Page 148 of Dmitri

“I don’t know how he found out where I lived, but yeah. He came to me and said you told him everything about Gretchen from the beginning. Hell, he even said you told him all your crimes and started rattling those off, too.”

I have no words because shame creeps into my chest, filling in the gaps my heartbreak hasn’t touched. Why would Dmitri go behind my back and do this? “What else did he say?”

“He promised he’d get us out and asked if there was anyone else who needed help as badly as you.”

I swallow the lump in my throat. Dmitri tried to save as many as he could and has paid the ultimate price for being a fucking hero. It makes me sick. “What did you tell him?”

Ace turns onto a long dark road. “I told him Casey needs help, too.”

Casey, the brother of the man who murdered Dmitri’s father. How could D have such forgiveness in him? Then again, it wasn’t Casey who was sent, and Corey, like the rest of us, didn’t have a choice with Kaleb.

The car stops and the backdoor opens.

“Come on, Dae.” Casey’s suddenly there, helping me out. “I got her from here, man.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Go.”

Suddenly, Casey has my arm slung around his neck and he’s walking me into a building, holding me up because my legs aren’t working right. Ace takes off to who knows where, his tires kicking up dust and gravel as he disappears.

Casey voice is barely audible when he says, “You did good tonight, Dae.”

I can’t even respond. The reminder of what I’ve done sends me over the edge all over again and I bawl.

“Shhhh, I know, I know.” Casey tucks me into his chest and holds me together. “He wasn’t a good man. There was never anygood in him, baby.”

“There’s nothing good in me either,” I cry. “And Dmitri is now…” A fresh wave of grief steals the air from my lungs. I drop to my knees and scream out my sobs.

Lights flash in my face as a van pulls into wherever the fuck Ace has dumped me.

Casey hauls me to my feet. “Come on. We have to hurry.”

Silas hops out of the van and rushes to the back, and a guy I’ve never seen before runs out of the building to meet him. They carefully pull someone out of the van.

It’s Dmitri.

Hope is a dagger piercing my heart when Dmitri makes the most glorious, agonizing sound I’ve ever heard.He’s alive! I try to break away from Casey to get to them, but his grip tightens. “Let them go in first, Dae.”

The guy helping Silas get Dmitri inside grunts. “Fucking hell, bro, you’re a mess.”

D limps and can’t walk without a lot of help. He screams out in pain, and my reaction is visceral to it. I escape Casey’s hold on me, using the moves Dmitri taught me, and run across the gravel parking lot to get to him.

“He needs a hospital!” I shout.

“No cops. No hospitals. No evidence.” Silas tips his head toward the door. “Everyone better get the fuck inside before we’re seen.”

Two motorcycles blaze up the road and fiercely turn into the lot with us. The first one sprays gravel as it skids to a stop, and the rider pulls off his helmet, tossing it on the ground as he lets his bike fall to it’s side and he runs towards us. “What the fuck happened?”

It’s Ryker.

And Vault isn’t far behind.

“That’s for him to say,” Silas answers. “But he won thefight.”

“Jesus Christ.” Ryker helps Silas and the other guy carry Dmitri in. “You stupid motherfucker.”

“Tried to… protect…y—” Dmitri’s legs give out as he falls unconscious before they even get him inside.

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