Page 118 of Lunar Crest University

“No, Serrano?—”

“Hold her.”

The look in my eyes must scare the hell out of him, because he takes her from me without more hesitation, bringing her down to the ground with him as he cushions her head with his lap. I take one last glance down at her, observing her soft features and blood-stained skin. It’s another very fucking loud reminder that I’m about to make Javier’s death as painful as it can possibly be. Normally, I’d prefer to slowly torture him, but she’s my main focus.

Time is dwindling, and she doesn’t have much more to give.

“I’ll say,” Javier continues, laughing darkly. “You surprised me, Luca, blowing up my compound like this.”

“You blew up my fucking house.”

I start my trek down the hallway toward him, the glow from the fire illuminating everything in an orange hue. My skin is dirty with blood and ash, and smoke lingers in the air.

“Should’ve just paid me my money,” he says, two feet away now.

We circle each other, and I catch the glint of a knife in his hand as he fiddles with it in his fingers. Eager. Like he’s ready forthis. He never fucking plays fair. Fist fights are always out of the question for him because he doesn’t know how to defend himself unless he has a weapon in his hand. I yank my knife out, tossing it back and forth between my hands as I slowly walk around him.

“I was trying to,” I grit out.

“Then you just killed my men instead.”

My lips twitch. “And it was too fucking easy.”

His knife zips through the air toward me, and I jump back just in time as a chuckle filters through my lips. His pace picks up as he grows more frustrated, and that tells me I’m cornering him right where I want him. His anger issues would have always been his downfall. He’s too irrational, doesn’t use his tiny fucking brain to think things through before he lets his rage take over every situation. Case in point: my laugh only pisses him off more, and he steps at me again to swing the knife in my direction.

It’s why he always had me do his dirty work.

He could never do the shit I did successfully.

“Testy,” I comment, flashing him a shit-eating grin.

He goes to slice at me once more, this time higher, but I duck as his arm flies over my head and jab my blade into his ribcage. In and out. A clean stab, a painful one. Javier growls out as he halts his movements, and I take that moment to step around him and lodge my knife into his back. I hear the gargle in his voice as he tries to yell, and it’s all the confirmation I need to know I’ve hit his lung.

“Still letting that anger get the best of you, Javi?”

He chokes out another growl, swinging his arm around as he turns to face me, nicking my bare arm with the tip of his blade. Blood trickles down my skin, but it’s just a surface injury. A fucking splinter.

“I take that as a yes.” Smirking, I lower myself into a fighting stance as I start to circle him again.

He stumbles to keep up with me, and I can see the crimson liquid trickling from the sides of his mouth as he chokes on it. His lungs are filling with blood. It’ll be just like drowning, but that’s not good enough for me.

“I expected more of a fight from you,” I taunt. “You had so muchpotential.”

He lunges at me with his knife out, and I step aside just long enough for him to almost fly past me, except I grasp the back of his head and smash it directly into the concrete wall. The crunch of his nose is like music to my ears, and so is his yelp of pain afterward. He staggers away from me, holding his nose as he sputters on his blood.

“Serrano,” Levi calls from down the hall. “Her pulse. I can’t find it!”

Fuck.

I used to want nothing more than to make him suffer for everything he put me through. For all the fucked up shit I’d endured since meeting him. For hurting my Finley. But sheis my main focus. She’s sweeter than revenge could ever be for me.

If she dies, none of this matters. None of what has occurred today would mean anything.Iwouldn’t mean anything. I’d never felt like more of a person than when I was with her. Not a monster, not a killer, not a bad guy. She put a morally broken man back together with her tiny hands and loved every piece of me, despite how ugly some parts were.

Tugging my pistol from my waistband, I can practically feel the single bullet left in the chamber burning through my palm as I point it directly at his head.

“You lose,” I say.

The shot echoes in the hallway, deafening and anend.It’s a sound of solace and freedom that I never thought I’d get to hear. Watching the bullet fire directly between his eyes is an image that’ll be engraved in my brain forever. A memory to replay overand over to remind myself I am finally free. A lullaby to help me sleep at night.

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