“So you’re the one I’ve been looking for all this time.” His words tighten the snake’s grip around my heart. It drives a shuddering cold through my toes to my fingertips.
“Christian Adler. The dead man… the fake,” he’s talking mostly to himself, as though he is still in complete control, pressing the gun into Reuben’s head. My scowl deepens as he continues, “The man who killed my brother… and the one who destroyed the Lesters.”
My heart stops for a single moment. The snake is sinking its teeth into me. Inch by inch.
“I should’ve considered it,” he continues calmly, tilting his head. “I told your Underboss it didn’t need to come to this… if they’d just given you up.”
The pain is agonizing. The realization. The self-loathing.
Somehow, I’d guessed it along the way. That I was the one August wanted. That I might be the reason August started this war.
Don’t let it show.
Don’t let it show.
“The little boss refused knowing anything about you—Aster—I think his name was.”
His words are not what I expected, and my throat tightens against my will.
Reuben’s expression becomes fierce even from beneath his gun, and I can hear him cursing August to hell and back, even with the tape across his mouth.
“Yet here you are,” August ignores him, eyes glittering curiously. “Youwerethe one who destroyed the Lesters, weren’t you? The Harvester’s backers.”
“And I suppose you were their investor,” I add to his musing, speaking calmly. Appearing unfazed. “Giving them the money they needed to pull off their operations.”
“Correct.” The snake actually manages a smile in this situation… and Ihatethat he has the upper hand.
“So what do you want with me, August?” I ask simply, but the barrel of my gun doesn’t waver—it remains firmly pointed at the spot between his eyes.
“Work for me.”
How strange it is, that I remember hearing those words once before.
That I seem to have gone full circle and yet back in time. To when Reuben spoke those words to me in a room far, far away from here—a light in the midst of my darkness.
“I refuse.” This time, my reply is immediate and cold.
Because this man is the monster that lurks in the darkness.
My actions until now were what caught his attention, because I didn’t stay in the confines of Christian Adler.
I am the reason Reuben’s family is being pushed to the brink.
And every beat of my heart after that realization...
It hurts.
It is a darkness that seeps into my tired bones. A darkness that robs me of the dream I thought I saw, here with the Taiga family… here by Reuben’s side.
When I step forward, August’s eyes narrow. His heart rate spikes and I see the exact moment when he finds the gall. I can predict his next shot before he makes it.
My bullet is there to block his, when he points his gun at Reuben’s mother—
When he aims for her leg.
My bullet blocks his and I am faster. My second shot knocks August’s gun out of his hand and to the floor. He takes a single step back, eyes narrowing with subtle displeasure, before shaking his hand out from the impact and huffing through his nose.
As though he’d barely been stung by a bee.
