Page 28 of Shattered Love

A loud banging spurred me from the dark thoughts. The sound had come from the room before me. Not knowing who waited on the other side, I picked the gun back up, trying to steady my hands.

With short breaths, I dug through the man’s pockets until I gripped cool metal in my hand. A ring of three keys were clasped in my hand. I tried the first one, to no avail. The second took several attempts, my focus blurry, but finally, the lock clicked.

Opening the door, the weapon raised, I came face to face with the five people I had killed for.

Chapter Fifteen

Warner, Rainer and Aiden were the first faces I saw. They stood shoulder to shoulder, a wall of mass waiting for whatever threat they conjured in their heads when the gun went off.

“Lessy?” Aiden breathed in shock, bringing my gaze to him.

I knew they were waiting for answers. Probably wondering why we weren’t sprinting out of here like our lives depended on it, but cause truly, they did. But I couldn’t speak.

Could Aiden see the difference? That I wasn’t his innocent twin sister anymore? Could they see the blood on my hands, the hot and sticky thickness I couldn’t seem to shake?

Rainer approached me softly, as if I was a spooked animal. Gently, his hand wrapped around mine, the one that still held the raised gun. His eyes shifted over my shoulder to the man who was sitting in a pool of his own blood. Blood I had caused.

Prying the gun from my cool fingers, he shifted the weapon into his other hand, his fingers wrapping around mine. The tremors stopped under the force of his touch, his troubled gaze calm for once.

“You did good.” The words were a whisper, only meant for my ears.

But I needed them. I needed the reminder that there had been no other choice. I did good. For them.

“Are we going to get out of here now?” Sasha asked from the back of the room, pushing past the guys and pulling me into a tight but quick hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

I smiled tightly and then I hooked the strap of the bags off my shoulders, another weight lifting off of me. Aiden grabbed the bag from me, peeking inside, his brows arching. But he didn’t question it like I had, grabbing one of the weapons for himself, passing the bag off to Warner.

Warner grabbed the second gun, Sasha handling the third. Rainer still held mine in his hand and I had no intention of asking for it back. Maybe that made me a coward. Maybe I was too comfortable having other people fight my battles. But I didn’t care.

Once the four of them were armed, Aiden and Warner led the way out of the room, Mina and me in the middle, while Sasha and Rainer took up the back.

As we stepped around the body on the ground, Mina’s hand found mine, squeezing in reassurance. I turned my head toward hers, her pale face eerie in the dark. But her bright eyes, surrounded by freckles, hadn’t faded. I hadn’t been too late. They hadn’t suffered at the hands of the people here.

We were silent as we trekked up the stairs in a single file, Rainer at my back. His heat pressed against me, his feet nearly clipping my heels.

“Murphy?” He whispered.

I couldn’t think about Murphy right now. Not when the cacophony of gun shots was now gone. Did that mean he was dead? Or had he escaped unscathed?

But Rainer deserved an answer. “He was the distraction.”

Rainer didn’t say anything, but his heat came closer, his hand dropping onto my lower back as we stood on the stairs, waiting for Warner to check that the main level was still empty.

“He’d be proud of you for saving us,” Rainer finally said.

I choked back tears. Would he? I may have saved them, but then why did it feel like I had damned myself?

Warner held up a hand, signaling us all forward. I took a step, Rainer’s hand dropping from my lower back. But his touch wasn’t gone for long, his hand gripping mine until our eyes were level.

Swallowing roughly, he said, “I’m proud of you, Less.” And then he was pushing me up the stairs, urging me to follow the others.

When we all filed into the computer room, the two people from before were no longer there. In fact, the entire building seemed empty. An uneasy feeling swirled in my gut. I had taken two shots, two shots that wouldn’t have been quiet this late at night.

Where were the guards? Shouldn’t they be preventing us from leaving?

Everyone seemed to have the same thoughts, looking around the room in confusion. But we didn’t have to wait for answers for long.

Aiden took a step toward the front door, the door which had been shut behind me at some point. But his foot barely touched the floor when the door swung open, revealing a face I had hoped to never see again.

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