Page 219 of Overcast

I look up at him, my jaw beginning to tremble hopelessly. “ I can’t.”

“Didn’t you hear what I said? It’s one or both.”

“I can’t kill someone,” I deadpan.

Eli moves aside at the precise moment when the man on Marty’s right looms towards Reagan, reaching for the thickest knife I’ve ever seen in my life from his side. The edges are rigid and angry, one small slice appears like it could sever a limb.

I watch him loom closer, my heart beating ferociously in my throat.

“No, please,” I beg at the same time Marty threatens him.

He doesn’t stop, positioning it at her collarbone and waiting for the order to act upon what the weapon can do.

“Last chance,” Eli quips. “One or both die. No more games or me asking you again.”

The knife at Reagan’s frame moves higher, barely touching the tan skin of her throat. One swift move and I might see Marty’s sister die in front of us.

“Stormi,” Marty croons, snapping my neck to him. “We’re going to do this together. One step at a time.”

Huh?

I study his features under the stubble of his chin along his jawline. It’s a 360 of what it just was, composed and at ease. As though nothing in the room was bothering him just his calling out my name like it was a normal day.

“How do I know Reagan gets out of here?” Marty asks, not to me but the man standing at my side.

“You have my word.”

Marty doesn’t break his focus on me. “That doesn’t mean shit.”

“It’s all you have,” Eli deadpans.

“Step away from the girl.” Surprisingly, Eli does what Marty tells him to do, but it’s not far enough from all of us.

I want to wish him away.

I want to go back to two weeks ago.

I want to tell Marty so many things, how pissed I am and how I wish he never left me alone.

“Raise the gun, sweetheart,” Marty instructs, but my arm doesn’t listen.

I’m not shooting him, I just can’t voice it. I can feel a familiar panic attack beginning to emerge from my chest.

It’s not going to end this way.

Not with us standing in front of each other and having to put our lives in another parties’ wishes.

“There are so many things,” Marty states. “That I want to tell you...but we don’t have a lot of time. I’m going to try, and you have to promise me something, okay?” I give a weak nod. “Each sentence you raise the gun.”

My brows slam into each other. “No.”

A soft smirk illuminates his face. “There she is. But right now, I’m going to need you to follow my lead.”

His lead.

He has a plan.

“Ready?” I don’t move, so he takes that as a somewhat yes. “I never got to tell you how much I love you. That I’d never change a thing that happened between us.”

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