Page 140 of Offside Angel

As soon as the words are out of her mouth, distant sirens cut through the night. Daniel must have called.

Mira glances over her shoulder at her brother, and I know exactly what she’s thinking.

“Where’s the knife?”

“I don’t know. You’re losing a lot of blood, Zane.” I can barely hear her through her swollen throat. “The paramedics will be here soon.”

The sirens are louder. It’ll only be a minute or two now.

“Knife,” I say evenly. “Find it.”

I can tell she doesn’t want to, but Mira releases the pressure on my stomach and searches the grass. When she comes back, the bloody knife is in her hands.

I take it from her gently. Sitting up hurts like a bitch, but I find a clean corner of my shirt and wipe the blade clean.

“What are you?—”

“He came at me with the knife. I didn’t react fast enough and he stabbed me.” I hold the blade over the wound in my stomach, gripping the handle as tight as I can. “But I pulled the knife out.”

She shakes her head. “No, he pulled it out. He was holding it when I?—”

“I pulled the knife out and I charged at him.” I hold Mira’s gaze, letting the words sink in. “I am the one who stabbed him in the neck.”

“No,” she croaks. “Zane, no. It was me. I did this. It’s okay.”

The sirens are just down the street now. I think I see red and blue flashing against the trees.

“There will be questions, Mira. If they find out you killed them both, it’ll look bad. Tell them I did it.” I reach for her with my free hand, pressing a bloody handprint to her cheek. “I should have done it, anyway. I should’ve been the one to kill him for you. I wanted to, but I didn’t know he had the knife.”

Her face is wet with tears. “You did enough, Zane. You saved my life.”

No—you saved mine.

“Aiden needs you,” I tell her instead.

If only one of us makes it out of this, I want it to be her. I already took care of my will. Mira and Aiden will get everything, and I know she’ll take care of him. She was being strangled to death and the first word out of her mouth was our son’s name. What more promise could I ask for?

“Aiden needs you,” I say again. “He loves you.”

My eyes are heavy. I want to close them, but Mira shakes me awake. “Stay awake. Aiden loves you, too. He needs you, too, Zane. Zane. Zane!”

The sirens are deafening now. They’re so loud they drown out Mira’s broken voice.

Mira waves her arm over her head, trying to bring the first responders my way since she can’t shout.

I’m tired all of the sudden. I’m so fucking tired.

“What happened?” An EMT runs over with a medical bag in his hand. He’s already lifting my shirt, inspecting my wounds.

“It was me,” I pant, my eyes fluttering closed. “I killed him.”

54

ZANE

“You love finding new ways to make my job hell, don’t you?”

I crack my eyes open to see Hollis is sitting next to my hospital bed, his face forever buried in his phone. He tilts the screen towards me to show me the paragraph he’s drafting, but pulls it away before I can see anything.

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