Sound returns to the world again as I fight the itch to pull the trigger and the chaos inside me recedes.
You've gotten clever, Gabriel.
“But it'll take more than that to kill him,” he tries to placate me but the gun he’s pointing at my head doesn't waver. “He’s on his way. Let him deal with Xavier.”
“Reuben won't kill you,” I speak only to Xavier. My words are crisp. Breathless. I sneer, “Luckily for him, I'm familiar with killing traitors like you.”
I can do this kind of thing for Reuben easily.
“Think. About this.” Tobias snaps sharply, pressing the gun to my head.
I don't enjoy my third stalemate either and the silence that follows is wrought with tension and possibility.
If I kill Xavier now, will they really kill me?
If they do that, I can't help but think Reuben will end them.
It'll be a cycle of death and murder, and it delights me to my very core.
But then Reuben will be left alone.
Just like the Christian I've created.
Trying to extend a legacy alone.
“From the start,” I don’t know how I’m able to find my voice again. “From the start, you were going to kill Evelyn... I don't care much for your dead sister,” I lower my gun from Xavier's head, “but I’m glad she’s not alive to see you now,Xavier.”
I’m delighted to see the rage in his eyes as he bites back.
“At leastIdon't forget my mission.” His voice drips with venom. “Four months and you've already forgotten yours—fuckingaround with Reuben at every corner—”
My grip on the gun tightens.
“You didn't take Evelyn's safetyseriously!” He spits with loathing. “It waseasy. Because you were distracted.”
The anger that was hot and scathing moments before is transforming into something cold and unbearable. A realization that shouldn’t at all be hitting me only now.
“I've been focused forfive years!” His madness is painted all over his face. “Five years, I never forgot what my mission was. But suddenly you're on Reuben’s cock and you forget the reason you're here.We’re. Not. The same.”
There’s a beat of silence that forces my bloodlust to a calm—that rolls in a new wave of reason.
I’m not here for Evie.
I’m here for the Adler Squad.
I thought I was remaining focused… but that couldn’t be furthest from the truth. All that time spent with Reuben, I never once played the part of Christian. I was always…
Myself.
Christian would never have been distracted.Christianwould’ve never let Reuben get so deep—he would never have placed anyone's life over the lives of his teammates—
I blurred the lines completely—between Christian and myself.
My purpose is solely to keep Christian’s memory—his legacy alive…
But even so…
“Even so, I wouldn’t want to have anything in common with a snake like you.”
