Page 115 of Catch the Sun

I fight.

I’m screaming and pleading, kicking my legs and struggling to free my arms. The moment he uses one hand to tug my dress up my thighs and yanks down his zipper, I pull free, lifting enough so I’m able to draw my knees up and fling my legs forward, kicking him in the chest.

I jump to my feet, my tongue swollen, blood spilling down my chin and neck. My cheekbone is bruised, my body racked with tremors and mind-numbing shock.

McKay is on me before I can gain any speed. He flings me around, grabbing me by the upper arms and yanking me against him.

We stumble.

“Christ, hold still!” he says through his teeth, spit misting my face. “Stop running!”

Sobs tear through my chest. I’ve never been more petrified. He grapples with me, his panicked hands in my hair, around my neck, trying to contain me. “Stop it, stop it! Help me!” I shriek, fighting back, slamming my knee between his legs and connecting with his crotch.

He howls with pain and lets me go. I cry out as loud as my lungs will allowand spin around to escape, but he grabs my elbow and swings me back toward him. He yanks me hard, with more force than my body can process.

I slip.

My shoes have no traction as they struggle for support.

My arms wave desperately, trying to latch onto the cold wind to keep me upright.

The moment moves in slow-motion. McKay lunges forward to grab me, to reach for me, to keep me from falling.

But then he hesitates.

He stops dead in his tracks, his eyes widening as I tumble backward, rocks and rubble kicking up beneath me.

He doesn’t reach. He doesn’t move.

He just…watches.

And I realize in that split second what’s behind me.

I know exactly what’s there to catch me.

Nothing.

A scream explodes from my throat as the nothingness snatches me up, jerks me in reverse, and I tip backward over the drop-off.

The last thing I see is McKay fisting his hair with both hands, his eyes rounding with horror as orange fireworks flash across the sky.

The last thing I feel is my stomach lurching into my throat and icy wind and tree branches slicing my skin as I fall, fall, fall.

The last thing I think about before my body hits the ground…is him.

Max.

And I wonder if he’ll ever find out that his brother killed me.

Chapter 27

Max

She doesn’t call me at midnight.

I pace my bedroom, the cell phone sweaty in my hand as I stare at it.

12:04.

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