Page 131 of Wish You Were Mine

Robert didn’t reply.

“So, why have you been doing all of this?” Asher asked, one of his hands messing with the radio. Robert hadn’t noticed yet, and I hoped he wouldn’t, or we might be in even more trouble. “To punish me for not saving her? To get revenge?”

Robert sighed. “At first, I just wanted to scare you. That’s why I drugged you and poisoned your cat. But it wasn’t enough. Why should you get to have people you love when I don’t? It isn’t fair.”

“You wanted to make me feel the same way you did.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.” His voice was firm, and some of the tension left him.

My throat tightened. Surely, this wasn’t good. If he was calm, didn’t that mean he’d come to some kind of decision?

“Is that why you targeted Frannie?” Asher asked.“And why you took Marcy?”

“Yes.” Metal knocked against my head, and I almost jolted, not expecting it, but managed to keep myself under control. Robert must have moved his hand. “I couldn’t do anything with the baby though. She’s innocent in all of this. But your girlfriend is another matter. She knows what you are and chooses to be with you anyway.”

I shifted from one foot to the other, beginning to feel the chill of our surroundings, as well as the bone-deep coldness inside me.

I didn’t know what to do. Should I drop to the ground and hope Asher could tackle Robert before he got off a shot? Or would it be best for me to stay still?

“Summer is a veterinarian.” Asher was still fidgeting with the radio. “She helps animals. She has five brothers, a niece and nephew, and parents who love her. Let her go.”

I met Asher’s eyes, hoping to read in them what he wanted me to do, but all I saw there was the same terror that was freezing me in place.

“She should have better taste in men,” Robert growled. He shifted his stance, pushing the gun against my temple so forcefully that I had to kink my neck to the side. “But I’m a more reasonable person than you, so I’m going to give you the choice you didn’t give me. You can save yourself—or save her. Either way, one of you isn’t leaving here.”

My chest tightened so much that it was difficult to drag enough oxygen into my lungs. If I were the heroine in one of Grace’s books, this is the moment when I’d experience a flash of brilliance and somehow take Robert down.

But this was real life, and I had no idea how to take down a grown man who was both taller and heavier than me. Perhaps I should elbow him in the ribs or stomp on his foot. I had to do something. I couldn’t just stand here.

“I choose Summer,” Asher said, no hesitation. “Hurt me, not her. She doesn’t deserve this.”

“No,” I mouthed at him.

“I’m sorry for getting you into this.” He smiled sadly. “I love you.”

Robert scoffed, and suddenly the gun was no longer aimed at me, but at Asher. “Why should you get to choose to save your girlfriend when I didn’t get to choose to save my wife? You made the choice for me, and you chose wrong.”

Oh, shit.

So…what? He was going to kill both of us?

I wasn’t prepared to wait around and find out. I drove my elbow backward, feeling it hit something soft. When Robert gasped and curled forward, I shoved his arm, driving the gun away from Asher.

He didn’t drop the weapon though.

I grabbed for it, fear pulsing through my veins with each hammer of my heart. If he hadn’t intended to shoot us, he sure as hell would now. He wound his leg around mine and tried to trip me. I grabbed onto his shoulders and dragged him down.

We struggled for the gun. He was bigger and stronger, but all I had to do was delay enough for Asher to intervene.

An ear-piercing crack tore between us as the gun fired.

61

ASHER

My world shattered as I watched Summer go slack.

The snap of the gunshot echoed through my mind on repeat.

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