Luka
"What?"
"I said, on your knees. Or do you want me to blow your little fox's ear off? Hell, I can skip straight to his knee if you'd rather."
He swung the gun toward me.
"No. Wait. I'll do it."
Edward slowly lowered himself to his knees.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked, looking up at the man. "What did my father promise you?"
"If it's about money, we can pay more," Michael said, raising his hand, drawing the man's attention to him.
The man smirked.
"Your father, young master?" The man let out a short laugh. "Hate to break it to you, but your daddy's not the one calling the shots anymore... They didn't take it too well when he failed to keep his precious son under control. Couldn't keep you away from hybrids or that damn bar."
He smirked.
"Your old man swore that burning the place down would keep you away from the fox. Guess that didn't work out so well… So they decided to handle things themselves."
He fell silent for a moment, as if choosing his next words carefully.
"As for your father... Let's say he's paying the price for his son's disobedience."
Them?
What the hell do you mean by "them"?
I stared at them, completely lost.
What was he even talking about? And what did Edward's father have to do with any of this?
I glanced at Kazuo. He didn't look any better. He clearly had no damn idea what was going on either.
"Hang on," Michael said, frowning. "I don't know who this 'them' is supposed to be, but listen, we're loaded. We can get you anything you want. An island, a helicopter, whatever. Even a couple of suitcases full of cash on top of that."
He nodded toward Edward.
"If he and I chip in, you'll be able to start a completely new, luxurious life somewhere else. It'd be perfect, it's-"
"Sorry, pretty boy," the man cut him off. "It's not always about money."
"Then what do you want? Just say it. We'll get it," Michael shot back quickly.
"You sure do talk a lot," the man said with a faint smirk. "Then again, I guess you're just waiting to hear those sirens any second now. You called the police, didn't you?"
A quiet chuckle escaped him.
"That explains why you idiots came charging in here without any guns. You were counting on this big guy..." He nodded toward Kazuo. "...to hold us off until they got here. Figured the four of you would be enough."
He let out a long, exaggerated sigh.
"There's just one little problem." The smile on his face widened. "For you, anyway… No one's coming."
He looked around at all of us.
"Whoever you called. Police, fire department, SWAT, hell, even the president himself. Doesn't matter. No one's walking through that door. Trust me."
"So what?" Michael didn't shut up. "What, you gonna kill us? You really think when my body and especially Edward Monclaire's body are found here, the cops are gonna ignore it? They'll hunt you down. They'll find you. Every single one of you."
The leader burst out laughing.
"God, you're hilarious. So narrow-minded. You really believe that if they find three bodies here-two humans and one beastman… two missing hybrids show up on top of that, the police are gonna go, 'Oh, must be a third party involved'?"
He laughed again.
"You're not that stupid. You know exactly who they'll blame." He glanced at me and winked.
A shiver ran down my spine.
His tone dropped.
"Now enough talking."
He raised the gun straight at Edward's forehead.
"Time to say goodbye, young master."
My heart stopped.
No. No.
"Stop!" I shouted. "Don't!"
I tried to move. I struggled against the restraints, pulling with everything I had, but nothing gave.
Cold panic flooded my veins.
No. No. Please, no.
"You... you hate me that much? Then just kill me. Let him go. Let them all go!"
He didn't answer.
Only smiled and pulled back the hammer.
But before his finger could squeeze the trigger, the loud wail of a police siren echoed through the warehouse, followed by a loud voice through a megaphone.
"This is the police! You are surrounded! Come out immediately with your hands up where we can see them!"
Police?
How?
He said no one would come.
My thoughts turned into a mess. On one side, panic and fear for Ed. On the other, pure confusion. What the hell was going on?
The man holding the gun on Ed clearly didn't expect this either. His head snapped around, scanning all of us.
Kazuo, Michael… then me.
Except he wasn't looking at me.
With everything that had happened, all the panic and chaos, I hadn't even noticed that James had stopped shaking.
He stepped out from behind me. In his hands, I saw a broken phone barely holding together. The screen was covered in cracks, the back panel hanging on by nothing.
But it was obvious he was still on a call with someone.
"You shouldn't have been that overconfident," James said, looking straight at him. His voice was surprisingly calm.
"Boss, we need to get out of here. Now!!"
The leader hesitated for a split second, distracted by his own men.
Edward did not waste it.
He lunged forward, knocked the gun out of the bastard's hand, and drove a hard punch into his face, sending him straight down onto the concrete.
Before the man could recover, Edward grabbed him, wrenched both of his arms behind his back, and pinned him to the floor. The bastard let out a pained yell, struggling to break free, but Edward held him down with an iron grip.
A second later, police officers stormed inside the warehouse, led by a tall, broad-shouldered officer.
One after another, they took the men down.
The moment they reached the leader and took him into custody, Edward released his grip without a second thought and ran straight to me, desperately trying to untie the ropes around my wrists and legs. First my hands, then dropped to his knees to work on the restraints around my legs.
I looked up just in time to see the leader shove the officer off him.
He broke free before the handcuffs could be locked around his wrists, lunged for the gun Edward had knocked away, and pointed it straight at me.
Bang!
A shot cracked through the air.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
The pain never came.
Instead, something warm splattered onto my face.
I opened my eyes.
Ed was standing right in front of me.
Blood dripped from his shoulder onto my face.
"No!" I shouted, grabbing him. "Why? Why would you do that?"
His knees gave out, and he dropped down again, collapsing onto the floor.
"Help! Please!" I shouted, looking around wildly.
Michael ran up to us.
"What the hell? Are you fucking insane? Why the fuck would you do that?" he shouted at his friend.
Ed didn't answer and kept looking at me.
Blood wouldn't stop pouring from the wound.
I pressed both hands against it, trying to stop the bleeding.
"No... no... you can't..."
My hands were shaking.
Hot tears streamed down my face, falling onto him and mixing with his blood.
"Don't you dare."
I looked up at Michael.
"Please. Go! Find someone. We need to get him to a hospital."
Michael nodded.
"Yeah. Yeah. I'm on it."
He ran off, and it felt like an eternity before the paramedics finally reached us.
They carefully lifted Ed onto a stretcher and rushed him to the ambulance.
"Wait! Please, wait!" I shouted after them, barely able to move my legs. "I... I'm going with him!"
One of the paramedics looked at me, then at the large police officer standing nearby.
The officer gave a single nod, and they let me into the ambulance.
The entire ride, I held Edward's hand.
"Please," I whispered over and over. "Please don't die."