‘Don’t fucking test me,’ he threatens.
Renny and Tyler stop and he points the gun back at my face.
He presses my face further into the dirt, but I turn my head to the side to watch him. His lips press into a tight line. He inhales, his eyes sharp as if he’s been tossing up a decision that’s now been made.
‘I’m going to enjoy snuffing the life out of you. You’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass since college. You broke my hand. And you took everything I wanted.’ He grits his teeth. ‘Those scouts should’ve seen me play. It should’ve been me.’
Surges of black lick at the edges of my vision. Erik smacks the gun against my cheekbone, and my face throbs with pain. I give everything I have to work against him and gravity and manage to roll onto my back. But then he shoves down on top of me, pressing his knee into my jugular.
‘It should’ve been me.’ His repeated words come out even more frantic, his eyes wide.
I grab for the gun, but he shoots. Pain slices through my left arm. Then he digs his fingers into the fresh bullet wound on my left shoulder, and the air vacates my lungs in a silent scream. He keeps pressing his knee hard against my throat and cuts off my air supply.
From the corner of my eye, I see Renny and Tyler attempt to rush over, but Erik fires off the gun, shooting aimless rounds into the air. ‘Stay the fuck back!’
‘Do what he says,’ I wheeze out.
Erik laughs. ‘You took everything from me! Everything!’ He doubles down, choking off the little air I have. ‘I’ll make sure you have nothing fucking left.’
It takes a second to make sense of his words. Then I realise I’ve had the exact thought about him. I’ve thought about how to make Erik pay in a hundred different ways. How I’ve wanted him to have nothing, to be nothing. He stole Jace’s life from us and I wanted to steal anything I could from him.
We’re the fucking same.
‘I’ll haunt you in this life and then see you in hell.’ My words are strangled, and true.
A laugh bubbles from his throat and he flashes a bloodied smile. ‘Pity,’ he sneers, spittle flying out of his mouth. ‘I wanted to see your face when I kill the Brooks girl.’
Gianna.
No.
I can hear Jace in my head, telling me to look after her.I promised.
He digs his knee harder into my neck. I try to suck in a breath but can’t. My heart surges into my throat, I try to continue fighting … but I can’t.
No.
My limbs grow heavy as I go limp beneath him.Gianna.I want to look for her.Gianna.I’m flat on the ground and I can only see Erik’s mass on top of me and the dark sky behind him. I can hear the waves raging against the rocks below us. Blackness soaks into my vision, the haze polluting my insides with a volatile mix of rage and shame.
I promised I’d keep her safe … I promised …
There’s the faint growl of a motor. Everything sounds as if I’m underwater, and then I feel the vibration.
Erik’s Civic races toward us. I close my eyes, ready to accept the hit.
It doesn’t come.
The pressure on my neck has been lifted, and when I open my eyes, there’s blackness. For a moment, I think I’m dead. Then my vision clears and my lungs recover from the lack of air. I realise my nose is brushing the filthy undercarriage of an import.
Erik’s been hit right off me.
I shuffle out slowly from underneath the vehicle and stagger to my feet. The Civic is stopped right by the edge of the cliff. I stumble to the precipice, looking down into the ocean. Renny and Tyler are soon by my side, scanning for anything at all, but there’s nothing other than chaotic waves.
I blow out a breath, searching for something to feel. Something I should be feeling. Anything. But I don’t know if I’m relieved or pissed that Erik got such an easy way out.
I open the Civic’s driver-side door, finding Gianna wide-eyed and unseeing while her hands grip the steering wheel tight.
‘I had to,’ she says quietly, almost to herself. ‘I … I had to do it.’
