Rain and Blood
HARDIN’S POV
“Put the fucking gun down, Garry!”
A voice cut through the chaos like a whip, sharp and commanding.
My head snapped toward the sound.
A man stepped out of the shadows near the abandoned office building, drenched in rain, gun steady and pointed straight at Garry’s skull.
His suit jacket was soaked, plastered to his frame, and yet the calm on his face was anything but reassuring. There was something cold in his stare, something detached.
“William?” Garry’s voice cracked, disbelieving. “What the hell are you doing? I thought we were a team!”
William tilted his head. “No, Garry. I don’t do teams. I stand for only myself.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Garry snapped. His arm tightened around Ariana’s throat, and she whimpered, her eyes locking with mine. I could see the bruises blooming across her jaw, the terror shaking in her bones.
“I said,” William repeated, louder now, “Put the gun down.”
Garry’s jaw clenched, veins bulging in his neck. “You fucking snake.”
And then—
Another voice.
Soft. Shaking.
“Please… just leave my daughter alone.”
My heart stopped.
I turned slowly, blinking through the storm.
Standing by the passenger side of the police SUV… was her.
Ariana’s mother.
Hair soaked, eyes rimmed with panic, one hand clutching the edge of the open door, the other raised in some desperate, trembling plea.
How the hell—
How did I miss her getting in the van?
Was I so focused, so furious, that I hadn’t seen her?
I didn’t have time to figure it out. Because Garry’s fury ignited like gasoline hitting flame.
“Shut the fuck up!”
He raised the gun and fired a shot into the air.
The sound was deafening.
Ariana screamed.
I jerked forward, instincts firing like a goddamn rocket.
“DON’T!” Ronny shouted, grabbing my arm.
But I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think with that scream in my ears.
Ariana’s scream.
Her pain.
Her fear.
I could feel it like it was stitched into my goddamn bones.
William stepped forward too. “Garry, put the gun down! This is your last warning.”
Garry spun toward him.
And fired.
The bullet hit William in the leg.
He crumpled with a cry, gun flying from his hand, clattering uselessly across the wet concrete.
Then Garry was moving again.
Dragging Ariana toward the treeline.
“NO!” I roared.
He fired wildly into the air and toward the vehicles, bullets ricocheting off metal and stone. Choi ducked behind a van. Marcus shouted something into his earpiece.
I couldn’t hear a damn thing.
Only Ariana’s cry as Garry dragged her like a broken doll, one hand gripping her arm, the other waving the gun like a threat at everyone.
“If I go down,” Garry shouted, his voice ragged, deranged, “she goes down with me!”
“ARIANA!” I bellowed, panic tearing my throat raw.
She twisted in his grasp, fighting, clawing, but she was weak, barely able to stand. I could see the way her knees buckled, how her hands slipped in the mud. And still he held her tight—an anchor, a shield, a fucking hostage.
“DON’T MOVE!” I screamed to everyone. “NOBODY MOVE!”
Garry whipped around again, gun raised, elbow locked around Ariana’s neck now as he dragged her backward. His eyes were wide, white-rimmed and feral.
The gun wavered.
Switched from her temple to the team behind me.
Then back to her.
Back to us.
Like he couldn’t decide who he wanted to shoot first.
Rain pelted my face. My fingers clenched the gun at my side. My jaw was locked so tight I thought it might break.
I was going to lose her.
He was going to shoot her.
And I couldn’t move.
I couldn’t move.
And then—
A cry.
A grunt of rage.
A flash of movement.
Ariana drove her elbow hard into Garry’s ribs with everything she had left.
“NO!” he screamed.
She twisted.
Slipped.
And suddenly—
Chaos.
Gunfire exploded like thunder.
“GET DOWN!” someone shouted.
Ariana dropped instantly, hitting the gravel with a cry. Mud splashed up around her as she curled into a ball, hands over her head.
Bullets tore through the clearing.
Sparks flew from the containers as lead hit metal. The air became thick with the stench of gunpowder and rain.
Garry was screaming, staggering backward, trying to fire as he ran. His shots went wild, too wild to aim—he was desperate now, cornered, bleeding from the mouth where Ariana must’ve cracked something.
I started forward again, slipping, sliding in the mud, trying to get to her.
“ARIANA!” I shouted.
She was still on the ground.
Still in the line of fire.
“Don’t move!” Ronny yelled, somewhere behind me.
But I didn’t care.
She was out there.
Alone.
A shot rang out near her, too close—she ducked lower, arms over her head, screaming.
I moved faster, firing once, twice—at Garry’s feet, trying to force him toward the edge.
And then—
No one saw it.
No one fucking saw it.
William.
Bleeding, half-conscious, somehow crawling back toward the weapon he’d dropped.
And he reached it.
Lifted it.
Aimed.
Not at Garry.
At her.
“NOOO!” I screamed.
He fired.
Ariana jerked with the impact.
Her shoulder—her goddamn shoulder—jerked backward as blood sprayed across the gravel.
“ARIANA!”
And then—
A blur of motion.
A body.
Her mother.
Sprinting into the line of fire like a banshee.
She threw herself over Ariana without hesitation, wrapping her arms around her daughter, shielding her.
And William…
Fired again.
And again.
Six times.
Each one louder than the last.
Each one an explosion in the stillness.
And Ariana screamed.
A sound I will never forget.
A scream that tore me in half.
That cracked my ribs open and gutted me from the inside.
That turned the world to ash.
I hit the ground beside her, sliding through the mud, grabbing her, pulling her into me as chaos exploded around us. I couldn’t even process the blood, whose it was, where it came from. Her shoulder—her mother—everything was red and noise and panic.
And still she screamed.
That scream.
God help me.
That fucking scream.
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