Page 137 of Offside Angel

I forget about the phone and jolt to my feet, standing between Aiden and Dante. Aiden is wide-eyed now. His blonde hair is mussed and he looks so much like Zane that it makes my heart ache.

“Mommy?” Aiden whispers.

“Go back to bed, Aiden.” My voice cracks on his name. “Go to bed.”

“No, stay,” Dante offers in a way that feels more like a threat. “This is even better than I planned. A twofer.”

I whirl around to face my brother. There is no plan, no ulterior motive. Just raw, pulsing fear. “Please don’t hurt him.”

He feigns a frown. “But it would feel so right, wouldn’t it? You can watch me take your family out the same way I watched you take?—”

“Run, Aiden!” I scream, not waiting for my brother to finish his villain monologue. There isn’t time. Not if I’m going to save my son. I dart past my brother and run for the front door. “Aiden, run! Hide!”

I tear open the front door and sprint into the darkness just like I did that night seven years ago. I don’t have shoes or socks on and the cement shreds my feet, but I duck my head and push myself as hard as I can.

I have to get away from the house—away from Aiden. I need to put as much space between my brother and my son as I can. Maybe, while Dante goes for me, there will be time for Aiden to get himself help. Or maybe Zane will come home and find him before?—

I can’t let myself think about another possibility.

This will work. It has to.

I chance a look back over my shoulder and, unlike the night that started it all, Dante is chasing after me this time. He’s carving a quick path across the grass to cut me off at the gate.

I won’t make it. I know I won’t. But I sprint with all I have anyway.

For Aiden.

For his future.

For Zane and his son.

If this is how I go, it’ll be worth it if the two of them survive.

I’m breathing hard and my limbs feel heavy, but some small part of me starts to wonder if I’ll make it. Maybe I’ll make it through the gate and down the road. A passing car could help me. Could scare Dante off. I could get back to Aiden and hold him, promise him everything will be okay now.

No sooner than the picture forms in my head, Dante slams into the back of me.

I plummet face-first into the lawn. Pain explodes across the bridge of my nose and deep in the back of my head. I gasp, but there’s dirt and grass in my mouth, and Dante’s knee against my spine is only grinding me further into the ground.

He’s burying me. He’s going to bury me alive, and Zane will find me dead. This will wreck him. He’ll never forgive himself. It’ll be all my fault.

Suddenly, Dante rolls me over. I take a gulping breath of air before he pins my back to the ground and bands both hands around my throat.

He’s sweating and red-faced as he sneers down at me. “Dad always said you thought you were better than us. Look at you now. Living in this fancy house. Married to your rich hockey player. It’s fucking pathetic.”

I try to respond, but he’s holding me too tight. Foam bubbles across my lips.

Dante said he didn’t care what I have to say, but he loosens his grip so I can speak. “Zane is the man you wish you were,” I croak.

My brother lets out a cruel, bitter laugh, but fury flashes in his eyes.

It hits me all at once how right I am.

“You hate me because I left. You hate me because—” I cough, and whether he means to or not, he releases my neck slightly. “You’re mad because I found a life for myself outside of that house. Like Mom. The way you and Dad never could.”

Dante is a dark shadow over me, silhouetted by the moon and the midnight sky overhead. His breath is hot on my face as he leans in too close. “Mom was a bitch who abandoned the only man who could ever love her.”

I snort, the sound coming out in a rasp. “Dad has been dead seven years and you’re still quoting him. You should get some new material.”

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