Finale: A Dark Gang Romance (Academy of Stardom Book 4)

The muffled sound of gunshots ring out in the air around us, and every single one is like a bullet to my heart. Grim grabs a gun from the table, loads up the magazine, and then hands it to me.

“Shoot first, ask questions later. Got it?” she says, grabbing her own gun and picking up a knife, sheathing it at her waist.

“Got it,” I reply with a terse nod of my head. My eyes scan the table and I reach for a flick knife, tucking it into the back pocket of my jeans, remembering what York had told me. Gun first, then knife, failing that I should use my fists. More shots ring out just as Dax enters the main portion of the warehouse and sprints towards us.

“Move your arse now!” he yells, Beast and four of the ghosts close behind him. “Get behind the bar!”

He sprints across the warehouse just as the door we use to enter Tales by is riddled with a round of bullets. They splinter the wood and send shards flying into the open space. Throwing his arm over my shoulder, Dax shields me with his body as the door flies open and more shots ring out. I see one of the ghosts hit the ground, blood and brain matter splattering out from the gaping hole in his head as Dax shoves me in front of him.

“Fucking cunts!” Beast shouts, grabbing Grim’s hand and pulling her forcefully behind the bar.  Dax and I follow them whilst the remaining ghosts run for cover.

“They came out of fucking nowhere,” Dax exclaims, his chest heaving as he peers around the side of the bar. “There’s too many.”

“Santiago and David?” Grim asks, gunfire ringing out around us. Whilst I’m fucking shaking at every shot, she’s eerily calm.

“Without a doubt. They’re bringing the battle to us.”

“Good, let them,” Grim says tersely.

“We should’ve fucking known they’d pull a stunt like this. Motherfuckers!” Beast seethes.

“Are David and Santiago here too or have they sent these cunts in to die first?” Grim grits out. She releases the magazine of her gun, double checking the number of bullets she has then slides it back into the grip.

“Jefferson only just called. It will take them at least ten minutes to get here from Tower Hamlets. That’s if they’re both coming here. David got in one vehicle. Santiago and Clancy in the other.”

“What? Oh God,” I say.

“Then we should have time to bring in reinforcements,” Grim states, she rests her fingers on my arm, squeezing briefly. “Focus on what’s happening now. You can’t afford to be distracted in a situation like this.”

I grit my teeth and nod.

“I called Xeno already. They’re on their way back,” Dax says, peering around the bar.

“Good. These motherfuckers have messed with the wrong woman. I’m not about to see any of the people I care about hurt. They want a fight, they’re gonna fucking get one,” she says, and right in that moment, I see the warrior within her. This is a woman who isn’t afraid of anything, and her fierce resolve gives me strength. Forcing myself to breathe, I try to take a page out of her book.

“What about the rest of the ghosts?” I ask. “They’re trained killers. Surely one of them is worth at least five of these bastards trying to kill us.”

“Four are on the roof, taking some of the cunts down who are still on the outside. One is dead. Two now,” Beast corrects himself, remembering the ghost who got his brains blown out no more than a minute or so ago.

Grim nods tightly. “How many are we looking at?”

“From what I could tell, at least thirty,” Dax says.

“We need to get to my office. It has a fortified door. We can call more reinforcements when we get there.”

“Let’s move,” Beast says, placing his hand on Grim’s back. She nods once and a look passes between them, one I recognise only too well. It’s fierce protectiveness and a soul-deep love. These two were made for each other.

“I’ll grab the door, keep low to the floor. On three, okay?” Beast clips out, one hand on Grim’s lower back, the other clutching his gun tightly. “One, two, three!”

He races for the door, hauling it open as Dax fires shots into the warehouse giving us the opportunity to make a dash for it. Grim moves fast, head down, gun held out in front of her. I follow, liquor bottles exploding as stray bullets smash into the shelves above our heads, raining shards of glass and alcohol over us.

“Fuck!” I shout, a sliver of glass embedding itself into my cheek. I reach up brushing at my face, feeling blood, something sharp, but no pain. Later, I’ll deal with that later.

“Move!” Dax hollers, his hands on my back as he shoves me through the door, slamming it behind him. It’s a thick, three-inch fire door, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it saves Dax’s life from several bullets that embed themselves into the wood and not his back. I send a silent prayer to whatever God is out there for keeping him safe from harm.

Beast takes off in front of us and I’m forced into action. Pushing all thoughts of Arden’s prediction away, I haul arse racing after Grim who has no trouble keeping up the pace, she’s meters ahead of me, Dax at my back. We get to the T-junction at the end of the corridor, and come to an abrupt stop. My heart feels like it’s going to explode out of my chest from the stress and exertion. Forcing myself to take in lungfuls of oxygen, I battle against my fight or flight instinct. Everything is telling me to keep running, yet doing so now would be foolish. We’ve no idea what might be waiting for us around the corner.

Beast peers to the right, holding his arm up to prevent us from moving any further. Dax steps up close behind me, I can feel his back against mine as he takes up the rear, covering our backs just in case the ghosts left behind in the warehouse are unable to keep our enemies at bay. Which is highly likely given we’re outnumbered.

“We don’t have much time!” Dax grinds out. I press my body against the wall and peer around him as one of the ghosts I recognise pushes out of the door we just exited from. He’s limping, obviously wounded. Pressing his back against the door, he uses the brief reprieve to tie a tourniquet around his upper thigh. He nods his head in acknowledgment at Dax, then holds up his arm, his fingers fisted before he opens his palm and flashes us five fingers. He does that twice more.

“Fifteen men left in the warehouse,” Dax relays, keeping his back to me. “They’ve taken out over half already!”

“Four men to the right!” Beast shouts back.

Grim grabs my hand squeezing it tightly. “Remember what I said. Shoot first, ask questions later. You can do this.”

I nod tightly. “Don’t worry about me. I’m ready.”

Letting my hand go, she holds her gun like a pro and if I wasn’t so damn terrified, I’d appreciate the whole badass bitch look she’s got going on right about now. Beast casts a quick look over his shoulder at us both, blows out two breaths in quick succession then leans around the corner and fires out several shots. I hear the distinct cry of pain and returning gunfire, and grit my teeth. Taking a shot at a target in the safety of a shooting range is one thing, firing a bullet into a living, breathing human, something else altogether.

“Two men down!” Beast grunts. “I’m out.”

Grim takes his gun, and passes him hers just as more bullets spray past his head and embed themselves into the wall opposite, sending up a spray of plaster into the air from the impact. He fires off more shots down the corridor and the return fire abruptly stops.

“They’re dead.” Beast steps into the corridor and motions for us to follow. “GO!” he roars.

Grabbing my hand, Grim yanks me behind her, letting me go only when she knows I’m following, but after a few more steps I realise Dax isn’t behind me and I stop running. Grim and Beast continue, passing another door on the right-hand side that leads into the main warehouse. Just as they barrel past and run towards her office, three men step out into the corridor between us. With my feet stuck to the floor, time seems to slow down, a countdown of horrors unveiling before my eyes.

Five bullet holes in the wall to my left.

Four dead men, rivers of blood pooling beneath them.

Three enemies intent on killing the ones I love.

Two friends out of ammo.

My dark angel, roaring at me to run.

Zero fucking time left.

“PEN!” Grim shouts as time speeds back up, her eyes popping wide as she screams out my name. One of the men drops to his knee and fires a shot that misses Grim but hits Beast square in the shoulder as he shoves her out of the way. He grunts, blood spraying from the wound, but he doesn’t appear to register any pain. He just lifts her off her feet and within a few strides has pushed open the door to her office and slammed the door shut behind him.

“KID, MOVE!”

I hear the panic in Dax’s voice, and I turn on my heel sprinting back towards him, firing off shots wildly behind me. I reach him in record time and he practically lifts me off my feet, wrapping an arm around my shoulder as we run. I’m vaguely aware of the ghost who’d been shot in the leg covering us as we head for cover. Barrelling through the next door on the left we stumble into the gym, slamming the door behind us. Dax frantically looks around the room, trying to find something to push against the door.

“Here, help me with this,” he orders, sweat dripping down the side of his face as he runs across the other side of the room and grabs hold of the beat-up sofa. Before I even reach him, he starts dragging it across the floor. Dropping my gun to the floor, I push the sofa as he pulls. Beyond the door more gunshots ring out as we half carry, half drag the sofa across the room. With one last inhuman effort, Dax shoves the sofa vertically up against the door, covering the small glass window and giving us a moment’s reprieve.

“What about the guy?” I ask, breathing heavily as I press my back against the base of the sofa and look at him with wide eyes. Boxing me in, Dax rests his sweat covered forehead against mine, then cups my face, and gently pulls out the tiny shard of glass embedded in my skin. I feel a trickle of blood slide down my cheek, which he swipes at with the pad of his thumb.

“You’re the most important person to me. What counts is that you’re safe. He can take care of himself,” Dax reassures me, even though we both know that he’s already wounded and no match for a warehouse full of men with guns.

“What are we going to do?” I ask, my whole body violently trembling. “This won’t keep them out.”

“We just need to hold out for a little bit longer. The guys will be here in no time and I’ve no doubt Hud has called for back up from the police. They fucking owe us. It’ll be over soon.”

“Beast was shot,” I blurt out, the image of his blood splattering against the wall mingles with that of the dead men on the floor in the corridor.

“Beast is a tough son-of-a-bitch, do you honestly think one little bullet wound is going to put him down?”

“Maybe not…”

“Kid, concentrate on the here and now. Worrying about them isn’t going to help you get through this.”

“Fuck!” My hands tremble so much that I have trouble cupping his face. Adrenaline right now isn’t my friend.

“Just breathe.”

Time passes and Dax just holds me whilst the battle continues outside. We’ve no way of knowing how many more ghosts might have been injured or killed, but when it suddenly becomes eerily quiet, I don’t feel any safer. If anything, I’m more terrified.

“Where’s your gun?” Dax suddenly asks, as though he too is coming out of the fog of shock.

I point to the other side of the room where I left it discarded on the floor. Stupid. I should’ve kept it on me. Dax runs across the room and picks it up, releasing the magazine so he can check how many bullets are left.

“Two,” he says, returning just as someone pushes against the other side of the door. I plant my feet on the floor and push back. Dax joins me in my efforts.

“That’s not enough.”

“Only one person can come through this door at a time, Kid.”

“I’m scared, what if—”

“Knock, knock, who’s there!” a familiar voice sing-songs.

David. He’s here.

My whole body goes rigid at David’s laughter and the nausea I’ve been holding onto threatens to spill out of my mouth. Dax grips my hand and shakes his head. “I’m here. I got you,” he mouths.

“Everyone’s dead. Beast and Grim are hiding out like the chickenshit’s they are, and we’ve got the place surrounded. If you stop putting up a fight, I might allow Dax to live. It is him in there with you, am I right? My men tell me you ran scared with the infamous Teardrop Dax!” He laughs again and I grit my teeth, pushing back against the sofa as they try to force their way in.

“Come on, Penelope, let us in,” he wheedles out, his voice like nails scraping down a chalkboard. “If you don’t, Dax is dead.”

“Get fucked!” I scream, that fear encasing my heart making way for rage. It boils beneath my skin, erupting like lava through my pores. How dare he do this! How fucking dare he! “I’ll fucking kill you!”

Dax reaches for me, yanking me to the side so that we’re facing each other. “Now you listen to me,” he whispers urgently. “You do not stick your neck out for me. None of this saving my arse bullshit. If it comes down to it and you get an opportunity to run, you take it regardless of what’s happening to me. Understand.”

“No!” I retort, shaking my head. “We get out of this together, or not at all.”

Dax grasps my face in his hands. On the other side of the door my brother and whoever he’s with are pushing against it. The sofa shakes, but we hold firm. “Don’t you fucking dare disobey me. I made a promise to myself a long time ago that I’d protect you. I failed you once before. I won’t fucking do it again. You run. I can’t fight them off if I’ve got one eye on you.”

“You can’t fight a bullet, Dax! Let me be your shield. He won’t shoot me to get to you.”

“Have you seen our size difference, you can’t shield anything, Kid,” he replies, a broken laugh breaking free from his lips. “Fuck, if only there was another way out of this fucking room!” The despair in his voice nearly undoes me. He knows we’re on borrowed time as much as I do. He looks around frantically, then his gaze stops on the slim window situated above a running machine over the far side of the gym. I know what he’s thinking, and I shake my head.

“I won’t leave you. We can hold them out—”

“Do it.”

“NO!” I shout, loud enough to capture the attention of my psychotic brother on the other side of the door.

“I’m getting a little impatient Penelope. Open the motherfucking door now, bitch!” Shots are fired and I hear the muffled thuds of the bullets spraying into the door behind us. It’s not a thick fire door and some bullets manage to pass through, embedding themselves into the sofa instead. We both look at each other wide eyed as we feel the thump, thump of two bullets hitting the stuffing just behind our backs.

“You go, now!” Dax shouts, pushing me away from him.

“Please, Dax.”

“No. Go!”

“Please,” I beg.

“MOVE IT NOW!” he roars, and the sheer panic on his face forces me to act. I sprint across the room, hauling myself up on the running machine. Grasping the ledge and standing on my tiptoes, I manage to lift the latch on the window, shoving it open. The window is wide enough for me to fit through, but because I’m so short, I can’t get enough lift with my hands in order to push through the gap. I press my feet against the wall trying to find purchase, but I keep sliding back down.

Behind me, Dax is struggling to hold them off as he turns around and pushes against the sofa with his hands. The door shakes, the sofa moves, and his feet slip and slide against the floor as he tries desperately to force them back.

“Kid, fucking move!” he shouts over his shoulder as more gunshots ring out. I see one penetrate through the sofa, missing his head but taking off part of his ear. Blood splatters from the wound and a scream rips out of my mouth. I forget about trying to escape. Instead, I make a split second decision and jump off the running machine, hitting the floor awkwardly and crying out in pain as I twist my ankle. But the pain is nothing to how I feel seeing blood flooding down the side of Dax’s face, most of his ear missing. I run towards him as he runs towards me, eyes wide, roaring my name.

Behind him the sofa crashes to the floor and Dax twists as he runs, firing a shot at the intruder. It misses, slamming into the plasterwork instead. He lets off another shot, his last one, just as he reaches me, his body slamming into mine. As we both fall to the floor I notice our intruder crumple into a heap as blood spurts from his mouth and pours out of the bullet hole in his neck.

It takes less than the time for two more men to enter the room for him to die. I forcefully shove Dax to the ground. Stepping in front of him.

“Don’t. Don’t kill him, please,” I beg.

My brother follows those two men into the room, at least half a dozen more behind him. They fan out across the gym in a line beside my brother, and for a moment I’m struck by his sheer cowardice. One-on-one Dax would kill my brother, even wounded and bleeding as he is right now. He’s a fucking pussy, and knowing that gives me hope because if there’s something my brother hates more than being a pussy, it’s being called one in front of his people.

Narrowing my eyes at him, I laugh. “Is this what you need to take down a handful of men, a fucking army? You’re pathetic,” I spit, making sure to look him up and down from head to toe.

“No, actually, scratch that. What you are is weak. You haven’t changed one bit, David. When are you gonna grow up and be a man and not a pussy, huh? Hiding behind Santiago and his men. You’re not worthy to stand in the same room as Dax, let alone the same fucking country.”

“I’m not hiding behind anyone, whore. Santiago ain’t even here.” He tips his head back and laughs and all I can do is watch. My fingers curl into fists, and my body shakes not in fear, but in anger. Rage.

“What do you mean?” I bite out.

“Oh, you thought that the man I arrived with was Santiago? That man is my valet, José. My fucking driver and Santiago’s half-brother.”

“What?” I bite out.

“He’s slow in the head. All he’s good for is driving my cars. I kept him when my men and I killed Santiago and his most loyal followers nine months ago.”

“That’s bullshit,” Dax comments, attempting to get to his feet, but I push him back down, trying to cover his body with mine as much as possible. He was right, I am too small, and he is too big, but for now no one’s shooting at him and that has to be my priority. If I can keep David talking, I can buy us time.

“Like Dax said, you’re full of shit,” I comment, sneering at him.

“You don’t think I’m capable?”

“No. I don’t. You pick on the weak because it makes you feel like a man. You’re not a man. You’re nothing! You’re insignificant. You couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery let alone take down someone like Santiago.”

“Shut your fucking mouth, bitch!” He snaps, and the soldier to his left cocks his gun, just waiting on his order to shoot.

“Why, it’s the truth?”

He steps towards me, smiling slowly. “When Santiago returned to Cuba after fucking up the deal we made with the King a year ago, I decided it was time that someone younger, and far cleverer took the mantle. That someone was me. My men and I razed his motherfucking complex to the ground, all in the dead of night. It took us just eight hours to take him and his most loyal men out. I’ve rebuilt and reformed his businesses with these two hands,” he says, holding them up to me and staring at them like they’re plated in gold. “You’ve all been chasing a fucking ghost!”

“I don’t believe it,” I reply, refusing to accept that everything the Breakers have done, everything we’ve been through together has all been for nothing. They’ve been trying to lure out a man who’s dead, and instead got my brother.

“I don’t give a shit if you don’t believe me. It’s been easy to fool the international police given José has an uncanny resemblance to Santiago despite having different mothers. Whilst they’ve been concentrating on José—who does whatever the fuck I tell him to do—I’ve been running the biggest, most profitable sex trafficking business right beneath their noses. What was Santiago’s is now mine, including his home, his widow, all his children, and that pretty little cunt, Sophie. Fucking a mother and a daughter is just the cherry on the cake. But you, Penelope, you were always the cake that I could never take a bite out of. That’s gonna change tonight when I kill everyone you love and take you back home to Cuba, alongside that feisty redhead. I’m going to enjoy breaking her in.”

“If you’ve hurt her…!” I grind out, my teeth scraping together.

“Oh, believe me, I’ve been very tempted to take a bite out of her, but thought I’d savour the moment when I’ve got you both alone. I’ll fuck her first and then when I’ve used her up. I’ll fuck you.”

“The fuck you will. I’ll rip your fucking throat out with my teeth before I allow you to take her,” Dax exclaims, getting to his feet. I hold my arm out, and widen my shoulders, trying to somehow make myself bigger.

“Dax, don’t!”

“She’s feisty, and you know I like them feisty,” David says, more intent on hurting me than Dax right at this moment.

My stomach flips over, bile burning my throat, but I refuse to give him the satisfaction of watching me throw up. “Where is she?”

“Right now her and José are being driven to a small fishing port in Penzance. Just as soon as I have you, we’ll be following them.”

“And you expect us to believe you?” Dax asks, his voice eerily steady, calm. “That you’d give up all this information, just like that.”

“Like I said, I don’t care if you believe me. You’re gonna die soon, so it makes no difference to me if I tell you the truth now.”

“You honestly think you’ll get away with this?” Dax asks, changing tactics. “Even if you did manage to kill us, in a few minutes this place is going to be surrounded by police. You ain’t going nowhere. You were a fool to ever step foot on British soil.”

David shakes his head. “You’re not the only one who’s got immunity from the law. I know people in very, very high places. You wouldn’t believe the list of people I supply women and drugs too. They call me the secret keeper. Knowledge is power, and I’m fucking untouchable.”

“Jesus Christ,” Dax mutters.

My heart plummets to my feet, because in that moment, as he looks me dead in the eye, I know he’s telling the truth. All of this is so much bigger than any of us had anticipated. The only way we’re getting out of this is if David dies, and with an army backing him, that isn’t going to happen. If I can’t convince him to fight Dax one-on-one then there’s no hope for either of us. I have to do something. I have to convince him to fight.

“You think I’m impressed by that, David?  I don’t give a fuck about who you know, or what you did to get to where you are. You’re still that twisted, sick fuck with a superiority complex and a miniature dick. A real man wouldn’t hide behind other men. I dare you to fight Dax without weapons and see who fucking wins then!”

David sneers at me, false bravado painting a mask on his face, but I know I’ve got to him. I can see it in his eyes as he glares at me. “I don’t need these men to take you from Dax. Look at how he cowers behind you. The only pussy in this room is him.”

“Fuck you, cunt. You wouldn’t last a minute with me. This battle between us has been a long time coming. Question is, are you fucking man enough?” Dax taunts, following my lead and poking the lion.

More soldiers aim their guns at Dax, but David holds his hand up. “No! He’s mine. Let’s fucking do this,” he says, handing his gun to one of his men and smiling broadly. “I should’ve beat your arse years ago, just like your daddy did over and over and over again.”

It’s at that moment, I know we’ve got him. He might’ve been able to beat upon a helpless child and murder a recovering addict, but one-on-one he’s no match for my dark angel. Dax will kill him with his bare hands. I’m as certain of that as I am of my love for him.

Reaching for me, Dax rests his hand on my shoulder. Squeezing gently, he lowers his lips to my ear and whispers under his breath. “I’m going to finish this once and for all,” he promises before stepping out from beside me and moving towards David.

“Let’s fucking do this,” David says, his lips pulling back over his lips in a feral scowl.

Dax rolls his head on his shoulders. Blood flicks from his torn off ear and coats his face and shoulder, but he doesn’t seem to notice. I watch him with trepidation in my heart and a fierce love in my soul.

“Get ready to die, motherfucker, because you’re not gonna win.”

For a split second I believe Dax. For the briefest fragment of time I allow hope to enter my heart and I convince myself that Arden was wrong. That tonight the only person who’s going to pay the highest price is David and these men that stand before us now.

I was wrong.

Because like Arden said, there’s no tricking fate.

As Dax runs towards my brother, David reaches behind his back, pulls out a shotgun, aims it at Dax and fires.