Page 178 of Taming Seraphine
Evangeline backs toward the door, her body shaking. “He’s exaggerating. Your father told me Sera was fine.”
“Fine doing what?” The young man’s gaze bounces from me to his mother. He raises the gun with a trembling hand and screams, “What the fuck happened to my little sister?”
Evangeline opens the front door and bolts.
Gabriel turns to me, his eyes filling with tears. “What happened to Sera?”
“She can tell you herself.” I chase after Evangeline, who’s already made it halfway across the lawn surrounding her cozy little house.
Sunlight shines down on her blonde hair, making it glint like fool’s gold. Evangeline and Capello were a perfect match, two treacherous souls who treated their children like commodities. One became an organ bank. The other, a weapon.
I catch up with her in a few strides and grab her by the waist.
She stiffens and hisses, “Let go of me.”
“Not a chance,” I snarl. “You didn’t just trade your life for your daughter’s. You condemned an angel to five years of hell. Now, you’re going to explain this and how you bargained his liver to save your worthless hide to Gabriel.”
I turn around, my arms still wrapped around her waist, when pain slices through my back. Releasing Evangeline, I stare into the murderous blue eyes of her daughter.
And she’s holding a bloody knife.
SEVENTY
SERAPHINE
Leroi lets go of Mom and looks me full in the face. His eyes are wide, yet he holds his features in that deceptive mask of calm. That’s the trouble with Leroi. You don’t see the snake beneath the suave exterior until it’s wrapped its coils around your throat… or that of your supposedly dead mother.
“Sera—”
I cut off his lies with a knife to the gut that brings him to his knees. Mom clutches her temples and fills my ears with the same screams that are the soundtrack to my nightmares. My stomach lurches. I part my lips to speak, but all that comes out is a dry heave.
My ears ring with a gunshot. A hot knife of pain sears my shoulder. I whirl around, finding Miko standing by the car, holding a pistol.
I should have killed him when I had the chance.
Leroi grabs my wrist and croaks something that gets lost between the roar of blood between my ears and Mom’s continuous screams.
Miko charges at me with the pistol. Behind him, the car is still running with the driver’s side door open. Memories of that night rise to the surface, only this time they’re not a dream. I need to get away. Clear my head. Work out how to win a gunfight when all I have is a blade.
I charge at Miko with the knife. He’s so furious that I hurt his precious Leroi that he raises a hand, expecting to grab my throat. At the last moment, I sidestep and slip into the driver’s seat of the car.
“Seraphine!” Leroi yells.
It’s too late. I slam my foot on the gas pedal, lurch the car forward and clip the vehicle in front. Someone rushes to the passenger door. It’s Gabriel, looking nothing like the emaciated figure from the screen.
“Sera,” Gabriel rasps.
This is no apparition. This is no picture on a screen. Everything I knew about the state of my family has been an elaborate lie. I speed down the street, tires squealing and engine roaring. Gabriel tries to run after me, but soon disappears from my rearview mirror.
It takes several heartbeats to realize I’ve stopped breathing before I fill my lungs with air.
Mom is alive.
Gabriel is healthy.
Leroi is working with Anton.
I can’t trust anyone, not even myself, because the knife in my heart burns hotter than the bullet wound in my shoulder.