Page 77 of Crimson Tears

“Doesn’t look like she will make it much longer anyway,” he nods to Nessa on the floor behind me. I am shielding as much of her as I can from his eyes, but there is only so much I can do.

“We have tools arriving soon, should be able to cut through this glass, and then what will we do?” He hums to himself singing ‘what will we do, what will we do with you’.

I stay planted in front of Nessa. If they get through the glass, I hope they know they are going to have to kill me to get to her. Then there goes all their leverage. Nessa has made it clear she would rather die than break for them.

“Maybe we could just let her die in there, serves her right for being such a stubborn bitch.”

I stalk to the glass, slamming my hand on it between us. Green flinches. It isn’t big, but it’s there and I saw it.

He tries to laugh it off, but now it’s my turn to grin. He is afraid of me.

“I do not think your boss will appreciate you killing hismerchandise,” I quip. The guards referred to Nessa as the boss’s property so many times I wanted to vomit. Women are not things to be owned, they are treasures to be feckin’ cherished.

Green’s face twists with anger. “He said I could do whatever was needed to get her back in her place. On her knees to servehim!”

That’s interesting.

“It’s hard for her to be on her knees as his servant if she’s dead.”

“Fuck you!” he sneers. “You have a few hours left before I put a bullet in your brain and maybe hers too. That way she can just lay at his feet instead, and he won’t have to deal with all her backtalk!”

The man storms off like a child throwing a temper tantrum. I want to laugh at him, but the reality of the situation causes a wave of nausea to overtake me.

Carefully, I lift Nessa in my arms, holding her close. Her eyes open and I give her water, but she continues to shiver.

“S-so c-cold,” she says.

“I know, Sweetheart. Boris is coming soon.”He has to.

She nods and her head drops onto my chest. “T-talk to me, Killer.”

Right, distraction. “What do you want to know?”

It takes a minute before she answers, and I half wonder if she fell back asleep. “I thought you were dead for three years. I want to know it all.”

I could swear she passes out again, which is the only reason I have the courage to tell her everything. All of the nights I hid in the shadows, watching her. How I drew every reaction I ever saw on her face, and a few I began to imagine just for myself.

I tell her how Juvie was the one who got me into sketching and how he helped me into the Shades. I confess that when he toldme we needed to help Evie, I was hesitant at first. I admit that I loved him like a brother until the day he died.

I tell her how I buried him and vowed to find happiness again in his name because he was the one who made me believe that it could still exist.

For at least two hours, I spill everything I can think to tell her until I am drifting off to sleep with her in my arms, hoping she didn’t hear any of it.

Chapter 24

“One mile out,” Alexi says as we all strap on our gear. Lev could find no signs of backup coming to the area. It has only been about fifteen hours since I left, but it feels like it has been days.

I barely see the small bunker building come into view before we are immediately greeted with gun fire. Our team fires back, taking down the two guards outside. That should only leave two more if they do not have any backups.

Evie and Alexi run point while Damien follows behind with his men. As we approach the building, Gray comes out from behind the door, hands in the air.

He always struck me as the weak link. But when he burnt Nessa’s feet for trying to run away, I stopped hoping that one of the guards would assist us in escaping.

“Take him to the cellars,” I order Damien’s men. Havoc appears, a glint sparkling in his eyes as if he were buying a shiny new toy.

“I’ve got him,” he says, taking him back to the vehicles.

The sound of a loud machine whirls below, but I have no idea what it is. As we get closer, I realize I haven’t seen Green.

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