Page 122 of Date With Danger

“Drink it!” Gary yells.

I’m not quite ready yet. If this is my dramatic ending, I’m going to make it count. “I hope you regret this every night as you go to bed and in the morning when you wake up and the miserable life you’ve created for yourself haunts you. When you get dementia for real, I hope this is your only memory.” I take a mouthful of tea and spit at him.

“Drink it!” he screams, his face turns red and veins bulge on his forehead. He stalks toward me until the gun is at my temple. “Last chance.”

This is the end.

“Also, I let the dogs pee in your flowers every day.” I hold up the cup, raising it in cheers to him. “Have an awful life, Gary.” And then I sip in a mouthful of poison.

Chapter 50

Caleb

My heart has divided itself fifty times and each little heart is sprinting around my chest as I take the stairs two at a time to Sawyer’s apartment. I don’t make a single sound as I creep toward his door. Cruz is on her way with backup. But I can’t afford wait for her. What if I’m already too late?

I pause outside the door, my ears trained on the sound of voices within. Two of them. One is Amelia’s. I would know her voice anywhere. I swallow back the lump in my throat. She’s okay. My heart beats for what feels like the first time in an hour. Now I have to keep her that way.

I can’t see her or Sawyer from my angle. But I catch sight of another girl tied to a chair. Leah. Her panicked eyes meet mine and I press a finger to my lips. Two civilians, this isn’t good.

“Have an awful life, Gary,” I hear Amelia say.

That’s my girl. I risk a peek through the window, but still can’t see her.

There’s Sawyer though and he’s approaching the girl tied to a chair with a syringe in one hand, a gun in the other. Time to move.

Gun held high, I kick open the door. “Drop the gun, Sawyer.”

He goes still, his back toward me. I risk a glance at Amelia in time to see her spew liquid all over the table in front of her. She shoves her finger down her throat and gags, but I don’t have time to figure out what she’s doing. She’s alive, and that’s all that matters.

I step closer to Sawyer.

“Caleb!” Amelia yells. “He killed Justin. He did it. He also killed Scarlett and my parents—”

“Amelia.” I shush her. I motion for her to get down, and for once, she listens, flipping the table on its side and hiding behind it.

“She’s a talker, ain’t she?” Sawyer says.

He killed her parents? My finger twitches on the trigger, but I can’t shoot, if he jumps out of the way I’ll hit Leah. And he knows it. I could shoot high, aim for his head. But I’d prefer not to traumatize both women or risk missing and sending a rogue bullet through a paper-thin apartment complex. I angle my gun at his left shoulder, farthest away from Leah.

“Drop the gun, Sawyer.” I kick the coffee table out of my way, removing the last barrier between us.

“I think I’ll use it instead,” he says, spinning.

My body reacts on instinct, on revenge sent straight from my heart.

I pull the trigger at the same time his gun fires. Pain envelops the right side of my body, but Sawyer is still standing and I don’t stop to think. I leap forward, tackling him to the ground. But even though I hit his shoulder he refuses to give up. He punches my wounded side and I scream out in pain.

“Caleb?” Amelia cries. At least I think it’s Amelia. Her voice sounds impossibly far away. But one thing remains in focus. The man beneath me, reaching for the gun.

I kick the gun away and with all the fight left in me, punch him. Hard enough to knock him out. For Amelia, of course.

“Caleb!” Amelia’s voice comes again. And then she’s at my side. “That was so hot. I mean, he is an old guy and you have like a thousand more muscles than him, so it wasn’t really a fair fight and I totally knew you would win bu—”

Her rambling is music to my ears.

Until she screams. “You’re hit. He shot you! With a bullet! There’s a bullet in your body, Caleb!” Tears streak down her cheeks and she runs to the kitchen, coming back with a dish towel and pressing it to my side. “How do I stop the bleeding? What do I do?” Her hands tremble around the blood-soaked dishtowel.

“I’ll be fine, it just grazed me. Backup is on the way.” I don’t mention that I’ll only be fine because she is. Because whether I wanted it to happen or not, Amelia came barging into my life and connected her heart to mine. Like the beautiful menace she is.

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