Page 87 of The Pretty Psycho

I looked up at Vega, trying to ignore the bruise forming on her face and the pain in her eyes. I focused on her anger, on her need for revenge, but the situation we were in wasn't something we had anticipated.

Yes, we knew it would be dangerous, reckless even, but we thought we could trust our own people. We thought we could trust the soldiers that were supposedly on our side. Now it would seem that we didn't have one mole, but several of them.

Dain trained his gun at me this time, wrapping his hand in Vega's hair, forcing her to look at me.

"Look at him, Vega." He laughed. "Look as I kill the man who dared to touch what was mine."

"No," she whispered. "Please. No."

There was no reasoning with him, not even if it came from her. There was no reasoning with a madman, no matter how hard you tried.

"I love you, Bambi," I said, seeing that there was no way out. Dain would kill me, that much was obvious.

He was obsessed with Vega, but me… He didn't give a fuck about me. He'd probably wanted me dead far longer than I knew.There was no love lost between the two of us, but Vega could survive. She was smarter—smarter than all of us.

Dain was obviously unhinged, completely unstable, but the way he held her, the way he caressed her, told me he cared about her more than he let on.

"I'll forever love you. I need you to know that."

"No," she shook her head, "don't say that."

"Shut up!" Dain thundered, but I wasn't going to waste the opportunity. "Shut the fuck up, Adrian."

"I want you to live your life, baby. I want you to be happy, to do everything you always wanted to do." Her eyes filled with tears, tearing me apart. "Be happy, Vega. Be happy, for me."

"I said," Dain started. "Shut the fuck up!" Vega's tears fell freely down her cheeks, killing me more than any bullet ever could, but this was inevitable.

I broke my promise and I just prayed she would one day be able to forgive me.

"Any last words, little brother?" Dain asked, pulling Vega up by her hair, making her yelp out in pain.

"Yeah." I looked at him, grinning widely. "I'll see you in hell."

28

VEGA

Life passedus by when we weren't looking, when we weren't paying attention, and for most of mine, I've absolutely failed to pay attention. There was a massive difference between living and actually feeling alive, and now that I knew what it was, I didn't want to let go. I didn't want to go back to that miserable existence where I didn't care if I lived or died.

My lack of caring shaped me into the perfect soldier, but it also created a shitty human being.

Apathy was dangerous if we didn't keep it in check, and right now I actually wished I was as apathetic as I used to be.

I didn't try stopping the tears streaming down my cheeks. I didn't try to stop the scream that tore from my throat, from somewhere deep inside my soul, calling for the man I loved as the gunshot tore through the air, shattering the temporary peace we had created and destroying our little bubble.

My eyes snapped closed as I struggled to keep my soul in my body, because I knew what that gunshot meant. But the sound of a body dropping down on the ground right next to me with a groan was not what I expected to hear.

I looked to the side, seeing Dain on the ground moaning in pain. There was a millisecond of silence, then all hell broke loose.

I snapped to action, not waiting one more minute, and before Dain could react, before he could shake off whatever just happened, I jumped at him, taking a hold of the gun that was now lying right next to him.

I could hear the sounds of fighting somewhere behind me. I could hear Adrian's voice, as clear as day, strong, fierce, but I couldn't look at him, because the man in front of me deserved all my attention right now.

Dain—Tyler—whatever you wanted to call him—laid underneath me, his dark, golden eyes wide, filled with fear, while blood oozed from his shoulder—a telltale sign of a gunshot wound. I looked up, only to see Yolanda standing not too far away from us, her entire body trembling, holding the gun high in the air.

Her lips opened and closed, but no words came out.

I had no idea what just happened. I had no idea how they failed to see her, but Dain was so sure of his victory, so sure of the positive outcome for himself with his men and women, that he failed to pay attention to his surroundings.

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