Fisting his hand tighter in Alexis’s hair, he swiveled a fraction to look at Veronica, gun waving in the air. “Shut the fuck up, Veronica. You know better than to open your mouth.”
Alexis whimpered.
Fear and pain.
Fear and pain.
My heart shredded into a million fiery pieces while I stood there, trying to calculate how to set her free. How not to set this guy off when he was so clearly gonna blow.
Craig turned back to stare me down, aiming the barrel of the gun at Alexis’s head. “These girls…all of them…a fucking dime a dozen. Just like her sister. You think anyone’s gonna even notice if she goes missin’?”
My guts curled with nausea. Terror for Alexis. For Avril. Sickness at the realization this was no new thing he was talking about.
Avril, just like the girl I’d found with her in Veronica’s apartment, weren’t anything but dispensable. Disposable. Puppets he left mangled before he discarded them like trash.
“Craig,” Veronica rasped, word rippling with her stunned fear. Like she’d had no idea just what this guy was made of.
That he was vile and sick.
Cold laughter rocked from the well of my chest, my feet pinned to the ground to keep me from rushing forward while I did my best to shift his attention to me. “Are you really dumb enough to think someone wouldn’t notice if I went missing?”
Fight me, asshole. Fight me. Let her go.
I twitched in restraint.
And Alexis…that sweet, good girl, I could see her pleading with me, her thoughts in turmoil.
Help us.
Run.
Go.
Please.
“That’s funny. No one seemed to be all that concerned when they found your brother face down in a pile of his own puke, did they?”
Shocked horror kicked me in the gut, and I barely rasped out, “What did you say?”
He grinned, still holding on to Alexis like she didn’t mean anything. “Come now, Zee. Are you really that stupid? Who do you think it was milking the info out of him?” He shrugged like what he was saying was inconsequential. Like he weren’t tearing me into a million pieces. “Told Jennings keeping him around wasn’t worth the risk. All these years, and not even you were smart enough to make the connection.”
That familiarity came crashing in. Vivid. The realization of where I’d seen him before.
The last night I’d seen Mark alive.
A roar tore up my throat, and I started to lunge for the bastard, rage clouding my eyes.
I froze when he jerked Alexis’ head, and she cried out, that cry downshifting into an agonized whimper when he cocked the gun against her head. “How about we test this whole theory out on her? Then we can have a little conversation about the boy.”
Everything slowed in the same second every thread of sanity tying me to the ground snapped.
I charged.
His eyes grew wide right before I rammed my shoulder into his stomach, arms around his waist. Our footing broke, and the two of us flew through the air.
Alexis’ scream was nothing but a resonance of the gunshot that rang in the air.
We hit the floor with a thud, and I scrambled to get on top, pinning him down while he struggled to break free. “Motherfucker.”
My fist rammed into his face. Cocking back, I did it again. And again.
Craig fought like the bastard he was.
Nothing to lose.
I had no idea what was more dangerous.
That or the fact that I stood to lose everything.
He managed to toss me off, and he scrambled to roll me over and get on top of me and take control.
My knee came up in the same second and nailed him in the ribs.
A moan ripped from his bloody mouth, and in a second flat, I had the prick pinned on his back, his arms flailing and grappling.
He took hold of something. A split second later, the gun was in my face. A sharp gust of surprise jetted from my lungs, and I went for his wrist, struggling to shake it loose.
From out of nowhere, a blow hit me from the side.
Full body.
Veronica.
That was at the very same second another gunshot pierced the air. Fear clawed through my body, but I wrangled the gun free, slammed the butt of it across his face.
Gasping, I flung myself off of him and climbed to my hands and knees, crawling to where she was whimpering, hands pressed to her stomach as blood spilled out.
I gathered her in my arms. “Oh God.”
She gurgled. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I loved you. I did.”
I blinked as I choked over a sob that climbed my throat.
I could barely make out her last words.
“Take care of him.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Alexis
Disoriented, my eyes fluttered open to a faint beeping that echoed in the room. Everything was a dull, aching haze before it quickened into focus. Panic welled as horror rushed forward.
“Alexis…lie back…don’t try to get up.”
I settled back down, blinking toward the ceiling as I tried to make sense of how I’d gotten there.
That man at my door, that woman in the car.
Avril. Me. Bound.
Darkness. Gunshots.
Zee.
Zee.
Zee.
I gasped around the intensity of it as a fresh surge of terror and anxiety washed over me.
“Avril…Zee.” The plea barely scraped up my raw throat.
Chelsey smiled, running her fingers through my hair. “Safe. Avril is on another floor. She had a broken collarbone and some bruises. Physically, she’s going to be fine. It’s all the emotional stuff that remains unseen.”
“Zee?”
She bit her bottom lip, her expression ridged in both sympathy and understanding. “He’s been pacing outside your door for the last six hours. I wouldn’t let him in until I talked to you first.”
A strained breath blew through my dry lips. It was relief and confusion and uncertainty.
This giving boy who again would have traded his life for mine. For my sister’s. The same man who’d drawn me so close and had still kept me a world away. Outside of the things that were most important.
“Are you up to seeing him? I think if I don’t go out there soon and give him an update, he’s going to bust down the door.”
“That sounds about like him.”
Her mouth twisted, her eyes searching. “He saved you both.”
My nod was jerky. “Yeah…I don’t know if Avril or I would have made it out of there without him.”
I also wasn’t sure if we’d have been in that situation in the first place if it weren’t for him. If it was about Avril or about him or simply about greed.
I wasn’t sure of anything except that I was more grateful for what he’d done than I’d ever been for anything in all my life. It was a feeling that was all-consuming. All-powerful.
Almost as intense as the sadness that had seeped like poison into my veins. That feeling of standing there, looking at the man I loved, and wondering if I knew him at all.
What of us had been real? Or had everything been fake?
“Are you ready to talk to him?”