Maybe our time was limited but I would do what I could to make sure that Jenna would be okay. I’d help her find a place that she and her baby could be safe… and if that place didn’t exist, I’d help her create it.
I would do it… for Robby and Caleb.
29
Adam
Leo’s arms fell away from me. I pushed his back before charging toward the guard holding Leah.
Something clattered against the ground but I couldn’t look back. I had to do something. They hadn’t hesitated to kill my dad. I knew I didn’t have a lot of time.
The guard turned his gun on me. I ducked only seconds before a shot rang out, echoing throughout the room.
Leah’s eyes widened with her scream. At first, I thought I’d been hit but then I realized her voice was powering her fist as it hurtled toward the guard’s jaw.
I was lucky I hadn’t been hit. At least, I didn’t think I had been, considering I felt no pain. The good news was the guard had terrible aim.
He straightened himself and with a shaking hand, he raised the gun up again. The guard didn’t make it more than halfway before my foot smacked into his gut, causing him to stumble backward into the wall. It looked like he moved in slow motion as he crashed to the ground.
I almost half-smiled, shocked that the move had worked and that I was somehow still standing. But when I remembered that Leo was behind me and the guard on the ground was still holding his gun, my smirk vanished.
“What are you waiting for!” Eva shouted. “Shoot him!”
The guard raised the gun, this time he held it with both hands. There was a distracting rustling sound behind me but I couldn’t turn around.
His hands shook vigorously and his eyes narrowed and widened with confusion. “There’s like three of him.”
“Well, shoot them all, you idiot,” Eva ordered.
A gunshot rang out and my body shook. There was no way he would have missed.
Leah moved fast. He hadn’t noticed her approach from his side. She hit him again and yanked the gun from him as his eyes rolled around in his head.
The guard closed his eyes and slumped over before flopping into a useless heap. Leah handed me the gun.
I quickly turned, searching the room for Leo. But I couldn’t find him. The only people still standing in the room besides Leah and me were Eva and Leslie.
Leslie was staring at something on the ground. She held a gun in her shaking hands. She turned to the side and dry heaved.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered repeatedly.
Leo was lying on the ground near my dad in a growing pool of blood. I hadn’t been shot at… Leslie had managed to take Leo down. She must have gotten the gun when I’d threw my head back into his face.
We were lucky she was there.
“Adam,” Leah said pulling me from my thoughts. “You have to do it.”
Eva was taking small steps backward. She was trying to sneak out of the door unnoticed.
“Stop!” I shouted. My hand jerked upward and I aimed the gun at her head. If I pulled the trigger… I wouldn’t miss.
In the corner of my eye, I noticed Leslie copied my movement with a gasp. She released tiny whimpers, like a lost kitten looking for its mommy.
“You’re not going to do it,” Eva said. “We both know you don’t have it in you, so let’s not even bother to start this little game.”
“Do it, Adam,” Leah coaxed. “Your dad would still be alive if it wasn’t for her. She’s a cold-blooded killer. Pure evil. You’ll be doing a lot of people a favor if you end this now.”
I tightened my grip. The muscles in my jaw were tense. I wanted to pull the trigger but my finger wouldn’t move.
“Why did you do it?” I asked Eva. “Why my dad? He didn’t deserve that. He was always nice to you.”
“It was so easy,” Eva said her smugness had diminished. “Can we end this nonsense now? You’re a wuss. No matter how much you hate me, you won’t be able to kill me.”
I exhaled slowly. “I just want to understand why.”
“Because she’s crazy,” Leah said.
“You’re so pathetic,” Eva said taking a step toward the door. She talked to me as if there was no one else in the room. “The other guards are probably on their way right now. They’ll kill you for what you’ve done. You know they’ll never believe you over me.”
I felt sick. She was going to get away with everything because she was right… I couldn’t kill her.
I wasn’t like Eva. Not at all. I wanted her to pay for what she’d done to my dad but to do that, I would have to become someone I didn’t want to be.
Our only choice was to make a run for it and hope we could get away before the other guards came for us. I lowered the gun and Eva started laughing.
“I knew it!” Eva said clapping her hands together.
“Adam?” Leah said.
“Moron!” Eva said with a haughty laugh. “Your dad’s lying dead on the ground and still you couldn’t do it.”
Leslie grunted as she took a step forward. “Maybe he can’t but I can.”
My entire body shook with the sound of the bullet ripping through the air. Leah sucked in a breath as she grabbed my arm.
Eva’s eyes were saturated with shock. She reached out for the wall to steady herself while her other hand searched for the wound. She found it at her shoulder.
Leslie fired
