Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
“Ares is waiting for us,” Crystal says.
“Darlings, less talking, more fighting, please. You’ll never catch up with me otherwise.” I add a wink when they all look incensed.
BANG! BANG!
Shots are fired in our direction.
We move forward as a group, slicing through guards coming at us left and right. No guests are left in the casino, so we can go all out.
Felix and Kai shoot as fast as they can while I cut up anyone who comes too close with a simple flick of my katana. Despite the pain, I push on, determined to reach Ares. It’s my duty to protect him, and I will fucking save him, no matter how much it costs me.
I owe him my life.
So I will give it to him.
“Fifteen!” Dylan yells over the fighting after he’s gutted someone from lip to lip, carving him a new smile. “I’m on a roll, bitches!”
“Fuck you, I’m just getting started!” Nathan screams.
“Sixteen,” Kai says with a snort.
“Twenty,” I muse.
“Cheater,” Dylan growls at me. “See how you do without your stupid umbrella.”
“Katana. If you use your weapon as badly as you use your words, I understand exactly why you’ll lose, and I win,” I quip.
BANG!
Gunfire to the left has Milo and Nathan going wild on a guard, alternating strikes with gunshots until the guy is on the floor, and the next one too.
Felix and Kai are back to back, shooting at anyone who tries to get too close to them, while Penelope and Lana protect each other by throwing knives around and plucking them from the bodies of their victims with ease.
Only Crystal seems to be having problems killing people, opting to aim for the legs instead to make them go down. So I finish them off and let their heads roll.
I have never intervened with what Ares did here in this casino because he explicitly told me not to. He must’ve thought there was still a chance to win this without destroying everything. To fight his father on his own and come out as the conqueror. Even if it meant his death.
No. I won’t allow it.
“Move!” I yell as everyone’s stalling from the guards that keep pouring out from the hallway ahead.
But I can clearly see the door behind them … along with the man standing in front of it, pushing his own guards toward us when he spots us.
“Torres,” I growl under my breath.
“There,” Kai says, pointing at him. “Fight your way through!”
“Happily,” Milo replies, throwing his nunchucks around like a good boy, making me proud.
I taught him well.
Torres backtracks into the hallway and runs back into his office, shutting it tightly.
Caleb’s grunt draws my attention. A bullet grazes his cheek, and the rage he exudes is nothing short of magnificent.
“Motherfucker!” He throws a knife at the guy’s bulge, who cries in pain when it hits him, collapsing on the spot. Caleb marches at him and stabs him through the cheek. “How does it feel, asshole?”
“Fuck, he’s wild,” Alistair mutters to me.
“Yup,” I reply. “That’s why Ares keeps him around.”
Alistair snorts and aims over my shoulder. “Duck.”
BANG!
A guard goes down right behind me.
“Thanks,” I say.
“Don’t mention it,” he replies.
“We’re almost there!” Felix yells before he stabs the last two guards in the belly, and Nathan shoots them in the head.
“Felix, Alistair, Dylan, Penelope, Milo, Nathan, Lana,” Kai says, “guard the hallway. Don’t let anyone through.”
“What about you?” Lana asks.
“I’m going in with them,” Kai says, looking at Caleb, me, and Crystal. “I want to see the truth for myself.”
Penelope and Lana nod. “Good luck,” Penelope says.
We pass beyond the hallway while they stay behind and block the way out.
Everyone tears off their masks and throws them onto the floor, as they’re useless now that we’re here.
“Ready?” Crystal asks.
Caleb doesn’t wait and kicks in the door. “TORRES! GET YOUR FUCKING HA—”
We all stand in the door opening, shocked by the pool of blood underneath the carved-up body lying on the floor. Ares.
Crystal
Is he …?
I cover my mouth as I gasp for air, tears forming in my eyes at the sight of the wretched amount of lashes to Ares’s skin. It’s far beyond anything he’s had before. His back is covered in gashes and fresh blood, his body collapsed on the floor out of sheer exhaustion in a puddle of his own blood.
Oh God.
“What the f—This is what you’ve been doing to him?” Kai screams at his own father. “You told me you were talking to him!”
A guard standing beside the door points an automatic rifle at us. “Don’t. Move.”
A man in a gray striped suit and a freshly shaved face along with a wavy, gelled-back coup of hair stands close to Ares. Mr. Torres. “You’re too late.”
Ares lets out a muffled groan and his head tilts, his eyes barely opening to look at us.
But I can still see the hurt on his face, the absolute destruction of his will to live.