Chapter 43: Casualties

~Louis~

I was in the middle of detailing the plan to my grandmother about how we were trying to fool the King's Horses and how we had a man on the inside when I noticed that Malia wasn't sitting on the crate by the door like she had been just seconds before.

"Where did Malia-I mean, Lady Spencer go?"

The guards looked amongst themselves and shrugged their shoulders and I wanted nothing more than to bash all of their heads in.

"Are you kidding me?  You lost her?  How hard is it to do your jobs!"

Panic began rising in my chest and I was sure my grandmother could tell.

"My dear boy, it is just one girl.  If she was foolish enough to go out and get herself killed then that is her problem.  We will stay here until help arrives and then we'll go home and the men who did this will be killed."

"You don't understand!  She went out there to save Lizzie!"

"Elizabeth?  Why would she risk herself for someone else?"

"Because that's just the type of person she is.  And I love her for it."

Her eyes grew wide and gained sympathy.

"Then I will send some of my men to find her, if she means that much to you."

"No, I need to go out there myself."

"Louis, I can't let you-"

"I know you can't, which is why I wasn't asking."

I tore off through the pool house and was only stopped when one of her guards shoved a gun in my hand and then I just followed the screams.

***

~Malia~

"Thank god it was you that found us and not somebody else," I whispered as Daniel held me by the hip.

We had to act like he was being rough with me for the sake of the two other guards who were witnessing the events transpiring but I knew I would be safe as long as Daniel was the one who had 'captured' us.

"You guys  go on ahead and find the other girl we saw, I've got these two.  They won't run, will you?"

He pointed his gun at Lizzie for good measure who simply whimpered in response.  I felt bad for not letting her in on the ruse but that wouldn't have convinced the other guards.

"Alright.  Boss wants that one unharmed though," One of the men said as he pointed directly at me.

"You got it."

As soon as the other men were out of earshot and well beyond the bushes between the main house and the pool house, Daniel released me from his hold and Lizzie looked between the two of us, clearly confused.

"What's going on?"

"Don't worry, Daniel is on our side.  Can you get us back to the pool house?  And quickly?"

"Yeah, yeah I think so.  Are you okay?"

Lizzie looked between the two of us and nodded, though I could see tears beginning to form on her eyelashes.

"Don't worry, Louis and the Queen are hiding out in the pool house with all her guards, we'll be safe there."

We started to make our way back when a chilling voice stopped us dead in our tracks.

"Well well well...I knew we had a rat in our ranks, I didn't think it would be you, though, McGinnis."

We turned as the blood left my face and I knew I was as pale as a ghost.

He was still dressed in the red robes but had lost the horse skeleton on his head, thankfully.

He looked so much like Henry it was almost unreal, and the weasel himself was standing right next to him.

"Well, you know what we do with traitors.  Henry, please do the honors."

Henry raised his arm and held the gun directly at Daniel's head.  He pushed me away and I closed my eyes but didn't hear the gunshot.

I opened them again as Malcolm chastised his son for not being able to get the job done.

"If you want something done, I suppose you'll have to do it yourself."

It was like watching an action movie in slow motion.  The pull of the trigger took a million years, but the shot rang out quickly, as if my eyes couldn't catch up to my ears.

Blood spattered on the white fence behind us and Daniel fell to his knees, arms limp at his sides, as a gaping bullet hole protruded from his forehead.

There was screaming...so much screaming, and it took me forever to realize that it was coming from me.

"Would someone shut her up?"

Arms lifted me into the air and I felt weightless as I continued to stare at Daniel's lifeless body on the ground.  It was like a gory horror movie, and if I tried hard enough I could just pretend it was fake corn syrup and red food dye...but I couldn't come up with anything to make sense of the black hole in his head, marred on the edges with cauterized skin and gnarled flesh.

He couldn't be gone...the last thing I had ever said to him was that he was nothing but a ghost to me...I had been so cruel to him after finding out that he'd faked his own death when it wasn't his fault, he had been forced into it.

His eyes usually so full of sparkle were dull and dead, and it was like looking at a fish on a hook after it finally stopped flailing.

I felt hands grope at my dress and begin to rip and tear away the fabric and I was vaguely aware of someone crying violently until a voice rang out clear as day that had me wanting to run into the owner's arms.

"Stop.  Leave her alone.  Take me instead.  You can end the Windsor line right here and now.  My parents can't have any more children, and you're next in line anyway.  Take me."

"My, what an interesting proposition.  Gentlemen, drop the girl."

Suddenly my feet were under me as I had been sat down on the grass and my knees crumbled under me as Louis came rushing to my side.

Another guard came to grab me but Louis stood up in front of me as if to guard my body.

"Stop.  Just...Kill me instead."  Louis' voice was filled with terror and the scratching of his vocal chords sent shivers running down my spine.

"With pleasure."

Robert.

He had come from out of nowhere, but I would have recognized that voice from anywhere.

I noticed out of the corner of my eye a few guards donned in paramilitary clothing holding up semi automatic weapons and slowly advancing towards the three men standing in front of Louis and my crumpled body on the ground.

Robert raised his gun from his side and pointed it at Louis.  I felt the world shake beneath my body as I realized I was about to relive watching Daniel die all over again, except this time it would be Louis who would die, the man I was so in love with, and this made me realize that I couldn't live without him.

I couldn't let that happen.

I began to rise to my feet and this distracted Robert for long enough so that Gordon smashed into his side and his other guards took down Malcolm and Henry at almost the exact same time.

But Gordon wasn't fast enough.

A shot rang out and pierced my ears and I felt the nightmare happening all over again.

I crawled over to where Louis' body was laid on the ground after he fell and saw the blood...so much blood. It  was more black than red, and reminded me of the many times I'd had to stitch myself up after Robert had roughed me up a bit too much.

Some of it was Daniel's as it had seeped from his head and traveled downhill towards where Louis clutched his...arm.

His arm!  Thank god, it just got his arm!

"Oh my god, you're alright?  It just grazed you right?  You're alive?  You're alive.  You're alive..."

I kept repeating that over and over again as I cradled his head in my lap and rocked with him back and forth, not caring about the red stains that were surely to come about from doing so.

"Malia..." his eyes met mine and I reached my lips down to kiss him.  A surge of relief and pure unbridled ecstasy overcame me as I realized that he was going to be okay.

I had never felt more terrified in my life than I had when Robert had lifted his gun at Louis just as Malcolm had done to Daniel.

He would pay for that.

As Gordon's men swept through the backyard and helped the Queen be rushed into her fleeing vehicle and an ambulance arrived to treat Louis' injuries and place Daniel in a body bag, I realized, I still hadn't faced my worst nightmare.

Robert was kneeling on the ground with multiple guns aimed at his head, as did Malcolm and Henry.

I got up from my spot as Louis was still being tended to by an EMT and walked over to where Robert was being kept.

"What do you want?"

"To show you that I'm not afraid of you anymore."

And then I kneed him in the face, the crunch letting me know I'd at least broken his nose, and the pain from it made me realize something.

It would be the last time Robert Carmichael would ever hurt me again.

*******

Author's Note:

I  l o v e  y o u  a l l  s o  m u c h !

Until next time my lovely readers,

Kristen :)