Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 58442 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58442 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
“Let me switch places with her,” I go on. “If you want to kill me, do it. Go ahead. I was supposed to die a long time ago anyw—”
“Don’t start whining about the Marines, you sappy little coward,” Sebastian hisses. “Nobody cares that you joined up and got special rich-boy treatment and abandoned your so-called brothers to bleed to death in the dirt while you skipped merrily on your way.”
That stings, though I try not to let it show.
As Sebastian talks, Aurora looks meaningfully at me. I learned to read her expression when I could only see her mouth and her eyes, the rest of her face hidden by the mask. Now, it’s even easier.
She’s getting ready to do something. I shake my head subtly. She can’t risk it.
She ignores me.
“We’re going to take a drive,” Sebastian goes on. “But first, Raiden, you’re going to get some zip-ties and truss yourself and the old bitch up. I don’t want any tricks.”
“A drive… where?” Grandma says, repressing a sob and making a choking noise.
“Somewhere no one can hear you scream,” he says fiercely. “Like nobody heard me scream. For years, suffering in silence. Years of trying and failing to be noticed, to be loved.”
“I loved you,” Grandma croaks.
“Don’t lie to me,” he growls. “There have been enough lies out of you.”
Aurora raises her eyebrows in my direction. Her chest is rising and falling quickly, adrenaline pumping through her, as though she’s getting herself ready for something courageous and foolish.
Again, I shake my head at her. Again, she ignores me.
“Get moving,” Sebastian spits.
If Aurora is going to do something–which is madness, but I’ve got no way to tell her to stop without clueing Sebastian in–I need to distract him.
I step forward, arms at my sides, offering my chest as a target.
“If you think I’m going to tie up my grandmother, our grandmother, brother, then you might as well put a bullet in my chest now.”
Sebastian grits his teeth. “I’ve already killed you once. Slipped a blade between your ribs. I thought he was you, and I was perfectly willing to do it. Do you think pulling a trigger will be more difficult?”
“I think your plan has been a joke from the start. If you killed me, Julian, and Grandma, do you think you’d get the inheritance? Don’t you think it would look suspicious? Think… if you’re capable of that.”
Aurora’s chest is rising and falling even faster. I don’t like the urgency in her eyes, a clear indication she’s going to do something reckless.
Wait, I try to tell her with my eyes. Wait until the gun is pointing at me.
“I will blow your brains out, you spoiled prick,” Sebastian says.
“You won’t,” I growl. “You haven’t got the guts for it. Stabbing a man in the dark, sneaking away like a coward that’s your game. But doing something that takes real guts? No, damn way.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Time slows as Sebastian moves the gun away from Aurora and aims it at me. His finger is on the trigger. If Aurora is going to do anything, she needs to act fast.
Suddenly, the gun is pointing at me.
I keep my expression neutral, but fight-or-flight grips me as panic streaks through me.
“Don’t think I’ll do it?” Sebastian says.
He fires a shot.
CHAPTER 31
AURORA
It’s a testament to how close we’ve become that Raiden understood what I was telling him just through the look on my face. I understood what he was saying too.
Don’t do it. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you.
Sebastian glares at me, furious that I grabbed his hand and jerked it upward. Plasterboard flakes away from the ceiling and falls on us like snow from the bullet.
My ears ring, skull splitting with the noise as I try to wrench the gun from him. He growls and drives against me, shoving us both against the wall.
“Fucking bi—”
Suddenly, a strong arm wraps around his neck and drags him backward. Raiden grabs Sebastian’s wrist and violently jerks it upward. There’s a snapping sound as it breaks, and the gun falls to the floor. Sebastian begins to howl and moan as Raiden squeezes his neck, turning his face red.
His legs kick as Raiden chokes him until he falls unconscious.
Raiden drops him on the floor then quickly grabs the gun, backing up and aiming it at him.
“Both of you, behind me. Now.”
I feel like I’m in a dream–no, a nightmare–as I hide behind his broad back.
Evangeline clutches me.
“That was so brave,” she whispers between tears.
“And stupid,” I say.
Sebastian wakes up, rubbing his head, looking around the room before his gaze settles on us. “Fuck,” he grunts.
“Fuck is right,” Raiden snaps. “You’re going to sit right there as we call the police. Make one move and you’ll see what I learned in the Marines.”
“You’d shoot your own brother?”
“You put a gun against my woman’s head,” Raiden says fiercely. “I wouldn’t just shoot. I’d empty the gun, reload, and then shoot some fucking more.”