Page 147 of Dmitri

Chapter 41

Daelyn

“There she is…” Dmitri strokes my cheek with the barest of touches and then his hand falls and he goes limp in my arms.

“No!” My heart shatters into a million pieces. I shake Dmitri, but he doesn’t open his eyes again. This can’t be real. This can’t be happening. “Wake up, D.” I shake him hard but he’s lifeless. Blood creeps across the floor and it’s a mix of mine, Kaleb’s and Dmitri’s. It stains everything red, red, red.

I can’t think. I can’t move.

I can’t feel.

“Dmitri, don’t go.” I shake him harder. “Please.” Why isn’t he waking up? His body is still so warm. Sweat and blood have made his forehead sticky. “Please come back. Wake up. Don’t die on me. I…”

This is a mistake. It was supposed to be me. I hug him tight and feel the wetness from his blood all over my hand covering his gunshot wound.

“It was supposed to bemeeee!” I scream.

“Fucking hell,” Silas says. “You gotta get out of here, sweetheart.” The old man drags me away from Dmitri and I’m too stunned to fight him.

“I got her.” Ace grabs me by the back of the neck and squeezes it. I’m still too shocked to realize I’m being shoved outside and into his car. The door slams shut. My pulse swishes loudly in my ears.

Dmitri is dead.Swish.

Addie is dead.Swish.

Kaleb is dead.Swish… Swish… Swish.

I scream until my voice breaks. This is all my fault. Dmitriwas never supposed to get hurt. Addie was never supposed to be touched.

I can’t live like this. I can’t…

Ace shifts into gear and hightails it out of the Scrapyard’s lot.

“Kill me,” I whisper. “Or give me something to use and I’ll do it myself.”

Ace’s eyes blow wide with terror. “Daelyn, no.”

“Yes.” My tone is as hollow as my heart, my eyes dead. “I can’t live without them.”

“Addie’s okay,” he lies, and reaches over and grabs my leg. “Dmitri will be too.”

I shake my head and feebly smack his hand off me. “Fuck you.” How dare he lie to me right now. “I was there. You took her. You…” I can’t even say the rest. He knows what he’s done.

Anguish cuts through me like a chainsaw.

This whole time, I thought for sure Ace cared about her. I was so terrified they were sneaking around behind my back, and to hear him say he…

“Look at me, Daelyn.” Ace grips my chin and forces me to face him. “I didn’t kill Addie. I swear. You know I’d never do something like that.”

And I never thought I’d kill Kaleb, but here we are.

“She’s alive.” Ace grips my face harder. “I fucking swear, Dae. It only sounded like I hurt her because I needed Gretchen to believe I’d followed her orders. But I’d rather set myself on fire than lay a hand on Addie.”

I want desperately to believe him, but…

Ace lets me go. “Dmitri came to me last night. He said he was setting something up to get Kaleb out of our lives for good and asked for my help.”

My lungs collapse and all the air whooshes out of me. “What?”

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