Knives (Ruthless Kings MC #9) - K.L. Savage Page 0,3

He’s really holding himself back. His body is shaking, and his face is red.

“Mason, put the gun down,” I beg him. “They aren’t worth it.”

“Yes, they are,” he says, taking his eyes off the trio for a moment. He stares at me. Mason seems a lot older than seventeen years old right now. “You don’t deserve the treatment they give you. It’s up to me. I’m your brother. Me. I protect you.”

Okay, so he’s a year and three months older than me. Same difference.

“And I protect you too,” I say, wrapping my hand around the barrel of the gun to get Mason to drop it.

“They aren’t going to stop until you’re dead, Thomas.” Mason jumps when he hears sirens in the background, and with every second that passes, they get closer.

Mason lifts his gun again, pinching his lips with determination as he aims at Pete. Time slows as I turn my head and grab onto his arm to stop him. “Let go, Thomas! Let me do this,” Mason grunts, fighting me.

“No. We can’t—” My ears ring, and the heat from the bullet leaving its home is hot on my palm, burning me. I hiss and yank my hand away.

“Murray!” Pete yells, and that’s when my stomach churns as I peer over my shoulder, seeing Murray with a gunshot wound in the middle of his chest.

“Oh my god,” I mumble.

Mason doesn’t hesitate. He lifts the gun again and aims it at Pete, letting another bullet fly. My mouth falls open, and I’m on the verge of puking. Pete’s neck snaps back when the bullet lodges between his eyes. Mason swings his arm and lands on an injured Louis, but he is on the ground, gasping for air and blood bubbling out of his mouth.

I must have nicked his lung somehow when I stabbed him.

The sirens are anxiously close now.

“Mason, we need to go. We need to get out of here.” Oh my god, what did he do? How can we get out of this?

“We have to tie up all the loose ends, Thomas.” Mason squats next to Louis. A fifteen-year-old kid who sat in the back in Biology class today is going to die.

I didn’t want this. Did I? I only wanted to go home, to get away, I wanted them to let me be, but they couldn’t. They had to keep pushing. I stood up for myself and maybe I got carried away. I was protecting myself.

I never thought Mason would find me and commit murder.

Mason slides the gun between Louis’s lips and pushing it down his throat until Louis gags. When he coughs, he spits up blood. Tears trickle down his cheeks, and he slides his eyes to me, silently begging me to help him.

“You aren’t ever going to hurt anyone again,” Mason says to Louis.

Louis grips Mason’s bicep with a bloody hand, squeezing it, but doesn’t have the energy to push him off.

I can’t have Mason kill someone else for me. I’m not worth it. I run to him, and right as I’m about to launch myself at my foster brother, my feet digging in the sand to push me off the ground, he pulls the trigger.

The breath is knocked out of me when blood splashes against my face, warm and wet. I close my eyes, not wanting to see the raw scene in front of me. I can’t figure out how to breathe. I’m panicking. The sirens are getting closer, the world is caving in, and the only person I could count on just ruined his life for me.

How am I going to live life without Mason? He’s the only reason I’m alive.

“Thomas, open your eyes and look at me. Look at me!” He shakes my shoulders until my eyes snap open. “Breathe.”

I manage to pry my wet kids back and peer into the eyes of the only person that’s ever given a shit about me. I’m trembling.

“The cops are going to come, and they are going to arrest me.”

I shake my head back and forth, dislodging the pools of water filling my vision. The droplets drip down my cheeks, and when I look away from Mason, I see three dead bodies. Blood is everywhere.

So much blood.

“Thomas, I need you to run.”

I’m so confused as to how we got here. My stomach is rolling. I think I’m in shock, or maybe I’m dreaming. “We need to get out of here Mason. Let’s go.”

“There isn’t time. You need to hide. They are going to be here any minute.