Chapter Twenty-Eight

I didn’t have time to blink before my parents were pointing guns of their own. Straight arms held weapons in every direction, a showdown in the black of night on the banks of the Vltava River in Prague, with a growing fog obscuring their targets. A few yards away, on the famous Charles Bridge, pedestrians strolled above us oblivious to the deadly scene hidden in the darkness below.

Sophia’s bullets were aimed at me, my parents’ were aimed at her, and the rest of us stood as still as fixed bull’s-eyes.

“Put that gun away,” Urban ordered with the authoritative voice of a CEO, his eyes set on Sophia.

“Why? Worried I’ll hurt your precious daughter?” Her lip curled.

“No, I’m worried you won’t live long enough to do so.” He glanced at the bridge. Even if the tourists couldn’t see us, soon they’d be able to hear us. It was only a matter of time.

“Listen to him, Sophia,” my dad warned, his voice even and his body still.

“Why do you care? She’s not your daughter anymore.” Sophia flicked her wrist, the gun shifting carelessly as she bopped her head like a bully. She seemed at equal risk of accidentally shooting someone as she did of intentionally doing it.

“I’d shut your mouth,” my dad replied through clenched teeth. He looked like he actually cared about me, even though we didn’t share any blood. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Good? Presumably he always cared about me, but he still ruined my life—equally, along with my sister. Maybe he did treat us the same.

I shifted toward my sister, her eyes flicking in all directions—from Sophia to our parents, from the guns to the unwitting tourists. She was assessing where to run and how to save us, and I could smell her panic along with Regina’s. Despite her internet bravado, Regina was currently ducked behind a tree not much wider than her hips. It didn’t offer much protection, but it wasn’t the worst idea.

I stared at Sophia. “What’s your plan?” I asked, remaining perfectly still, unsure how twitchy her trigger finger was. “You gonna kill everybody? Because the minute you shoot me, one of my parents will put a bullet in your skull.”

“At least we’ll all go down together,” she said.

“You hate me so much that you’re willing to die with me?”

“If the choice is between that and a lifetime in a maximum security prison…”

“It won’t come to that,” Urban insisted.

“He’s right!” Regina called from behind the tree bark. “Put the gun down, and I won’t say anything, to anyone. I promise!”

“See, Sophia. It’s a good offer,” Mom said, gun aimed at her strawberry blond head. “I’d listen to your friend.”

“She’s lying,” Sophia scoffed, carelessly flicking her gun again. She really needed to learn to speak without using her hands. “That girl has gone on and on and on about her dead boyfriend for weeks now! Do you have any idea how insipid you sound?” Sophia looked at her. “How stupid those videos are? Here’s a tip, Gina, I sent you every one of your ‘hacker leads.’ There’s no army of cybergods trying to help you. Just me. All me.”

“What?” Regina asked, sounding honestly insulted.

“I knew her parents killed Allen Cross and his wife, because the entire freakin’ espionage community knew that! So I fed you the lead, to draw them out. Again,” Sophia said, sounding exhausted by her efforts.

“I never asked you to do that. We never discussed any of that,” Urban said, inching his way toward his granddaughter. Her eye twitched when she saw him move and, for a moment, she looked ready to point her gun at him.

“You know why I didn’t discuss my plan with you, Grandfather? Because you’re the reason we’re in this mess! All because you kidnapped her!” She nodded the gun at my sister.

“I think all of your plans sucked,” Keira huffed.

“I apologized to you.” Urban looked at my sister.

“Yeah, and you sound pathetic!” Sophia yelped. “Since when do we apologize? Since when do you do anything that hasn’t been planned out from a million angles? You taught me to consider every possible move, every consequence, even years down the line. And look at you!” Sophia scrunched her nose like he smelled of a garbage truck in August. “You destroyed everything, because of them. Because they played you for a fool, and you fell for it!”

“I’d be careful about what you say,” Urban warned, but his voice was shaky. She was getting to him.

“What are you gonna do?” She shrugged, blowing a gust of breath from her bloody lip to force a damp hair from her face. The fog was coating us. “I’ve done everything you’ve ever asked of me. I tried again and again to make you proud. I wanted this life. I was proud of you. And the second, the second, you found out she was your daughter, you ran after her like a fool with baby pictures and puppy eyes. It was like I never existed.”

We waited for Urban’s response like he held the magic words, like he could talk her down from the beanstalk and save us all. A gun was pointed at my head and I was actually standing there, doing nothing, letting other people argue my way out of it.

Not any more.

“Boo freakin’ hoo,” I blurted, glaring at Sophia as I threw her words back at her. “Poor you, your rich grandfather gave you everything you ever wanted. He gushed on and on about you, framed your picture in crystal, and acted like you walked on water. But your little feelings got hurt when you found out that we share some DNA. Did it ever occur to you that I don’t give a shit?” I bopped my head, just like she did, just like every mean girl in all of history. “News flash, Sophia, I don’t want to replace you. I don’t want a spot at the Urban Thanksgiving table. You psychos can have each other! Just leave me and Keira out of it.”

“Amen,” Keira hissed. She was standing to my side, Urban at my other, and my parents at my back. Sophia was right, I did have more allies than she did, more people willing to take her out to protect me. And she knew it.

Sophia’s eyes narrowed with rage, pearly teeth gleaming in the night as an odd smirk spread across her face.

Then she turned her gun on Keira.

Instantly, the wind gushed out of me harder than if I’d been thrown to the Earth. No, not again. Not my sister. I can’t go through that again. Sophia’s finger jerked on the trigger, eyes steady on her target. She meant it, she would do it. My feet were planted to the ground with black swirls warping my vision. My heart dropped to the muddy earth. I could see the bathtub. The blood. The memorial. The tombstones.

No, no, no…

Stop this. You have to stop this…

Everything moved in slow motion—her finger squeezing the trigger, a leaf fluttering in the dirt, a baby crying in the distance.

I dove.

It wasn’t a conscious decision. My vision hadn’t cleared. My breath hadn’t returned to normal.

I was midair, several feet from the ground, when a pop sounded.

It wasn’t as loud as I thought it would be.

I didn’t have much experience with guns, but it was nothing like I’d expected.

This was the sound of death.

And it was coming for one of us.