Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
January cries softly, sobbing in his tight grip. I don't look at her, though. I can't.
I can practically see the wheels in his mind spinning. Time seems to drag into eternity as he thinks over my suggestion, his grip on my girl not wavering once. I desperately want to look into her eyes and tell her all those things I never got to tell her, like how fucking proud I am of her and how much I love her. But I know if I do, I'll falter. I'll fail. And I can't do that. I've failed her enough already.
If one of us has to die to end this shit once and for all, it'll be me.
"Kick your gun to me," he says then, and I know I've got him. He's going to let her go.
Whatever happens after that…well, I'll die young and leave a pretty corpse like I always figured I would. But January will be safe, and that's all that really matters in the end. It's what I've wanted since the day I met her.
I crouch slowly and set my gun on the floor. Once it's out of my hands, I hold them up, not stupid enough to stand up just yet. "Aim your gun away from her, and then I'll kick mine over."
He grumbles like he wants to disagree, but then he slowly points the gun away from her. It's not much—it's not enough for me to think I stand a chance of shooting him before he can kill her—but it's better than nothing.
Sirens sound in the distance, but they're faint. There's no fucking way they're going to make it here in time to make a damn bit of difference. All I have is faith that the motherfucker who has been making my life hell since I was a kid wants to be a legend more than he wants to make me watch him murder January.
Jesus.
I'm trusting him to do the right thing. The irony of that isn't lost on me, but faith is all I've got left at this point.
I stand up slowly and kick my gun toward him. It spins across the floor like a roulette wheel turning, scraping along until he steps on it to prevent the weapon from slamming into the wall.
January cries out when he lets her go so quickly she stumbles forward two steps before she catches herself. She's sobbing openly. The devastated sound wrecks me. She runs toward me and flings her arms around my waist. I keep my eyes locked on Kaleo as she hugs me.
"I love you so fucking much," I whisper for her ears alone, reveling in the bittersweet feel of her in my arms.
"Cade," she cries, her body shaking against mine. "I love you."
Hearing those sweet words from her lips means everything to me.
"Run, baby girl, do you hear me? You run and you don't fucking look back."
She hugs me tighter for just a minute and then she pulls away from me and stumbles out of the bedroom.
As soon as she goes, taking every piece of my heart with her, I push all thoughts of her out of my mind. If I think about her and what she's going to endure when this motherfucker kills me, I'll fucking crack.
She's strong, though, stronger than she knows. She lost her entire family, but she's still breathing. She'll survive losing me too. She has to survive because I need to give her time to get the fuck away from here.
Kaleo grins at me like he won, but he always was a dumb son of a bitch. He might take my life tonight, but I won the minute he let January walk out of this room. My soul is tied to hers. He'll never get his hands on it. He'll never own me. He'll never beat me. He couldn't when we were kids and he can't now. He's just too stupid to realize it.
"You're going to die for a bitch. How fucking sweet," he mutters, pointing his gun at my head. "Guess that pussy has superpowers. You always did have good taste, Kincaid. If she hadn't been wrapped around your dick for so long, I would have tapped that ass a long time ago, but I don't do sloppy seconds."
I hope like hell he's a bad shot, but let's fucking face it, I'm not that lucky, so what's the point? Anyone else would probably close their eyes and say a prayer right about now. But I've never been particularly good at doing what I'm supposed to do, at what people expect me to do.
I lift my middle finger skyward and laugh. "Fuck you, Kaleo. January wouldn't come near your STD-infested limp dick with someone else's pussy."
His grin slips, rage overtaking his expression.
A shot rings out, followed by another, and then another.
I close my eyes, hoping the last thing I see is January's sweet face.