He looked up at me, his horrifically scarred face now even more bruised and bloody. I waited for the dopamine I usually felt over a good kill to wash over me… but I felt nothing.
The thought of killing him didn’t make me happy.
I wassickof killing people. I had never wanted to be like this in the first place. This man hadrapedme, mind, body and soul.
I’d already killed him once. It felt cosmically unfair that I was being forced to do it a second time.
Looking into his whiskey eyes, I was suddenly overcome with an unexpected rush of sorrow, not for his impending death, but formyself.
I was suddenlyso fucking sadfor the little version of me that had fallen prey to this man.
I was so sad for the adult version of me that I’d grown into.
In that moment, as I stared into Damian’s eyes with my finger on the trigger, I mourned the pieces of my soul I’d sacrificed with each kill I’d been forced to make.
“I hate you for making me this way,” I told him. My voice cracked on the words.
It felt like we were suspended in time, and for once, he didn’t have anything to say back to me. He knew he was going to die and that I was going to be the one to kill him.
I just wished I didn’t fucking have to be.
“Angel,” Ryan said softly, coming up to stand beside me. I glanced at him, and he frowned.
Ryan’s eyes darted from my face, which was now somehow wet with tears, down to my hand, which was holding the gun directly against Damian’s forehead.
It was trembling.
“Angel. Do youwantto kill him? Tell me the truth,” Ryan whispered.
I closed my eyes and exhaled, tonguing my lip ring in agitation.
“No, ginger snap. I don’t want to kill him. I don’t want to killanybody.But I have to.”
Ryan reached out and brushed a tear off my cheek, meeting my gaze head-on.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, angel,” he whispered. “Give me the gun.”
“Baby, Ihaveto kill him.”
“No, you don’t, angel. This isn’t who you are anymore. Give me the gun, Callum,” he repeated, his eyes never leaving mine.
Reluctantly, I handed him the Glock, even as more protests began tumbling from my mouth.
“I can’t let him live, Ryan. We’ll never be safe as long as he’s alive.”
Ryan took the gun from me and brushed another tear off my cheek with his free hand.
“Oh, angel. I never said anything about letting him live.” Without looking away from me, Ryan pointed the gun directly at Damian’s head and pulled the trigger.
The deafeningBANG!of the gunshot was lost on me. I barely even felt it as blood and brain matter splattered across both of our faces.
My mouth dropped open in shock.
Ryan didn’t smile. He looked so serious, and there was a cold satisfaction in his gaze that I’d never seen before.
“All I said wasyoudidn’t have to be the one to kill him, angel.”
He rose up on his toes and brushed a delicate kiss against my lips.
