Page 125 of Intent to Kill
He tried to scream but he could only watch from a standstill.
The ground around his shoulders became warm and sticky. Like a wave rolling onto the sand, the blood rolled from him to cover the floors.
Then, his vision pounded in and out like pulses of a drumbeat. Through each beat he saw a different scene. T.B. and Antonio splashing gasoline around the warehouse. Splashing gasoline in a circle around him. Dan, Carlos, and Paul, mouths gaping like they were screaming. Then his friends being dragged out of the warehouse.
Orange flames drew nearer and nearer, spurred higher by the flammable liquid. Heat pushed up against his skin as the numbness swept higher up his body. The darkness in his eyes got deeper until there was nothing left. Until the pulses of his vision became further and further apart.
This was it. He was going to die.
But he’d certainly die satisfied. He’d loved hard. So even if the end had arrived, he knew his love would not die alongside his body.
He closed his eyes and waited. When the darkness pulled him down, he welcomed it.
* * *
Mercedes sped down the highway. In contrast to the life that crashed down around her, on the road she had only precise control. Each movement so smooth that reason itself melted to her will.
She’d arrived at the mansion just in time to see Blake’s men load a near-dead Adam into a speedboat and glide away. Blake was in for a kill. He’d head straight over the water to his warehouse at the docks.
He would beat her there. So she had to hurry.
Barely having scaled the stone wall by the hedge maze to see Adam dragged away, she was hurling her body over it again, racing for her car.
As she sped toward the docks, she forced her tears away and left only cold, unrelenting determination in their midst. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened, as if that gave her more control.
She was a force. And she could not be stopped.
When she reached the docks, she knew she’d found the right spot when she saw Dorian’s entourage of cars parked in front of the towering tin warehouse.
She wasn’t religious. But now... well, she only prayed she’d gotten there in time.
She roared onto the slatted roadways that circled the docks revealing the river waters beneath. Stopping only enough to dive out, she bolted from the car, loading her gun as she tore off running.
One shot echoed in the distance.
Hair billowing, she ran faster.
Another shot sounded. Then another.
As if slammed back by a wall of wind, she froze. Three shots...four of her family in there.No. No. No!
She ran again. But this time she wasn’t quick enough. For all she’d done on the roads to master speed, this time she was too slow.
Then, the warehouse erupted into flames, knocking her down. Perched on the ground, she could vaguely see Dan, Carlos, and Paul backing away from the warehouse with widened eyes. They looked defeated and...wracked with guilt?
Following closely behind was Dorian, Yani, Antonio, and T.B. moving casually and victoriously.
Adam was not with them.
Her heart heaved, as if something that had once been warm there had shattered.
No! She started running again. If Adam was inside a burning building, then she was walking through fucking fire.
When she reached the warehouse, she found no entry in the back. The fire on the other side had heated the metal to be too hot to touch.
But the tin was rusty enough that–
She kicked the tin in, bending it so hard with her heel that it gave way.
