Christmas with My Enemy (Feuding Hearts Christmas)

Chapter 12

twelve

BEAST

My eyes scream for sleep, but I remain at the window, watching the snowfall. The past few hours have been stressful, and I'm still hurt about how the situation has massively degenerated.

From starting the day as lovebirds, Tati and I are no longer on speaking terms. I don't know where that allegation about me killing her brother entered her head, but she's holding on to it pretty strongly.

I wipe my face and heave a sigh. There's a tightness in my chest that won't go away. I can't think of a time in my relationship with Tati when I was this scared of losing her.

A yawn escapes my lips and forces me to walk away from the window. I love Tati, but I need to get a shuteye. The door is locked, so she can't get away while I'm sleeping.

I'll definitely get one last chance to talk sense into her before she does anything rash.

I'm a few steps away from the couch, almost getting on it, when I see a picture on the floor. Knowing I've not seen anything like that all day, I drop to my knees and check it out.

It's a picture of a boy who has a sharp resemblance to Tati.

Same wide eyes, thin lips, and a magnetic smile. That's her brother. I turn the photograph around and see the words scribbled on it.

"Oh, fucking hell." This is what has been eating Tati up! I bang on the door, begging her to open up.

"I don't know where this came from, okay? I don't have anything to do with your brother's death."

An annoying echo is all I get in response. I bang on the door, overwhelmed by frustration. Tati doesn't reply. I walk to the chair and collapse on it, finally getting some sleep.

It's already morning when I hear Tati's footsteps at the door. She's trying to open the door, but the keys are in my pockets.

"Tati," I dart off the couch. "We need to talk."

"I don't have anything to say to you."

I hurry over to her and place a hand on her shoulder. "You have to listen to me."

Tati turns around. Her eyes are blazing. "No."

I throw my hands up. "All right. It's fine. You can do whatever you want."

I step in front of her and begin to unlock the door. As I attempt to open the door, a flurry of gunshots smashes against the door. One grazes my upper arm.

"Go down!" I yell at Tati as I tumble to the ground. Tati joins me on the floor as bullets fly over our heads. I crawl forward with my elbow, edging toward the couch.

"What are you doing?" Tati makes a scared whisper.

"Trying to get us help," I whisper back, but the heavy gunfire easily swallows up my words.

I crawl forward, sometimes stopping to avoid knocking over already fallen stuff. A muffled cry escapes my lips as I crush my elbow against shards of broken glass.

Blood gushes out of the cut, and it hurts as badly as the bullet wound on my arm. The pain is intense, but I don't stop crawling.

Finally, I get to the chair and pull my phone off the bed. Then I begin to type in the numbers as soon as I get my hands on it.

"Hey, Pop. I'm getting terrible some here at the cabin."

"What the hell?"

"Yeah, you can hear the gunshots, huh? Send backup right now. I'll try to. . ."

My voice is punctuated by a bullet whizzing over my head. I duck hard, and the phone drops from my hand onto the debris-covered floor. I quickly snatch it back and crawl away from the exposed area. The shooting stops after a while, but I know better than to believe the bad guys are gone just like that. They must be on their way to the door to check out what is going on.

Using the opportunity of the ceasefire, I get off my feet and hurry to grab a pistol from the cabin weaponry. When I return and look outside the window, I see the bad guys closing in on us. They must think they got a kill because they are getting closer without hiding anywhere. I still don't understand how they shot at us like that when Kingz's daughter is in here with me. Maybe they know I'll keep her safe.

I smash open the window with my elbow and begin to fire at the bad guys. My first shot hits an opponent in the thigh, and I follow up by catching another one in the neck.

I sigh of relief as my boys pull up, guns blazing. While they fight the Detroit Kingz, I lead Tati to a secret room where she'll be safe.

"You're going back to fight with them?"

"Yeah. Can't leave them all to it."

"I don't like being alone here."

"Yeah, I understand. Only for a while."

I blow Tati a kiss and hurry out to join the other guys. By the time I climb out of the safe spot, the Detroit Kingz have been pushed back. And my men are already gathered to celebrate victory. I slap them on the back and celebrate with them. It has been a hell of a day, but with them by my side, we have beaten the asses of those damn Kingz. Without them, Kingz's crew would have shot me full of holes.

"Thanks for saving my ass, boys."

"Anytime, boss, anytime."

Pop comes over and looks at the bullet-ridden door. "They really came hard on you, didn't they?"

"Yeah, I could have easily got caught. I can't thank you enough."

I hug Pop and thank the guys again.

"You know you can't stay here anymore right?" Pop says.

"They'll come back for you if you try it and we might not make it here in good time."

"Sure, I'll go somewhere else."

"Where?"

"I'll let you know when I get there."

Pop nods and walks back to the other guys. After a short while, they clamber onto the vehicles and drive away from the vicinity of the cabin. I look at my car and see that the tires and windscreen are smashed. I'll need to hire a car to take me away from here.

I return to the room and see Tati sitting in the room, biting her nails and staring into space. She gets off the chair and runs over to hug me as soon as I open the door. I hug her back, sniffing her hair.

"Don't ever try this again," she moans against my chest.

"What?"

"Going off to fight and leaving me here. Next time, I want to fight. It's my fault this fight is happening so it only makes sense that I join in."

I smile at her and hold her shoulders. "I want to protect you, let me do just that."

We walk away from the basement and lurk around the cabin living room. I look at Tati's packed bag and notice that she's looking at it too.

"Still wanna move out or you changed your mind?"

"Not anymore," Tati chuckles. "I've seen that you didn't kill my brother. And you've done your best to protect me from my father, even when you could have thrown me out to him to stop the problem. Thank you."

"Come here," I pull her close and fit a kiss on her forehead. "I love you, Tati."

"I love you too."

Those words brighten my day. The next few hours require us to move out of here to another safe spot. But I feel positive that we'll be fine. Together.

"There's one more thing I need you to do," Tati says with her head resting on my chest.

I pull back and look into her face. "What's it?"

"Now that I know you didn't do it, I need you to find out who killed my brother. Can you help me with that?"

I draw in a sharp breath and nod gently. "Yeah, the street is hot at the moment and your father is bristling, but I'll do my best and find out the killer."

"Thank you," I see the anguish on her face and know how much this means to her. I felt the same way when my brother passed away. I would have said she should let it go, but now that the wound has been reopened, it only makes sense that she knows who killed her brother. That's one more addition to my list for the week. Find Nate’s killer. I have no idea where to start investigating, but I have to do something about it, yeah.