Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138169 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138169 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
The dog’s teeth clamp down viciously on Bowden’s calf.
Bowden shrieks, flails—and drags the knife right across Eustace’s throat.
Shit.
Everything happens at once.
Talia yells in terror.
Eustace collapses in a pool of blood.
Ephraim lets out a guttural howl and turns on us, swinging his shotgun, only for his scream to turn into a shout of pain as Grant lines up a shot and clips him hard in the thigh.
Down goes the grizzled old man.
Bowden shakes Rolf off with a sharp blow to the head, making my dog whimper in a way that spikes my rage as much as Talia’s screams. Before I can move, Bowden flops back and disappears over the edge of the dock with a loud splash.
Xavier turns, dragging Talia, and bolts for the ship’s loading ramp.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
I lunge forward, bracing my back foot, and take aim.
His shoulder.
He’s got Talia clutched against one side, but the other shoulder’s vulnerable.
If I get a clean shot, it’ll go right through and pass over her.
I know it.
I know I can save her.
I wouldn’t trust anyone else with this shot but myself.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Aim.
Fire!
The trigger jerks.
The recoil slams through me.
The bullet stabs the night.
It feels like time slows down, watching and hoping I didn’t just kill the woman I love.
Not until I see it.
A red blossom against the back of Xavier’s shirt.
He drops Talia and she tumbles away, bound and rolling, but unharmed.
Xavier falls forward slowly, struggling against the ground.
He still tries to lunge at Talia—and that’s when the white-hot fury takes over, hurling me forward.
Not again.
He won’t take anyone else from me ever again.
I drop my M4 and tackle him in a bloody heap away, sending us both skidding across the pavement, away from her.
On top of him, I’m snarling, pinning his ugly ass down by the throat.
My fist crashes into his face again and again.
“I’ll kill you,” I hiss. “I’ll fucking kill you for what you’ve done!”
Even bleeding with a bullet embedded in his shoulder, even with his face pulped, he sneers, daring me to do it again, blood streaking his perfect white teeth.
“For what, you asshole? For messing with your whore?”
I nearly rip his throat out with my bare hands.
I swear to God, there’s a murder of crows in the distance going wild with amusement. I think all that racket brings me back into myself as I rear back and stare at him.
He doesn’t know.
That’s the worst part.
He doesn’t fucking know what he’s done, what I’ve lost, who, and he doesn’t care.
Finish him, Mikey, Jet whispers through the chaos. Put this asshole out of his misery and I’ll never bother you again.
I swallow hard.
I hate the dumb blank look on Xavier’s face more than anything.
He knows what it’s like to lose his brothers just like I lost mine, and he doesn’t care at all. Right now, I feel like I could be every bit the monster Xavier is if it helps Jet’s ghost rest in peace.
Yet if I kill him now, he’ll die without understanding why, and it won’t mean shit.
I think I’ll do it anyway.
The dark thing inside me uncoils, murderous and hot, desperate for the blood of the man who destroyed the only family I had.
I’ve craved this for too long.
I won’t be denied a second longer, not while I hear those mad birds shrieking in my ear.
Gritting my teeth, I clamp my hands down on his throat and press hard.
“M-Micaaah…”
The crows go silent.
There’s just Talia’s voice. Weak, raspy, calling to me, but I don’t want to listen.
“Mi…cah. Th-this isn’t who you are… Stop…”
Doesn’t she get it?
This is who I am!
It’s the moment I’ve lived for, watching Xavier suffer the way he deserves, struggling under me, the satisfaction of watching his life drain away and his face turning purple, then blue. Yes.
“…Micah.”
Fuck.
I jerk my head up, looking at her, and my heart stops.
She’s blue in the face, wheezing, on the verge of passing out. Her inhaler’s nowhere in sight, her hands and feet bound so she couldn’t reach it even if she had it.
Damn.
I have to make a choice.
The man I hate, or the woman I love.
Really, it’s no choice at all.
I fling myself off Xavier and tumble over to Talia, slipping my arms under her and lifting her up.
“Talia? Talia—Shortcake—hold on for me. Breathe. Count. You remember how? Fucking breathe for me, woman!”
She looks up through wet eyes, her crimson hair spilling over me like she’s bleeding out.
She smiles.
Her eyes close.
And then she stops breathing completely.
Anguish erupts out of me like a gunshot wound.
I frantically press my fingers to her pulse.
It’s there, it’s there, but weaker by the second.
I forget to breathe myself as I lay her down, as I rip the ropes off her, get her prone, then tilt her head back, pinch her nose, bend over her, and seal my mouth to those beautiful lips I don’t deserve.