72 Hours

Noah leaps up and with a feral roar throws himself at me.

Finally, someone with some spirit.

Time to die, Noah.





TWENTY-SIX

–Noah–

She killed herself.

I can’t believe she’s fucking gone.

Tears run down my cheeks as I shake her lifeless body. I should have known she was struggling. I was so fucking busy ignoring her that I didn’t realize she was quiet, too quiet. I want to press my cheek to her chest, I want to hear her fucking heartbeat, but I don’t get a chance. I just want one fucking more second.

Lara, no.

I can’t live a life without her. Flashes of her smiling and laughing fill my mind, and my heart threatens to explode. I’ll never see any of that again. I let out a ragged cry and it feels like someone has a fist around my heart, squeezing, suffocating the life out of me. How dare you give up on me, Lara? Fuck, how dare you fucking leave me? A strangled sob gets trapped in my throat as pain unlike anything I’ve ever felt in my life tears through my body. Losing her once was hard enough. But losing her again … like this. I’ll never be okay without her. My beautiful lady.

Lara. Baby. Come back.

“Waste of my fucking time,” Bryce mutters to himself as he approaches behind me. “Stupid weak bitch. Get up. I’m going to make my game worthwhile, even if it fucking kills me.”

I see red. Anger flashes in my eyes, my ears ring, and I know, I just know I’m going to kill him. Slowly. Painfully. I’m going to rip his fucking heart out with my bare hands. I leap up and spin around with a feral roar, throwing myself at him. I slam against his body with a loud thump and we both topple backward. He might not be as big as me, but he’s strong; more than that, he’s a good fighter.

“Why so angry at me, Noah?” he taunts, driving his knee upward and sending me stumbling back with a roar. “She’s the one who took her own life.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I bellow, rolling and then throwing myself back at him.

“You knew it all along, didn’t you? You knew she was weak. You knew she was pathetic. You knew she could never do it. So did I. I always knew she’d let you down, that she’d fail you. God, she’s so fucking weak, isn’t she? It’s laughable.”

I drive a fist into his face, and with a wild laugh his head jerks backward. He reaches into his jacket and pulls out another knife, a massive one. I don’t fucking care. I don’t even know where the one I had has gone. I don’t care if he kills me, so long as I make him fucking suffer first. I can do that with my bare hands.

“I’ll fucking make you pay,” I snarl, punching him again.

He swings the knife, narrowly missing me. I roll off but he’s quick and throws himself onto me before I can even get to my feet, slamming my face into the dirt. Agony tears through me as my nose crunches and blood fills my mouth. I throw my head backward, slamming it into his jaw. He goes off with a growl, and I launch to my feet, blood running down my face.

My eyes flick to Lara, who is lifeless on the ground, and I roar with agony and pain, but mostly with heartbreak.

“Yeah,” he taunts, waving the knife around, blood dripping from his mouth. “Look at her. Look at how she let you down. Look at how she failed you.”

I lunge at him again, and he slashes the knife. It glides across my stomach, opening my skin. Pain overtakes my body and my vision blurs for a moment. I blink rapidly, trying to gather myself as warm blood trickles down me. He slams into me again and then I’m falling. I hit the ground, back smacking against the dirt. He stands over me as I try to gather myself, laughing, fucking laughing.

“I thought you had more go in you, Noah. Honestly I did. But I always knew that little bitch would fail and that would be the thing to break you.” He runs his finger over the blade as I try to get up. He puts a boot to my chest, pushing me back down so hard my head bounces off the ground. “You two thought you had it over me, didn’t you? Hilarious, really. I knew exactly what I was picking when I found you both. And here you were thinking your love would save you.”

He throws his head back and laughs.

I lie there panting.

I fucking hate him.

“How pathetic,” he says in a singsong voice, using the back of his hand to wipe his nose. “She didn’t love you. Stupid bitch didn’t love anything but herself. She only cared about”—he raises a hand and makes air quotes—“her ‘problems.’ She killed her own grandmother with her smart mouth, and yet you believed in her. Didn’t you?”

He laughs again.

My heart fucking twists. It feels like it’s being ripped out of my chest.

I shoot my hand out quickly, hoping to catch him off guard, but he moves like lightning, stabbing the knife into my hand and pinning it into the dirt. I bellow in agony, blinding pain ripping through my body.

“I’m going to kill you,” he says, straddling me and leaning down close. “I’m going to rip your fucking heart out. I’m going to stuff it in your mouth so when they find you, they’ll know that you fucked up, that you gave it to the wrong woman and that’s what got you killed. You’re pathetic, Noah. But she’s worse.”

He raises the knife over my chest and I stare at it, just stare. I want him to kill me. I want him to fucking kill me. I don’t care anymore. He can take it all. I’ve got nothing left. She left me with fucking nothing. She gave up on me. Goddammit, fuck you, Lara. I believed in you. I believed you were strong enough and you let me down.

“Bye bye, Noah.”

I close my eyes.

Finally, it’s over.





TWENTY-SEVEN

–Lara–

From the second we stepped out of the hideout, I knew what I was going to do. I thought about it while Noah slept. I knew Bryce would fall for it because he believes I’m weak, he believes it with everything he is. I was right. All I had to do was make a cut on my wrist, away from the vein, that bled enough for them to believe I’d taken my own life. Falling to the ground was easy. Shallowing my breathing wasn’t hard.

They ate it up.

I hate knowing Noah is taking this so hard. Hearing his pain killed me, but if I told him my plan he would have never gone for it. I don’t know how much more we could fight Bryce, as injured as we are. When he hit Noah’s leg with the knife, and I saw the pain on Noah’s face, I knew my plan was the right one. Noah will understand, but right now, right now … I have to end this. For both of us.

I grip the knife that I let fall beside me and stand, watching Bryce hovering over Noah, who is looking up at him like he’s given up. He’s given up because of me. Because I let him down. He thinks I’m dead. He thinks that I gave up. But I didn’t. I knew exactly what I was doing. Bryce thinks he has me pegged—hell, maybe he does. He thinks that I’m the reason this failed, but he’s wrong. I’m going to be the reason we win.

Bryce raises the knife and Noah closes his eyes.