by A. Zavarelli
“Mandy, what in the bleeding hell are ye doing?”
“She’s coming with us,” she says. “Don’t come any closer, Lachlan, or I will shoot you.”
They inch further away, and I follow.
Niall and Viktor descend the stairs, along with the rest of the Russians, and fear like I’ve never known grips me. They’ve all got their guns drawn, and they’re all pointing in the direction of my girl.
“Mack.”
She holds up her hand and her big blue eyes are glassy when they fall upon me.
“Sweetheart, I need you to listen to me.”
Her lip trembles, and she glances between Mandy and Donny. He’s smiling, his teeth bloody and his eyes crazed. She must have hit him in the face already.
“What is this?” Viktor demands from behind me, his voice escalating to fury. “This was not the plan.”
Niall tries to calm him while I keep my eyes trained on Mack, looking for a way out of this. But Mandy keeps dragging her further away while Donny looks for any excuse to unload his weapon.
“Everybody stay back!” Mandy orders again.
I glance at Niall and he and Viktor both order the lot of us to stand down. There’s no clear shot. Mandy’s taller than Mack, but she’s crouching down and using her body for protection. She’s almost to the door, and I can’t let her go.
She shot Ivan. Something I never would’ve guessed she’d be capable of. I’m afraid she could easily do it to Mack too. With Donny, there isn’t even a question. His sadistic smile tells me exactly what he plans to do.
I bolt forward, and Mandy pauses to thrust the gun towards me.
“Lach, no,” Mack pleads. “I’m sorry for everything, but this was the plan all along. We’re working together.”
I freeze on the spot, staring at her in confusion. There’s no way that could be true. But Mack’s expression is flat and cold. And Mandy’s smiling like she’s just pulled off her best performance yet.
I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. I move forward again when Niall and Ronan both grab me from behind. I’m fighting them off, but it’s too late. Mandy and Donny have slipped out the door, taking Mack with them.
Niall moves to my side. He’s holding his phone towards me, speaking, but I can barely hear him. I’m still looking at the door. Was Mack really lying to me about that too?
“It’s a message from her friend Scarlett,” he says.
Finally, I glance down, and realize I was wrong. It wasn’t Mandy. Mack was the one who gave her grandest performance yet.
To save me.
Ronan rips the phone out of my hand and gives me a shake to get myself together. Niall and Alexei hand us some extra ammunition, and then we disappear out the door behind them.
Chapter Forty
Mackenzie
Mandy opens the driver’s side door and shoves me inside before she climbs into the back seat. Donny is in the passenger seat, leering at me with all of the sick shit he obviously has in store. They both keep their guns on me the entire time Mandy barks out her instructions.
“Drive,” she snarls.
I turn the key in the ignition and fumble with it. I’ve only ever driven a car twice, but I’m not about to tell her that.
“Hurry the fuck up!”
I get the key turned and put the car in drive. I press the gas too hard and we burn rubber out of the parking lot. In the rear-view mirror, I can just see Lachlan and his men filing out of the building and running towards the lot.
Great. A car chase.
There’s no doubt he’s going to kill me now. But I don’t regret it. I had to protect him. I did and said what I had to.
Mandy directs me onto the interstate, and it isn’t long before a black SUV is right behind us. Ronan’s at the wheel, Lachlan in the passenger seat beside him. They are keeping a distance, and they aren’t shooting at us. I don’t know what’s going on, but I guess they figure we have to stop sometime.
I have no clue what Mandy’s endgame is here, but I know it can’t be good.
I glance in the mirror at her, and her crazy is on display for all the world to see. Her hair is a tangled mess, and she keeps looking at me with that same familiar hatred I can’t understand. Cars are whizzing by us, and my hands are so tight on the steering wheel my knuckles are white and my fingers numb.
“Faster!” she barks.
I press down on the accelerator, and the car surges forward. Donny’s free hand creeps over to my thigh and grips me so hard I cringe.
“I told you I’d have my way with you,” he says. “When this is all over, I’ll have fucked you six ways from Sunday.”
I’m fighting the urge to backhand the shit out of him when I hear the cocking of a gun. I glance over, and Mandy’s got her gun pressed against his head.
“Hand me your weapons,” she says. “Or so help me, I’ll blow your fucking brains out right here in the middle of the interstate.”
“What the fuck?” Donny snarls.
Mandy whips him in the face with the butt of her gun and his nose starts gushing blood.
“Fucking do it!” she screams.
Donny hands her the gun and holds his other hand up to stem the bleeding.
“The knife strapped to your leg too,” she orders.
He reaches down and pulls out the knife and hands it back to her. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him speechless. I’ve got no clue what’s going on here, but it’s obvious I was wrong about Mandy. She wasn’t the one being played in this situation at all.
After she stashes his weapons somewhere safe, she holds the gun between us, ready to shoot either one of us who tries to make a move. The car is silent for a long time, and the wheels are turning in my brain as I try to figure out what to do.
“You don’t remember me,” Mandy says out the blue. “Do you?”
I glance at her in the mirror again, and I can’t hide my confusion.
“Should I?”
She laughs and shakes her head. “I knew you wouldn’t. Donny didn’t either.”
Donny and I both look at each other, and we’re wearing matching expressions of confusion.
“It’s not surprising I guess,” Mandy says. “Considering she didn’t either. That’s three for three.”
“Who?” I demand.
“Who do you fucking think?”
“Talia?” I whisper.
“Yes, your precious fucking Talia,” she snarls. “And I’ve got news for you guys. I remember all of you just fine.”
I don’t know what Mandy’s talking about, but I know one thing for certain. The porch light is on, but nobody’s home. She’s fucking delusional and clearly in the middle of a psychotic break. Donny isn’t saying anything at all, which is nice for a change. So I try to ignore her and formulate a plan in my mind to get out of this, but Mandy just keeps talking.
“Would you get a load of yourselves?” she laughs. “Even now, you’re so fucking self-involved you don’t believe me. I didn’t exist to you back then, and I still don’t now.”
“Okay, Mandy.” I keep my voice calm and steady. She wants to talk, we’ll talk. It’s a good distraction while I think. “Tell me where you think you know me from.”
“I must have passed you a thousand times on the street. You never even looked at me. I even slept in the same stairwells, the abandoned warehouses…”
She jams a finger into her chest as her voice wavers. “That was me.”
“You’re from Southie?” I ask.
Again, I’m surprised. There were a lot of runaways on the street back in those days. We all had our own little groups. But I genuinely don’t recognize Mandy. I wasn’t looking to make any other friends back then, I was simply looking to survive.
“I’ll give you a little refresher,” she says. “You know that deli over on M Street? The one by the park?”
Donny stiffens beside me, and my own stomach rolls as the pieces of
the puzzle start to fall together.
“And I know you know the alley behind that deli.” She points the gun towards me and that bitterness is back again.
“How do you know that?” I croak.
“Because I was there that night!” she screams. “I was fucking there, hiding in the shadows. And your friend Scarlett came to rescue you and Talia, but you left me behind. You left me there…”
I’m shaking my head, denying it. “That isn’t true, I would have known. She cut him… she cut his face.”
“Yes, she cut him,” Mandy answers. “She cut Donny’s face.”
Oh my God. I think I’m going to be sick. I glance at him again. The scar. The one I thought was from fighting. There’s no way. I would have known…
“Did that little cut stop you and your friend Donny?” Mandy shoves the gun against his head again. “Well did it?”
He doesn’t answer, but the guilt is written all over his face.
“No…” I choke out.
I don’t want to believe it. Believe that this sadistic bastard was right in front of me all along. And he not only hurt Mandy and God knows how many other girls, but Sasha too.
“Yes,” Mandy sighs. “I told you he ran with a different crew back then.”
“Mandy…”
“Don’t.” She jams the gun in my direction. “I don’t want to hear your empty words.”
Silence falls between us, and I try to digest everything she’s just said. It was Donny that pushed me into that dark alley all those years ago. I didn’t recognize him because I was too focused on fighting off both of them. Scarlett showed up and cut him, and then she grabbed my hand and we ran. I didn’t look back. I didn’t see the other guy’s face either. I was only thinking about getting out of there.
“Now you both have to pay for your sins,” Mandy’s low voice cuts through the silence.
I think back to the photos of Mandy that the PI sent me. How I thought they were using her. And something even more sickening occurs to me.
“You were having sex with him.”
I know it’s not the right thing to say, but I feel like I’m going to vomit. He must have really done a number on her, and I can only imagine what kind of anger could fuel that sort of determination.
She glares at me and shakes the gun at me again. “It was part of the bigger picture. He’d already violated me once, so what did it matter if he did it again. This time, I was in control. Isn’t that right, Donny?”
He doesn’t answer, so she clocks him in the head again.
“Yes,” he says finally. His voice is quiet, barely a whisper, but he can’t hide his anger.
“And Ivan,” I add. “You were using him and Donny to start a war between the Russians and the Irish?”
“Not trying.” She smiles. “I did start a war. Did you not see what happened tonight? It’s over. They’re all going to rip each other to shreds now. The whole organization will fall to the ground.”
“But why?” I ask. “Why not just go after Donny?”
“Because.” The bitterness returns to her features. “After Lachlan screwed me over, I wanted them all to pay. Every last one of them.”
“I don’t get it,” I tell her.
“You wouldn’t.” She laughs. “You never could. You don’t understand what it’s like to be rejected over and over again. By you. By Talia. By everyone in this world. I was never good enough for anybody to notice me. To even look twice at the damaged girl on the street. I liked Lachlan. That was real. But he didn’t understand. I couldn’t tell him about the bigger picture. I had to get Donny. He thought I was cheating on him, but it meant nothing. None of them meant anything…”
God, this chick really is off her head. I can’t help but feel bad for her, almost. “I understand better than most,” I tell her softly.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she says. “You had Scarlett. And Talia. But not anymore. Because I took her from you.”
My head jerks around and any sympathy I may have held a moment ago vanishes. “What does that mean?”
“I set her up,” she says coldly. “I made her think that her Russian loved her. That he wanted her.”
She glances my way and sighs. “It was so easy, because that’s what we all want, isn’t it? The broken like us. He sold her. And then she died. Left to fend for herself just like you left me that night. She died cold, and alone, and completely broken…”
“I’m going to fucking murder you!” I spit.
She jams the gun into my temple and glances back over my shoulder. I know we’ve been driving for a long time already. There isn’t a lot of gas left in the car. This is her last stand. She has to know we can’t outrun Lachlan. She’s going to kill me and Donny. That must be the final conclusion to her bigger picture.
“The feeling is mutual,” she snaps. “Drive faster.”
I press on the accelerator and drive. There’s only one option I can think of. There’s no way for me to wrestle the gun out of her hand at this high a speed without getting shot. I’m not even wearing a seat belt, so the resulting crash would surely kill me anyway if the bullet didn’t.
I notice a curve with a turnout up ahead, and I tighten my grip on the wheel.
“What are you going to do Mandy?”
She’s scared. There’s fear in her eyes. She doesn’t want to die, but she knows that’s her only choice. She’s boxed herself in. My question is distracting her, so I use the opportunity to let the speed drop slowly.
“We’ll just keep driving,” she says. “And then when the car runs out of gas, they’ll give me the keys to theirs or I’ll shoot you in the head. It’s just the way it is. I’m not letting them destroy me.”
We’re approaching the turnout, and I know what I have to do. But before I get a chance, the engine dies and the car starts to roll to a stop.
“What are you doing?” Mandy screams, shoving the gun into my hair. “Don’t fuck with me!”
“It isn’t me,” I tell her, trying frantically to restart the car. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
Donovan uses the moment of her distraction and panic to launch himself at Mandy and tackle the gun out of her hands. I don’t waste a second scrambling out of the car and towards the safety of Lachlan’s waiting arms. Their SUV is parked behind ours on the freeway, and he’s running straight for me.
“Get in the truck, Mack,” he orders.
I shake my head, but then a gunshot goes off.
“Get in Mack,” Lach pleads. “I haven’t got time to argue.”
I reluctantly do as he says, climbing in as I watch from the window. Ronan fires a couple of shots into the car, and then Lachlan is wrestling Donny out of it. He’s bleeding from the leg and the face as they drag him back to the SUV and toss him into the back.
Lach jumps in with him and makes quick work of tying him up while Ronan bangs a U-ie and turns us back around. Mandy isn’t with us, and I’m afraid to ask what that means.
Silence falls around us, and then Lachlan is beside me pulling me into his arms. I wish I could say that I was numb this time, but I’m not. I feel everything. The pain and loss for Talia, and even reluctant sympathy and regret over Mandy.
“I’ve got you sweetheart.” Lach wipes away the tears that fall down my cheeks. “I’m right here, Mack and I’m not going anywhere.”
“How did you get the car to stop?” I ask.
“Alexei,” he says. “I told you he’s good with computers.”
I nod and then ask my last and final question. “Is Mandy really dead?”
“Aye, sweetheart,” he says solemnly. “She’s dead.”
Chapter Forty-One
Mackenzie
When I open my eyes again, the first thing I see is a sea of stormy gray. Lachlan’s beside me, stroking my hair, and kissing my hand. He’s been here beside me often over the last three days. I’ve given him a vague explanation of what Mandy told me, but it’s all I
could force out.
He’s been patient with me, but I can tell it’s wearing on him. I’ve been despondent. Depressed. Unable to come to terms with what’s happened to Talia. Everything she said validated what Alexei already told me. She was sold into slavery and shipped overseas somewhere. There’s no doubt in my mind that Mandy had gone crazy, but I believed her when she said Talia was dead. In my heart I already knew that she was probably gone, but this didn’t bring me closure like I’d hoped. Or even justice. Because what justice is there?
I know Donny will die. And Mandy is dead. Lach has promised that they will find out who the Russian was, and I believe him. But I don’t feel any better about it. There’s just a mountain of grief and a million other things that still need to be dealt with. I don’t know how to move on, but I know that I have to try.
Lachlan kisses me on the forehead and moves to leave again, but I reach up and grab him.
“Don’t.”
He sits back down on the bed beside me and holds me close.
“I know ye won’t believe me, Mack,” he says. “But I understand how ye’re feeling right now.”
I glance up at him, and for the first time in my selfish state of grief, I notice how exhausted he looks. I haven’t even considered what he’s been dealing with these last few days. I just knew that if Niall wanted to come and drag me from the bed to kill me, I probably couldn’t have put up a fight. It isn’t fair of me to heap all of that onto Lachlan though.
“Tell me,” I say.
He moves up and rests his back against the headboard, and I climb up onto his lap and curl against his chest.
“Ivan was the rat,” he says quietly. “He killed my grand-da. And your father. And I wanted to be the one to kill him. That’s what this was all about.”
“I’m sorry, Lach.”
A few more tears spill from my eyes, and I quickly try to wipe them away. But more just come to replace them.
“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” he asks.