But Cody’s not listening. His finger tightens on the trigger, and I know, I just fucking know, that he’s going to shoot.
This is it.
This is how I die.
On the steps of my town, my dad’s, my grandfather’s police department, shot by the husband of the woman I love.
And the only thing I can think about, the only image in my mind, is Magnolia. Her smile. Her laugh. The way she looks in the morning with her hair all messed up. The way she says my name when I’m inside her. The feel of her in my arms. The way she told me she loved me before I left the house to take her husband down.
I’m so sorry, Magnolia Grace. I promised I’d come home to you.
The gun goes off.
The sound is impossibly loud, echoing off the buildings around us. The bullet hits me in the shoulder, and it’s like being struck by lightning. White-hot pain explodes through my body, radiating out from the point of impact and then out. It burns like a son of a bitch, and I yell loudly when the pain begins. The force of it spins me around, my legs giving out, and I’m falling.
The concrete steps rush up to meet me, and I hit hard, my head cracking against the stone. So much pain, it’s sharp and immediate, and I can feel warmth spreading across my chest. Blood. My blood.
Somewhere in the chaos, I hear more gunshots. Two, maybe three. I hear shouting, footsteps running, someone yelling for an ambulance.
But all I can focus on, the only thing that matters, is getting one word out. One name.
“Magnolia.”
It comes out as barely a whisper, but it’s the most important thing I’ve ever said. Because if I’m dying here on these steps, I need someone to tell her. I need her to know that she was my last thought. That she was everything. That although it’s been a couple of weeks, they’ve been the best weeks of my life.
I hear my grandfather’s voice, closer now, panicked like I’ve never heard before. “Levi! Levi, stay with me!”
His hands are on my shoulder, putting pressure on the wound. It hurts so bad I want to scream, but I can’t seem to make my voice work anymore.
“I shot him,” my grandfather is saying, and he sounds wrecked. “I got him. Dakota, call it in. We’ve got an officer down and a shooter down, we need EMS now!”
My vision is starting to fade, going gray at the edges. I blink, trying to clear it, but it’s not working.
Magnolia. I need to get back to Magnolia.
“Stay with me, Levi,” grandpa says again, and I feel him grab my good hand, squeezing tight. “That’s an order, you hear me? You stay with me.”
I try to nod, try to show him I heard, but I’m so tired. So damn tired.
The last thing I see before everything goes black is my grandfather’s face, and the last thing I hear is him yelling.
“Someone hurry, goddammit hurry.”
Chapter 30
Magnolia
I’m setting up my phone to go live on social media, arranging my workspace so everything looks perfect for the camera. I’ve got a new batch of chocolate-covered strawberries to dip, and my followers have been asking for a tutorial on my technique.
I’m just about to hit the “Go Live” button when there’s a loud, aggressive knock on the door.
My heart jumps into my throat, and my hands start shaking. That knock—it sounds exactly like Cody’s knock. It’s one that’s meant to intimidate. The kind of knock that used to make my stomach drop when we were still living together.
But he’s in jail. He has to be in jail. They arrested him. I saw them take him away.
The knocking comes again, even louder, more insistent, as I’m looking around for a place to hide.
“Magnolia! Open the door!”
