The Fortunates (Unfortunates #2) (25 page)

Chapter

Twenty-Two

Anna

I grab my rifle and hold it in my hands. It feels heavier today…I can’t believe the time is almost upon us and I definitely can’t shake the feeling that something is amiss. It’s heavy in my stomach, a large ball of dread with nowhere to go. We’re going to run to the Unfortunate camp? Why are people going along with that? It’s madness. I’m fucking crazy!

“Twelve minutes,” Kade says, slinging the black bag over his shoulder. “How do those sneakers feel?”

They’re suffocating me. I glance down at the shoes and take a deep breath as I pull my ponytail through the hair tie one last time.

“They’re tight…but they’ll do.”

His face darkens as he lifts his rifle off the bed. “Get out of your own head, Anna. You’re only going to freak yourself out.”

Moving over to the window, I slip my thumb into my mouth and chew my nail. How is he so confident? How is he so content with this when I had to go above and beyond to convince him to do it in the first place?
I
should be comforting
him
.

I swallow my nervousness. “I’m fine.”

Twelve minutes and I run for the hills. That’s all I have to do.

Run.

Run.

Run.

And figure the rest out later.

“Kaden…” I utter, leaning closer to the glass as a ball of blackness in the distance catches my attention.

He doesn’t hear me so I take the time to look a little closer, squinting my eyes for a better view. It isn’t until they get closer, two hundred metres away, that I realise who and what it is.

The ball of dread in my stomach explodes, poisoning my blood and sending bile up my throat. I slap my hand over my mouth as heat prickles up my spine and singes my hairline.

Vince…

Vince with eight moderators in tow, each of them holding their rifles, are heading straight for the Milano residence. Where
I
am. Where
we
are. Where most of the Secret Ribbon is.

“Kaden,” I hiss, turning around as blood drains from my body.

He’s not paying attention. Instead, he’s toying with his handgun, cleaning the lion head on the handle with his black tee.

“Kaden!”

“Hm?” He lifts his stare and pauses when he sees me.

I force myself to lower my hand. “…something is happening.”

Cautiously, he carries his heavy body over to me and peers through the lace. Kade’s body goes rigid beside me. He hides the panic on his face well, but I can feel it in his muscles.

“What’s he doing?” I ask. “Do you think he knows?”

He shakes his head, but I don’t know who he thinks he’s convincing because it’s certainly not me. We watch, unable to tear our eyes away, as Vince and his goons walk right up to the front step. Vince jokes over his shoulder with them, smoothing his hands down the front of his black hoodie. With a loud laugh, he turns his attention back to the house. Wicked excitement dances over his features as his lips pull wide. I gulp.

“Yoo-hoo!” Vince cups his hands around his mouth. “Anybody home?”

“I think he knows.” I press my hand against my chest, feeling my heart as it slams into my ribs.

“Only one way to find out.” Pushing away from the window, Kade takes my wrist in his hand and slaps the handle of his handgun into my palm. “Use this close range.”

“Close range? What are you—”

“I have seven minutes to keep them busy until all of ours have guns in their hands.”

He turns toward the bed and grabs a rifle. Swinging back to me, he slings the rifle over my shoulder, its thick strap parting my breasts.

“You’re not going out there in front of them.”

Kade grips my shoulders, levelling his face with mine, and his dark eyes soften. “Please. I need you to do exactly what I say.”

“I still don’t know how to shoot,” I point out. “I’ve never squeezed the trigger, remember?”

He touches my face. “There’s a large group of them. Point and squeeze the trigger. You’re bound to hit someone.”

“I want to speak to somebody!” Vince’s booming voice demands from the ground floor. “Someone in charge of this…
operation
.”

I jolt forward, toward Kade, but he keeps me at arm’s length.

“He knows!” I hiss. “Shit, Kade. He knows!”

“Relax, all right? I’ll sort it out.” Releasing me, he drops the bag to the floor and jogs from the room.

I follow closely behind him, moving as best as I can with the ridiculous gun that I have strapped to me. As Kade marches through the manor, Unfortunates and Fortunates alike pop out, carrying their weapons. Some are scared, others determined, and a few scatter back into rooms and lock the doors. At the bottom of the staircase, John Milano slides up next to us, dressed down in a pair of slacks and a sweater, a rifle ready in his hands.

“Where are your kids?” Kade asks him.

“They’re having a picnic a few hundred metres out from the Unfortunate camp.”

“Good.” Kade rakes his fingers through his hair. “If shit goes sideways, I need you to blast as many of these assholes as you can. If we want to get out of here alive, we’re going to need space.”

“Where’s your gun?”

“I can’t walk out there with a gun. They already suspect something is going on and a gun will only confirm it. We have three minutes before guns start going off at the Unfortunate camp. If we can catch them off guard, it’ll give us a fighting chance at getting past them.” Pausing before the doors, Kade turns around. “Pick a place to hide and stay there until you hear the guns. Once they go off, run and shoot anyone pointing a gun at you. We are now at war, people. If you want to live, you have to fight for your life.”

I glance over my shoulder and gape at the hundred or so people lined along the railing on the second floor. Where’d they come from? I wasn’t expecting so many people, but to have so many just from the one house is incredible. Half of them don’t have guns and that worries me.

“Get behind the door,” Kade orders, nudging me to the left of the huge double doors.

I scurry into place. So do the people on the second balcony, and so does John, and we hold our breath as Kade grips the handles in his large hands and tugs the doors open. They creak. I can’t control the thump of my heart in my throat or the tremble in my fingers as I hold the gun, my index finger resting on the trigger. With a nervous flick, I lick my lips and strain my ears to hear the conversation.

“Vince,” Kade greets, stepping out onto the stone porch. “What do you want?”

The tap of his shoes against the floor disappears and Vince’s voice is nothing but a murmur. Shit. I tilt my head back, resting it against the wall.

When do we run for it?

∞ Kade ∞

He wasn’t going to lie. He was nervous. It seeped from his palms and tightened his chest. It took everything he had to walk across the porch and down the steps with a false sense of informality. At the bottom of the four steps, Vince waited patiently, threading his fingers together in front of him. Kade stepped off the porch and onto a step, loathing Vince’s smug smile.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” Vince asked, tipping his head to the side.

His black eyes danced with delight.

Kade simpered, slipping his hands into the pockets of his black slacks. “You look ridiculous wearing a hoodie with jeans.”

Tossing his head back, Vince laughed wholeheartedly, glancing over his shoulder as a few moderators snickered. “Did you just crack a joke? Now I know something is amiss.”

“Maybe you just caught me on a good day.” He forced himself to smirk.

His nerves waged a war inside of him as the seconds ticked down. Soon the guns would go off. When that happened, he wouldn’t know if Anna made it until he got to the Unfortunate camp.

Vince’s humour leaked from his body the longer their exchange dragged on. Kade could see it. All Vince wanted was to ruin a few lives, maybe kill a few people. He wanted to catch them in the act and bask in the recognition of it.

“Or maybe you’re lying through your fucking teeth.”

Kade’s stomach sunk into his shoes as Vince stood to the side and a moderator tossed a familiar face to the dirty ground at the base of the stairs. Fuck. Oliver glanced up at Kade, his mouth swollen, his right eye punched shut. Didn’t Anna tell him to go to bed? Where’d he go? To Vince.

Kade frowned at Vince. “What am I supposed to make of that? I didn’t hit him.”

“I know you didn’t. I did.” Vince reached into the pocket of his hoodie and pulled out a small handgun. “I found him carrying a rifle through the streets asking people what time it is. After a little convincing, he told me quite a story.”

What. An. Idiot. And this whole time he was worried about me ruining the rebellion!

“He’s drunk,” Kade pointed out, digging his fingers into his thigh from inside his pocket.

“And drunk men tell the truth.”

Groaning, Oliver pulled his drunk, tired body onto his knees. Blood dripped from his nose and stained his white shirt. He didn’t bother lifting his head. He knew what he did and he accepted it. There was nothing Kade could do without jeopardising the rest of them.

He breathed through his nose. “They also exaggerate it.”

Vince cocked an eyebrow. “So, you’re not plotting a rebellion?”

“Me? No.” Guns sounded off in the distance.
Time’s up.
“But she is.”

Right on time, the doors to Milano manor were thrown open and bullets whirled past. The moderators with Vince were caught off guard. Some were shot and dropped dead immediately, others dove for cover. Swearing, Vince dropped low and scurried behind the stone carving of a wolf to his left. Fortunates and Unfortunates alike zipped past him and disappeared into the town, heading for the Unfortunate camp.

“Get up!” As Kade started forward, he grabbed a cowering Oliver by his collar. “You dumb fucker!”

He shoved Oliver forward, glancing regularly over his shoulder as more people poured from the house. None of them were Anna. He had no idea where she was. Kade ran, dragging Oliver behind him. Bullets whirled past, taking down men and women left and right.

He had to focus on getting to the Unfortunate camp, but all he could think about was here. What if she was still in the house? What if she was shot? What if Vince had her? There was so much going on in his head he could barely put one foot in front of the other.

But he had to because there was the chance that his wife was waiting at the other end for him and he had to make it there for her.

∞ Anna ∞

I lost Kaden.

As I rushed out of the house I must have blown past him without seeing. Or maybe he’s ahead of me. A bullet zips past my ear and I squeal as a man in front of me crashes to the ground. Clenching my jaw, I launch myself over his lifeless body, and stumble, dropping to my hands and knees. Adrenaline explodes through my veins, forcing me back to my feet. The muscles in my legs burn as I exit the town and power onto the field. Coming from the town is the easy part. The gate was open and there’s a downhill slope ahead of me. It’s the climb to the Unfortunate camp that I’m worried about. I’m not a runner. Unfortunates aren’t allowed to run so my muscles are completely unprepared for this.

In the distance, our moderators are handing out rifles to those that have reached the halfway point and don’t have guns. It’s our only line of defence if
their
moderators follow us up the hill.

I can’t believe it happened like this. I can’t believe Oliver would risk everything we’ve worked towards. Vince wasn’t supposed to be at the house. He wasn’t supposed to find Oliver or bring a small army to the door. God knows how many people have been killed already—people that shouldn’t have been. We can’t win this war with only a handful of people. Every one counts.