Page 110 of Beautiful Forever
“Always,” I gasp, though my body is ready to collapse.
“Next time, don’t get yourself captured.”
“Touché.”
“But I got captured on purpose. What’s your excuse?” She fires off three rounds in quick succession. Every shot is a promise.I’ve got you.Your family is here. We’re taking you home.
“I wasn’t…paying attention.”
She has been occupying my thoughts twenty-four-seven, and Viktor’s men caught me by surprise while I was on my morning run.
I almost have a heart attack when a grenade rolls across the floor. “Syn!”
Pulling me forward, she nonchalantly kicks it backward down the stairs. Seconds later, the explosion shakes the walls, and plaster dust billows up the staircase like London fog.
We slowly slink along the wall, trying not to get hit by a wayward bullet. Everything becomes a blur of violence and motion as she steers me around the fray. Shouts echo off the high ceiling—orders, screams, bullets snapping through plaster. Hendrix slides across the slick marble on his knees, the muzzle flash lighting his fierce grin.
“Show off!” Syn yells.
He winks and blows her a kiss before jumping back into the fight.
I look on in stunned awe as anarchy becomes a skilled choreography of death and blood. My family, my friends, aren’t just fighting—they’re dismantling Viktor’s men piece by piece, like a pack of apex predators taking down their prey.
When it’s all over, the silence that follows is deafening.
Andie scares the shit out of me when she suddenly pops up in front of us. “You okay, cuz?”
“Yeah. Thanks for the idea.”
I peer down at her in question, and Syn holds up her arm. “Subcutaneous GPS implant. Andie has one.” She beams a smile at me, and I swear to God, I’d kiss the shit out of her if my face wasn’t swollen the size of a Goodyear blimp.
Tristan and Constantine run toward us, blood streaking their faces and clothes. Tristan reaches us first and grabs Syn’s face.
“What the fuck, baby?” he says when he sees the bruise on her cheek.
“I can’t even feel it. Does it look bad?”
“You look fucking beautiful.” He glances at me, stark relief on his face. “Wish I could say the same about you.”
It hurts to laugh. “Kiss…my…ass.”
“Careful,” Syn cautions when Constantine hooks his arm around me and takes my weight off her.
Hendrix waltzes over, and the kiss he gives Syn should be illegal in public. “Hey, man. Good to have you back,” he says when they come up for air.
“Where’s Viktor?”
Tristan motions with a tilt of his head where Viktor is on his knees, Pyotr holding a gun to the back of his head. One nod from me, and Viktor’s brains will be splattered all over the floor. It would be so easy. End his life and be done. But he deserves to suffer.
“Get your filthy hands off me! My father is a US senator!”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Hendrix mutters when Liam drags a feral Serena out from her hiding place. Hendrix smooths away Syn’s frown line when she glares at him. “Can’t get mad at me for past stupid mistakes.”
“Viktor, do something!” she shrieks. Which is an idiotic thing to say, given his current circumstance.
“Serena, shut the fuck up!” he growls, and Pyotr coldcocks him on the back of the head to stay quiet.
“My father will destroy you all! He will ruin every single one of you!” Like a pissed-off cat, Serena claws at Liam’s grasp, her mouth running a mile a minute, hurling insults at everyone. And then she locks onto Syn. “You stupid, hideous bitch. You’re going to pay for this.”
