Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
I cried hard enough that I started to scare myself—loud, hiccuping sobs that left me gasping for air.
I was vaguely aware of voices outside the door. Rune and, I imagined, Sofia, as I blew my nose.
“No, I can’t.”
“Trust me,” Sofia said. “She pretends she doesn’t, but she needs someone. Be that someone. She won’t let me. Go!”
Pressured into it, the door opened, then closed softly.
“I don’t want you in here.”
“I don’t think your sister would let me leave.”
“I don’t care. Go.” I wiped at my cheeks as another wave of tears slid down. I leaned forward, burying my face in my hands.
“Oh, baby,” Rune sighed.
The bed depressed next to me, and Rune’s arm slid around me, curling me against him even as I tried to pull away. It was a half-hearted effort, though. Because, God, it felt good to be held. For a moment, I just let myself forget that he was the reason I was crying in the first place and just let myself be comforted.
Rune’s one arm stayed around my waist. The other rubbed up and down my arm and over my hair.
But then, suddenly, Rune stiffened beside me.
“Carmen?”
There was something strange in his voice. Tight. Tense.
“Carmen, who the fuck is that?”
“What?” I asked, startled by the change in him.
“In the picture with you,” he said.
Suddenly, he wasn’t the only one whose spine was straight enough to snap.
Because I’d let myself forget. Sure, only for a few moments, and only because I was so upset. But still. I’d forgotten that the man beside me on the bed was the whole reason for all the pain and suffering and loss in the first place.
I shot to my feet, moving across the room to stand against the dresser where the picture sat.
“Seriously?” I asked, eyes suddenly sandpaper dry as my voice went brittle enough to crack. “You don’t remember the woman you murdered?”
Rune’s gaze snapped up to me from the picture.
“So, that’s what this has been all about.”
“‘That’s what this is all about’? Seriously? That’s all you have to say when you killed her?”
The look on his face was unreadable.
“What was her name?” he asked.
I swallowed hard. Past the grief. Past the fist of fury lodged in my throat. Because if you were going to do something that horrible to someone, the least you could do was know their name.
“Victoria. Vicky.”
“Sister?” he asked.
“No.”
“Girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Friend then.”
“My best friend.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So you admit it. You killed her. You took her from me.”
“I didn’t sa—”
I didn’t get to finish when there was a sudden pop-pop-pop sound somewhere down below.
“What—” I started.
Rune flew off the bed, grabbing me and dragging me down to the floor, then moving his body over mine, pinning me to the ground.
It wasn’t until his weight crushed down on me, his arms moving up to cage around my head, his face pressed close to mine, that I finally realized what the sound was.
Gunshots.
Someone was shooting at the house.
My senses sharpened.
Suddenly, I could hear the glass shattering, the squeal of tires.
I was all sensation then: my pulse thundering in my ear like war drums; my lungs forgot their purpose, tightening, burning; a cold fist of fear slithered around my chest and squeezed.
That was why, surely, a soft whimper escaped me as my face buried in Rune’s neck and my hands lifted, clutching at his t-shirt at the sides of his body.
Time warped, slowed.
Each second felt like days, like a lifetime.
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” Rune said, his voice disarmingly calm.
What about that situation was okay?
How could he be so collected?
What if masked men were about to charge through the house, grab me, and drag me out?
Or, worse yet…
“Sofia,” I yelped.
I was pushing at him then, trying to move him off of me, to get out from under the weight of him, to get to my sister.
“Okay. All right. I’ll go,” Rune said, his chin ducking and his gaze finding mine, holding. “Promise you’ll stay here.” A strange, strangled sound escaped me. “Promise or I’m staying right here.”
“Okay. I promise.”
That was all he needed.
He crawled away from me, and I rolled onto my stomach to watch him go.
My heart lurched as he flew to his feet, some part of me panicking about the target he was making himself. Even if, logically, that made no sense. Just a couple days ago, I wanted him to be my target.
He threw open my door, then was gone into the hallway.
I might have promised, but I had no intention of keeping that. But I wasn’t brave enough to get to my knees, let alone my feet. I army-crawled forward across the floor.
Just as I reached the door, it flew open, making my heart shoot up into my mouth.
“Down,” Rune demanded, pressing Sofia’s shoulder until she lowered down onto the ground, her breath coming out in short, frantic bursts as Hamster rushed into the room as well, tail tucked, dropping down next to my sister.