Chapter 38 I dive on Liora, taking her to the ground hard. My body covers hers, my arms around her face and head as I shield her from the gunfire. "Are you hit?!" I bark urgently in her ear, wanting to check her over but too afraid to move my body from hers. I turn her face away as her father yells in agony, the hand holding the gun blown off, the bullet clanging against the cement pillar five feet from us, exploding chunks of rock everywhere, but I can't look anywhere else. "No. Are you?" Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the Findηʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Thank God. Holy fuck, thank God. I wheeze out a breath, trembling in a relief I've never experienced before. It's so engrossing I nearly vomit from it. "I'm fine. He didn't get me." "Jesus. What happened?" Confusion and panic have her trying to turn her head, but her father is face down on the concrete, screaming at the top of his lungs like a little bitch because his hand has been blown off, and I legit cannot think of anything more freaky or fucked up. Shien is standing over him, kicking his gun far out of reach of his other hand and creating a tourniquet around the bleeding stump with his belt. Liora's father is irate. Beyond sense. "What the fuck is going on? What are you doing here?" Corbin James screams. "I'm FBI," Shien says simply and continues on with other things I can't hear. He could be reading him his rights for all I know. "Just keep your eyes closed," I murmur to her. "Vander, what the fuck just happened? How are we on the ground and how did my father not shoot you, and how is Shien here?" "I texted Shien behind your back. I got him here. I saw him enter the garage through the side exit. And when your father lifted the gun, I reacted. I took you down as fast as I could and covered you with me. I just knew I couldn't let you get hit, either by your father or accidentally by Shien." "You saved us. Oh my god, Vander, you saved our lives. He was going to kill you." She moves to sit up and pushes me off her so she can look at the scene. "Your father had his gun hand shot off, baby. And that isn't something you should see." "Fuck that. I'm going to be a nurse." She shoves me off her with superhuman strength and rolls on the ground to look at him. And for the longest moment, that's all she does. Agent Shien is in the background on the phone now, likely calling in the event to whoever the FBI calls these things in to. I have no clue about that. She pushes herself up and slowly walks over to him before she crouches down. He's writhing on the floor, gasping and grunting while holding his bloody stump of a hand. She tilts her head as she takes him in, and he glances up, covered in sweat and fear. Then she punches him. Hard. Right across the bridge of his nose. And does it again and again, hitting his face repeatedly while screaming and yelling at him. She stands and goes to kick him when I wrap my arms around her and pull her back. "No! I want to break his ribs. I want to make him bleed internally the way he made my mother bleed. I want to break his neck and his bones the way he broke Cassian's. I want him to hurt." I can't deny her that. I want that for him too, but she's earned it. I meet Shien's gaze across the lot, and he doesn't give me an indication either way. Until he turns his back on us. Works for me. I release Liora, and she unleashes herself. She kicks him in the face and the ribs and anywhere she can. He's caused her and the people she loves a world of pain and anguish. He deserves it. He deserves worse. Even Shien is sort of standing in the background, not stopping her. "I hate you!" she screams for the last time before she breaks down into sobs, and I pull her into my arms and hold her. "He was going to kill you." "But he didn't. I'm okay, and so are you. So is Hazel. And he can't hurt us again." "That's right. Hazel." She tears from me, rears back, and wallops him in the face with the hardest punch I've ever seen. "That's for threatening my kid, you motherfucker." It knocks him unconscious, his body bloody and bruised and swollen. I'm insanely jealous. I want to strangle him with my bare hands and listen as he chokes and gurgles for life, only to have me take it from him. But this moment isn't mine to steal, and when Liora breaks down into soul-wrenching sobs, I pick her up. There are sirens in the background drawing close. "Can I take her home? She's in no place to make a statement tonight, and you're not detaining her." That last part isn't a question. He's not fucking detaining her. "You can go, but we'll need to talk tomorrow." I nod, cover Liora in a leather jacket, place a helmet on her head and her body on my bike, and drive us out of here. The FBI doesn't need us at this point. They have everything they need on him, and my cameras don't have audio. All they'll see on the cameras is the back and forth, and then her father pointing his gun at me. I'll make sure I have the part where Liora beats the shit out of him wiped. Twenty minutes later, I pull into my driveway, and Liora wordlessly climbs off the bike and removes her helmet, her expression dazed. "It's done, right? My father's reign of terror is over?" "Yes. I think this is the end of James Corbin. There's more to come though with this, but for now, we're safe and so is your mom and that's all that matters." She shakes her head in disbelief. "Speaking of, I need to call my mom." "Do you want to do that now?" She considers this and then says, "No. I'm not sure how she'll take this, and I want my father in prison first." "He'll go to the hospital first." "Down one hand." She shrugs. "I felt some ribs and his jaw and nose crack too." "You got him good." I take her into my arms and hold her against me. "I hope he's in agony, but it's nothing compared to what he's done." "You're going to have to learn to live with that. There's no retributive justice that will make you whole and satisfied after all you've lived through and lost." "But for now, he can't hurt us. How did you do that?" "What?" I ask, peering down at her, before I take her hand and lead her into the house. "Get Shien there. You knew he was coming. That's why you said that stuff." "I meant it, Angel. Every word. I would have let him kill me because I wasn't going to let him hurt you or Hazel, and instinctively, part of me knew he didn't want to do that either. He as much as said so. I was the liability. He would have killed me but let you live despite his better judgment because he could hold Hazel's life over your head. I think killing Cassian stole a piece of him. Why else would he allow you to live after what you overheard of his crimes?" She thinks about this as I take her upstairs and into my bedroom and bathroom. I remove her clothes piece by piece and start the shower, turning it to hot. "You know, I often wonder that. Why kill Cass but keep me alive?" "Whatever piece of him that couldn't help but be human and love you is what saved you. And while I want him to spend the rest of his life in prison, I will always be grateful for that part." "Vander..." She trails off and shakes her head, and I take that uncertainty in her mind and lead us both into the shower, letting the water wash it all away. I massage shampoo and conditioner into her hair and rub her in my body wash. She has scrapes on her knees and shoulder from when I took her to the ground, and her right hand is a little swollen from punching her father. I kiss each of them and keep her close. Whatever it takes so she knows she's safe and cared for and eternally surrounded by me. She's quiet, her mind too busy attempting to work the impossible through. It's not over. It's sort of the beginning in a lot of ways, depending on how her father tries to make this go. If he's smart, he'll plead it out. If he's dumb, he'll fight it, and I'll make sure he spends his entire life in a maximum security prison in seclusion. There isn't a system on the planet I can't infiltrate, and the world is run by computers. I tuck Liora into one of my shirts and bring her back downstairs. She needs to eat something before she sleeps. Shien texts me to say that they're going to need formal statements from us tomorrow along with the video footage, but to make sure to remove where Liora beat the shit out of him and that there's no sound. I smile at that. No sound means no one knows what I do or how I was a part of anything. I'm simply Liora's boss. Her boyfriend. The FBI wants to take the prize and the glory with this, and as far as I'm concerned, it's all theirs. I have what I want. The girl who stops me after I sit her on the barstool and pulls me back to her. "I'm not hungry." "But you need to eat." "I just need you." "Baby, you've been through a trauma tonight and⁠-" "Don't make me feel weak. Don't treat me with kid gloves. Make me feel bold and powerful and fucking epic. Please, I need to feel like I can walk through fire and hell in the same breath and come out whole on the other side." "You can," I tell her. "You don't need me to make you feel that way. You do it all on your own." She blinks at me as that realization crawls over her. "You're right. I do. I am that woman, aren't I? I have been all along." "Yes. Undeniably. And I'll walk through both fire and hell by your side while I do whatever it takes for you to see that and believe in that for yourself." "Prove it." She grasps the front of my shirt and jerks me toward her. "Show me what it feels like to be safe and fearless all at once with you."