I collapse against him, my strength leaving me as he effortlessly holds me up.
“Hello?”
I flinch, drawing my head up toward the new voice at the top of the stairs outside of Antony’s office.
Two girls stand there dressed in pure white from head-to-toe, their skirts blotted with dark brown dust and grime. I smile at Lucy, happy to see her wild, pleasant eyes again.
“Hey,” she greets us as she bounds down the stairs.
I open my arms to her, and she hugs me. “Are you all right?” I ask.
She pulls back and nods. “Better than I was in there.” She winces. “Sorry, I lost your dress at the club.”
I laugh, shaking my head at the ridiculous apology as I throw my arms around her neck again.
The other girl descends the stairs and pauses at the bottom. I release Lucy and step closer to her, admiring the woman who claimed my friend’s heart.
“You’re Dani,” I say.
“Yeah,” she says.
I take her hands. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” I say. “My name is Sofia.”
She nods. “You’re Sofia Zappia?”
“I was once,” I say with a smile.
“Fox…” She takes a breath. “He told me once that if anything ever happened to him, that I could trust you.”
My heart skips. “He told me about you, too.”
Dani smiles.
“Boxcar,” Luka says into his earpiece. “Dani and Lucy have—” He furrows his brow. “Slow down, Box. You’re breaking up. What?”
I step closer to him as his face turns white. “Luka, what is it?”
He grabs my wrist. “We have to leave. Now.”
We rush across the casino floor toward the front entrance, the girls following close behind us. As we approach it, my ears perk to a deadly sound.
Beep beep beep.
Luka shields me as the door explodes.
Chapter 23
Fox
A wave of gasps fills the chapel, but I don’t look back as they rise out of their benches.
I keep my eye on Gio. I stood this close to him before, but I didn’t put him down the way I should have. I won’t let that happen again.
For Sofia.
Gio’s eyes flick between me and Dante as the shock drains from his face. It’s quickly replaced with a slow-burning fury.
“Fox Fitzpatrick…” he growls. “I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again.”
I nod. “Yeah, last time was fun for me, too.”
He glares at Dante. “And you’re the man who killed my brother.”
“Brothers,” Dante corrects.
Gio clenches his jaw. “You think you’ll be three-for-three tonight, do you?”
“I like the odds.”
“Then, you’re not paying attention,” Gio says, his lips curling. “Look up, boys. You’re surrounded by a half-dozen guards with—”
A body slams into the altar behind Gio, crushing it to pieces from above. He spins around in a panic and Dante kicks his shins to drop him to his knees.
Lilah stares down at us with a smug smile and blood-soaked hands.
“You mean these guards, Gio?” she asks.
The chapel erupts in screams. The people bolt from the pews and race toward the exits, toppling over each other as they all try to escape first. I scan the crowd in search of Caleb, spotting her in the second row next to Marilyn.
We make eye contact and Caleb nods. She takes advantage of the chaos and leaps over the back of her pew to get out of Marilyn’s reach. Three more guards push in past the racing crowd and I step down to take care of them while Dante knocks Gio out cold.
“Caleb!”
I meet her halfway down the aisle and plant myself between her and the rushing guards. One drops to their knees in front of the other two, the whole trio raising their AR-15s.
I ready my pistol, making a split-second decision. I can only hit one, maybe two, before they start firing. With a bit of luck, I can choose the correct one before he takes the kill shot.
I fire, aiming low to hit the man on his knee and hoping the bullet throws him back to knock the others. He crumbles forward instead, leaving me nothing longer than a split-second choice. Left or right. Life or death.
I choose the left man, firing a shot and hoping neither of them hit Caleb.
The bullet strikes the left man in the eye at the same time Lilah leaps onto the right man from above. She plunges her knife deep into his skull and uses his tumbling form to break her fall to the floor.
Lilah instantly hops back up and reclaims her knife from his head.
“Fox.”
I twist around, easing Caleb to stay behind me as I point my gun at Marilyn Black.
The chapel turns quiet.
It’s just us and her.
Marilyn smiles as she rises from the pew, steady and calm. She’s different than I pictured her. Like a mother at a PTA meeting. Safe and wholesome.
Though, I suppose that’s what people say about me, too.
“Well done,” she says. “That was quite impressive.”
She takes a step forward, her cobra necklace reflecting light as she moves.
“Stay where you are,” I say.
“If any of you were going to shoot me, you would have done so by now.” She crosses her wrists, amused. “If I’m to go, it’s best to do so quietly…”
She balances a hand on the pew in front of her as she takes another step. The old bench creaks loudly beneath her lightweight. Her heels drag the floor. She scrapes her nails against the back of the pew.
She’s… not going quietly at all.
A shadow moves in her necklace, showing a dark shape lingering on the balcony above.
I spin around, hoping to catch it before it’s too late, but a sharp pain pinches my back.
Caleb grabs the dart quickly and yanks it out, but I feel the serum take hold, coursing downward like a bolt of lightning to my spine.
“Fox—!”
My knees collapse beneath me as Lilah tumbles to the floor beside me. I look toward the altar as Dante falls, too.
I fight it. I have to fight it.
I stay on my knees, forcing my quivering arm to rise and point the gun at Marilyn again.
Her safe, wholesome face twists into a sly smile as several men in black tactical gear descend on me and the butt of a rifle slams into the back of my head.
Marilyn steps forward and stands over me.
“Oh, Fox…” she whispers as my vision turns black. “You never learn, do you?”
Chapter 24
Caleb
“Fox—!”
I fall to my knees beside him as agents swarm the aisle. One of them scoops Lilah off the floor while two more take on Dante’s sizable weight.
“Ms. Fawn…”
I ignore Marilyn and the thick, black boots in front of me wanting to take Fox away from me. I check his pulse, searching for the slightest sliver of hope. It raps quickly against my fingertips. He’s alive. But for how much longer?
“Hey, peanut.”
I hear the deep voice above me and, just like that, I’m a child again. I’m five-years-old, standing next to my mother at the baggage claim in a crowded airport. Soon, I’ll look out and see him walking toward me down the ramp. I’ll tug free from my mother’s grasp and race to meet his wide-open arms.
I raise my head to look into his face.
He’s older now with wrinkles around his eyes, speckles of gray in his hair, and a scar running along his nose and brow… but it’s him.
My father.
I shake my head, unable to trust my own senses. This man looks like my father. He sounds like my father.
But my father is dead.
I stand up, praying that the lights played a trick on me, but the evidence is no less damning up close.
“No, this…” My voice cracks. “This isn’t possible.”
Marilyn comes up beside me. “I told you I had a surprise for yo
u,” she says, smiling.
Snake Eyes is about family.
My father is a Snake Eyes agent.
My eyes swell. “No…”
He takes a step forward, but I counter with a quick one back.
“Stay away from me,” I say.
“Now, Ms. Fawn,” Marilyn says. “Is that any way to talk to your father?”
“This isn’t my father.”
“I assure you, darling. It is.”
I wipe away a tear as it tumbles down my cheek. “No,” I say again. “It’s not.”
He swallows, his face blank and cold.
I look away from him only to see the other agents carrying Fox’s unconscious body outside. My chest twitches with a sob I try to hold back.
This… this was over. We had them but then…
My father led them in.
“Casey,” Marilyn starts toward the doors, “I’ll give the two of you a moment alone.”
“Thank you,” he says, bowing his head like an obedient dog.
The doors close, trapping the two of us in the chapel together. We stare at each other, father and daughter. A filthy lie.
“Caleb,” he says, “I—”
“Fuck you,” I spit.
His lips twitch. “I deserve that.”
“No…” I seethe, tugging at my cuffs until the metal digs into my skin. “You deserve far worse.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” he says. “You know as well as anyone how this organization works.”
I bite my trembling lip. “And this?” I gesture around. “Wasn’t this a choice?”
“Peanut—”
“Don’t you dare call me that.”
He exhales. “Caleb, I was recruited at a time when I didn’t have anything.”
“You had us!” I argue. “Me and Mom.”
“Your mother left me,” he says. “Told me the next time I got deployed to not come back at all. So, I didn’t.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Well… me, then!” I shout, my tears spilling over again. “You had me.”
He looks down as my voice echoes throughout the chapel.
“You could have told me,” I say. “You could have let me know—”
“It doesn’t work like that,” he says.
“What about Fox?” I ask. “He cared enough to get out. To fight them.”
“And look where that got him.”
“No thanks to you.”
He shakes his head. “Caleb, you’re never going to get the explanation you want. You’re not going to hear about how tortured I felt or how I was forced into this because that didn’t happen. That man in your head doesn’t exist.”
“Yeah, that’s becoming pretty fucking clear now.”
“They offered this life to me and I took it. Now, you need to start thinking ahead like I did,” he says. “Start worrying about your baby, Cal.”
A chill takes my spine.
He reaches behind him and withdraws a revolver from his belt. His revolver. My special occasion gun. But I gave it to—
Boxcar.
I grit my teeth. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing,” he says.
“Where is he?”
“He’s alive, last I saw.”
I deflate, my gut twisting into knots.
“Think about him,” he says. “There’s only one way you’re gonna get out of this. Your friends — Fitzpatrick and the rest of them — they’re done. The two of you still have a chance.”
“No,” I say. “I told her already and I’m telling you now. The answer is no.”
“Caleb—”
“You’re a coward.” I step toward him. “You want me to feel sorry for you? To show sympathy and understanding because you couldn’t handle your shit during a fucking break-up? Do you really think blaming her for all the pain you’ve caused gives you an out? Screw you.”
He rolls his shoulders back.
“I’m not like you,” I say. “I will never be like you. And I would rather die next to my friends than make the same choice you did.”
The double doors open and Marilyn steps inside again.
“We’re ready for her,” she says.
My father looks at me for a long moment before he takes a step behind me and places a hand on my back.
“Don’t touch me,” I say, stepping forward to get away from him.
Marilyn leads me through the house, escorted by two agents ahead and my father behind us. We walk out the front door and they stick me in the backseat of a car. Marilyn climbs in behind me and my father takes the front seat.
I catch him looking at me in the rearview mirror as we travel down the road along the beach. I try to ignore him but it’s difficult to turn away from the man I’ve so badly longed to see just one more time.
I drop my head. This man isn’t my father.
My father is dead.
The car stops. I look out the window at the dormant Zappia casino.
Marilyn exits the car and waits for me to slide out. She leads me toward the front entrance, which appears to have been blown open with great force. I walk over the threshold slowly, avoiding the debris.
I look inside the casino and my heart lurches.
Fox, Dante, and a third man sit hunched over a card table in the center of the room, each with one arm secured to their chair behind their backs. Two agents stand behind the table with their backs against the wall, watching them closely.
And Gio hovers beside them, his face filled with impatient anger.
“Caleb.”
I hear my name, pained and muffled. My eyes drop to the line of people on their knees by the bar, their hands bound and mouths gagged. Dani and Lucy kneel in dirty, white dresses. Lilah lies unconscious on the floor next to them and a fourth woman with big, brown eyes brimming with tears and blood on her forehead.
Marilyn turns to my father. “Put her with the others,” she tells him. “Make sure her cuffs are nice and tight.”
He grabs my arm and pulls me forward. As we walk toward the bar, another unconscious body comes into view on the floor.
Boxcar.
I jerk out of my father’s grasp and rush toward Boxcar, dropping to my knees beside him.
“Box?” I ask, cupping his face. “Boxcar, wake up—”
An agent steps forward a little too eagerly, but my father raises a hand. They step back into their place. He bends down and grabs my hands, purposefully tugging my wrists and forcing me to turn forward. He adjusts the cuffs, clicking them even tighter around my wrists as he stares into my eyes. I refuse to look away or even blink. I’m not going to show an ounce of weakness to this fucking coward.
His hands slip from mine, but he leaves something behind in my palm. He walks away and I make a fist, covertly running my fingertip along the metal object hidden inside. It’s tiny and triangular. A sharp point sticking off one side…
I look up as he walks over to the card table and lays the revolver down in front of Marilyn.
She grins as she settles into her chair at the head of the table.
“Now, wake them up,” she says.
Chapter 25
Fox
I jerk awake, roused by a sudden burn in my nostrils. I try to move my arms, but one stays latched behind me to the chair. A firm hand slams down on my shoulder, a silent warning to remain still.
I raise my head to look around, spotting Dante in the chair on my right and Luka in the one across from me, his broken nose dripping with dark blood.
A Model 60 revolver sits in front of us. I’d recognize it anywhere. Caleb’s good luck charm.
Marilyn Black smiles from the dealer’s spot to my left. “Good evening, gentlemen,” she says. “It’s been… an interesting night, hasn’t it?”
We don’t answer. I glance between Dante and Luka, trying to silently gauge exactly how fucked we are.
Two agents stand behind Marilyn, their fingers curled around the triggers of th
eir rifles. Gio stands beside them, practically bouncing on his toes as he smirks with delight.
And Casey Fawn. Caleb’s father leans against the wall, his face void of expression. He must have alerted the Boss that we were coming. He wasn’t really running for the hills like he said he was. Lied to Boxcar and Lilah right through his teeth.
A soft whimper echoes from across the room, making my heart twitch in my chest.
I look toward the bar, instantly locking eyes with Dani’s as tears fall down her cheeks. Two more agents stand behind the girls by the bar. Caleb sits on her knees with Boxcar’s head resting in her lap. Lilah’s as unconscious as he is, so we can’t count on her right now.
“I’ve waited a long time for this moment,” Marilyn says.
I turn back to the table to find her staring at me, amused at the gears working in my head to get us out of this. But there is no way out of this, and she knows it.
“I’ve thought long and hard about what I wanted to do with you.” Her eyes scan the table. “All of you…”
She picks up the revolver and opens the cylinder, pouring the six loaded bullets out into her palm. Dani’s diamond ring shimmers on her finger and my eye squints with rage.
“You’re going to play a game,” she says.
Marilyn slides two bullets back in and violently spins the cylinder before snapping it closed.
“I think a little Russian roulette would be appropriate, given the circumstances,” she says.
A rock settles in my gut as Marilyn slides the gun toward me.
“You first.”
Dani weeps, wrecked by an uncontrollable sob.
I look at her, my heart breaking. I don’t want her to see this.
“Dani, close your eyes,” I say.
“No, Dani…” Marilyn grins. “Keep your eyes peeled.” She leans in toward me. “I want her to watch as I finally kill you.”
I exhale the air from my lungs, feeling them burn.
Dante and Luka stare at me, their heads nodding with respect, just in case this is goodbye for us.
It’s been one hell of a ride, boys.
I reach for the gun with my free hand and Marilyn slams her hand down on mine.
Endless Love Page 10