My heart is hammering against my ribs, stomach doing flips.
With a deep breath, I curl my finger around the trigger.
Chapter Thirteen
NOAH
There's a fuckinggun pointed at my head.
A gun pointed at my head by someone who should be crawling on the ground and thanking me for saving her from Robert.
She's not doing that now, though. No.
Instead, Summer is looking down the barrel of the gun like she's seconds away from putting the bullet between my eyes.
Does she have the balls to do it?
I don't think she does. Not with the slight wobble in her hand before she takes a deep breath and steadies herself again.
If she were really going to shoot me, she would've done it the moment I walked through the door.
Summer is still wearing the tiny dress from last night, nothing but a cool anger in her eyes. "Stay there."
I hold my hands up, wishing I had remembered to tell Hector about that gun when he swept the room last night. He foundeverything else, clearly, but how would he have known about the gun in the back of the cupboard?
In a world where nobody can be trusted, some weapons have to remain hidden.
"Put the gun down, Summer." I stay still, not sure what she's going to do.
It'd be a mistake to think she's not going to shoot me. She comes from a family of killers. Hell, Skyla is a fucking serial killer, though I don't know how deep that secret is hidden.
The serial killer definitely taught all the younger ones a thing or two about killing people without feeling remorse.
Summer stays steady, not wavering even a little. "I'm tired of this fucking shit. I want to go back to school. I want to go back to living my life. I want to be away from this, and everything it brings with it."
The gun lowers.
She squeezes the trigger.
Pain erupts in my thigh as the ground slips out from under me.
The bitch hit the fucking artery.
Summer doesn't waste a minute as I sit up, clenching my jaw against the pain, trying to get my belt off so I can tie a tourniquet.
She barely spares me a glance as she slips around me, heading for the door, the gun still in her hand.
Scowling, I get my belt off and loop it beneath my leg, wrapping it around and slipping it through the buckle. I pull it as tight as I can, more pain spreading through me.
Summer is going to have a hell of a time getting out of the building, but there are fewer guards around right now than there were through the night.
Hector appears in the doorway. "You know she's escaping, right?"
More gunshots echo through the house, pained groans following.
I sigh and take Hector's hand, getting to my feet. My head is spinning, blood loss making everything feel a little lighter.
"Let her go."
