Iturn.
Those eyes.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” she says.
“I can’t,” I stutter out.
“Why?”
I open my mouth, searching for words, for a lie to tell her, but I can’t. I need to make her hate me to get out of it, because I can’t.
“Because I am doing the one thing I am not allowed to,” I say with a shaky voice, and her face hardens. She has put on a mask, one to protect her from what I am about to say.
“I am violating clause one,” I say. “And I can’t. So please…please let me go.”
“I can’t,” she whispers, and she pulls me close, cups my face. Her lips meet mine before I can do anything.
I am helpless as warmth spreads through my body and I melt into her touch.
There we are, kissing on a sidewalk in the middle of Manhattan, and nothing else matters.
Everything is quiet again.
In me.
Outside me.
It is…peaceful.
The earshattering sound of a fired gun cuts through the air and echoes between the houses. I react without thinking and pull us down, but it’s too late. The bullet has brushed my side, and pain surges through me, but I don’t care.
I pull her with me into the safety of a parked car. I don’t even need to look at her to know she’s hit.
Hannigan is with us within a matter of seconds, and more shots are fired. Hannigan aims and shoots at somewhere behind me, but I have only eyes for Lilian.
Her weak body in my arms as the white shirt turns red from the blood she is losing. The bullet went straight through her upper abdomen.
I could just run away and let her die.
Whoever it was did the job for me.
Just run,I tell myself.
But I can’t.
Not afterthat kiss.
Glass shattering.
Screaming.
“We need to get her to a hospital!” I shout at Hannigan.
I glance up to check what’s going on. There are still shots fired, Hannigan jumps up, shooting blindly before he comes back down into cover.
“Can you carry her?” he asks. I honestly don’t know. I am trained, but lifting a body without tension as carefully as possible because of the bleeding is not easy. But who am I not to try?
I have her in my arms when a motorcycle pulls over and comes to a halt in front of my eyes. The world freezes, and before the biker pulls the gun, I already know what’s about to happen.
