Page 147 of Underground Prince

His hot breath left my face as he glanced behind him, seemingly searching for something.

Theo used that time to spin his gun so the handle faced out and he stormed over, his fists primed for incurable damage.

I raised my heel and slammed it into Trace’s balls.

“Fu—!” Trace’s grasp wavered, and I used the temporary slackness to contort out of his hold, but he regained purchase and threw us to the ground. Theo’s shouts and pounding footsteps rang out, but I didn’t turn toward him. I scrambled, employing sharp elbows and knees to break out of Trace’s hold. I gouged into his eyes with my thumbs. He screamed, his lock on me finally releasing, and I burst from the ground and straight into Theo.

I cried out in relief and bundled into his arms, checking every part of him. His hands, his chest, his face, saying, “You’re not him. You will never be them,” before I kissed the life out of this man and waited for the FBI to scramble out of the woodwork and surround Trace, guns drawn, to restrain him and confirm our safety.

“You always were a pussy, bro.”

Bang.

“No!”

I’d turned, a shield of protection the instant Trace spoke, the denial a thunderclap of horror on my lips before searing pain gripped me and I toppled.

An animal howled above me, the most horrific, dire sound as Theo was dragged away, his mouth wide to create more of those unspeakable screams as he was pushed to his knees and his hands were yanked behind his back by the agents I so wanted a few precious seconds earlier.

“Cassie!” Noah had cried, over and over as he was dragged from her broken body. “CASSIE!”

Now those same wails were fading, mutating, rising again, a different name carrying identical throes. “Scarlet!”

“You promised you wouldn’t hurt him!” I screamed as I was surrounded by more men, one’s fingers digging into my neck. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt him!”

Shots rang at my left before there was a resounding thud. More footsteps, more shouting, the static of speakers, the motor of a boat, the explosion of bullets…so many sounds but yet I could only focus on one thing. One man, a beacon among all the rest, never tearing his eyes off mine, as he was pushed chest-first on the ground.

I tried to reach him. “Don’t hurt…”

Noah fell beside me. “Scarlet? Can you hear me? Scarlet!”

Pressure against my chest.

“Are we losing her? Someone, please!”

Dotted vision, clustering into black along the sides, but Theo was still at my center, and I wouldn’t blink, would never, because he had to stay. He couldn’t…

Love, Letty. Ain’t it the brightest thing?

Darkness.

30

SURVIVING FORGIVENESS

“Scarlet? Honey?”

Letty?

“Letty?”

Black, to blue.

I blinked through what felt like unsettled dust and I sank down, away from my floating cavern and into the whitewashed blue of night.

Eyes opening wider, I scanned the room. Soft beeps and hums sounded on my right, and when I moved my right hand, a stiffness remained against my skin. The acrid scent of plastic caked my nostrils, and after a tentative scrunch, I discovered it was the oxygen tube wrapped across my cheeks and blowing sweetened, cold air into my nose.

Someone shifted at my right, huddling under the jacket tossed over them as they slumbered in a visitor’s chair.

---