  Just like back in the church, everything seems to slow down.

  My father jerks back and his open mouth goes slack. His eyes suddenly dim as if the lights inside them blew out.

  A hole. A dark hole appears on his forehead.

  Behind him there’s this blast, an explosion of blood and gore that splatters against the Audi’s window.

  With nothing holding him up, he slumps down the car like a marionette whose strings were just cut, making this horrible squelching noise while leaving a slick trail of blood and brain matter behind him.

  Horror. Unbearable horror floods through me, and everything inside me just falls out.

  Then a scream pierces the air.

  A scream full of shock and pain.

  A scream that’s coming from me.

  “He should have never tried to keep you from me,” I hear Alexei say as my lungs drag in more air to scream again.

  The death grip around my hand loosens, and then the gun is pried from my aching fingers.

  I start to fight the arm wrapped around my middle, fight to reach my father.

  “Stop that now,” Alexei grunts, tightening his arm around me so hard I feel it bending my ribs.

  But I don’t care. I don’t care what happens to me now. There’s just this unbearable need to reach my father.

  To take back what I just did.

  Another scream flows from my throat and it’s not enough, not enough to expel this pain inside me. Not enough to ease it even a fraction.

  I start to claw at Alexei’s arm, start to fight him with this primal, feral need to hurt him, to escape him.

  “Goddammit, I said stop,” Alexei snarls.

  And then something cracks against my head so hard everything goes black.

  19

  Gabriel

  What the fuck is Meghan thinking? Why the fuck would she run to them? I thought we had all this fucking shit figured out?

  “Fucking hell!” Simon yells into my ear. “What the fuck is going on?”

  Bullets rip into the trunk of the Lexus as I start trying to go after Meghan. God-fucking-dammit!

  Hunkering down, I look behind me and watch as the state police officers raise their weapons at me.

  Well fuck.

  I don’t drop my rifle, but this shit isn’t looking fun,

  “Simon, we’re all going to need a quick extraction,” I say into the comms, and try turning toward the Audis that are now revving their engines.

  Fuck it. I gotta do something or she’s going to get away.

  Standing up from the Lexus, I try to get a peek at the Audis. My view is mostly obscured by some big motherfucker holding onto Meghan.

  I see Meghan’s father fall to the ground and I can feel my stomach drop with him.

  “Chief is down, Brady is down. We’ve got two state highway patrols screaming at us,” Johnathan says into the comms.

  “Damn them all to hell!” Simon yells. “I’m currently trying to get them under control. Do not shoot them. Respond to their commands.”

  “Put your weapon down!” an officer behind me yells at my back as I watch Meghan being
shoved into the back of one of the Audis.

  “Simon, they’re taking Meghan,” I growl into the comms.

  “Understood,” Lucifer says in a cool, quiet drawl. “Follow the officer’s orders.”

  “Fuck that!” I shout and start to raise my rifle at the Audi.

  “Don’t do it!” a shout comes from behind me and I can hear a quiver in the voice over all the shit that’s going on around us.

  That quiver tells me that the officer is going to put a couple of rounds in me the moment my rifle raises enough to be a threat.

  Fuck.

  If I shoot now, I won’t have a clear shot of getting the driver and fucking Alexei. Too many variables could go wrong if I try anything. I could be shot in the back before I have a chance to hit one of the car’s wheels. I could also a get shot in the back of the head. That wouldn’t do anyone good.

  Dropping the rifle, I slowly stand up from behind the Lexus. Motherfuckers. I swore I’d never raise my hands again in submission to fucking pigs.

  “Kick the rifle away!” the officer screams at my back.

  The black Audis slam into reverse, trying to run over Andrew as he stands in place, pointing the gun in his hand at the back of the Audi closest to him. Diving out of the way of the car, he’s as helpless as I am.

  None of us can take a shot without risking hitting Meghan or the police opening up fire on us.

  “God-fucking-dammit. For fucking shit’s sake, get this shit straightened,” I shout into my comms mic.

  “I’m working on it right now. Do as they say for now,” Simon hisses.

  “Chief’s dead, confirming it now. Same with Brady. Both have fatal shots to the head,” Andrew says over the comms.

  I can see him from my view, but not what’s on the ground as the Audis tear away from us. Both heading away at a breakneck speed. One of the patrol officers starts shouting into the mic, but neither of them try to take off after the fleeing pricks.

  Fucking hell, this is just getting worse.

  I can’t hear what one of the officers is shouting into his radio, but I do understand what the other one is saying when he tells me to kneel down on the asphalt.

  My back may be to him, but he knows better than to have me turn around on them. I’m a big guy, there’s no way of knowing if I’ve got a gun in my waistband up front or if I’d smash their fucking heads in.