Page 63 of Last Breath

Kissing her forehead, I smile. “No one else would have fit our lives, Joy. You’re the only woman for us.”

Turning to rest on his elbow, Salem smiles. “You both gave me what I’d never had before. I’ve been accepted and loved. Now I know how it feels and what it means.”

With the squawk of a megaphone interrupting our intimate moment, we hear, "To the occupants of room sixty-six, come out with your hands up.”

None of us move. None of us speak. We know the outcome. Death is the only ending.

I’ll do everything I can to make sure it’ll only be me, though. I won’t let them exit this world without raising that child.

Rising on my elbow, I kiss Joy, then push across her body to kiss Salem, deeply. “I love you both more than you’ll ever know.”

Lifting off the bed, grabbing up my pants and the gun, I turn to the policeman on the floor. Pulling free the sodden sock, he attempts to scream out. Placing the barrel of the gun on his temple, I fire. The ensuing shot leaves me a mess. Exactly what I was going for.

Rising, I turn to Salem and Joy. “Dress. You need to leave here. You have to live to raise that child of ours.”

Protesting, Salem pops off the bed lightning fast and grips me by the shoulders. “No, it can’t be me. It needs you. Your strength, your sanity. I’m not the right—”

“You can, Salem.” Unbidden, the emotions I’ve been holding tight to break, and a tear breaks free. I smooth a hand down his face. “I know you have it in you to be a great father to that child.” Kissing him, the tears, the blood, and bodily releases mix in our mouths. “Show it how to love.”

“No, you’re wrong. I’m the broken one. Without you, nothing will make sense. I can’t do it.” As a tear flows down his cheek, it makes me think back on our history. I’ve never seen him cry. Not when I saw Tress violating him, not as he beat him, or when he treated him worse than trash. Never had Salem cried. “I’ll tear down the world worse than I already have.”

Kissing me quick on the lips, Salem rushes to the door before I have a chance to stop him. Bursting forth into the light of day, he stands naked, covered in blood, facing countless police. They’re searching for our deaths and nothing else will do.

Turning his head, he looks back at me with a genuine smile. “I’ll love you in your dreams.”

Chapter 35

Joy

As I watch his body fall to the ground from a single shot, I scream without sound. With all that we’d been through, all that we’d done over the past few months, it seemed unfair to see his life end with a single projectile.

Rising off the bed, I rush for the door, but Malachi attempts to stop me. Wrestling in his arms, flailing around, squirming in protest to his confinement, I eventually slip free thanks to the blood slicking his chest. Reaching the doorway, I fall to the floor and lay down beside the prone wide-eyed body.

“Salem! Get up!” Pulling his slack body as much as possible, I drag him a short way from the open door. Surrounding us, I hear police calling out, shouting for me to surrender. Their request to lay down my weapon—of which I don’t have—and come out peacefully is never going to happen.

I won’t.

I want them to feel the hole in my heart, the suffering they’ve wrought in my soul. Sobbing through heavy tears, nothing I do will let me see past the harm I want to inflict. They’ve taken one of the only people who truly found the broken girl and made her whole.

Yanking on my waist, pulling me away from the door, Malachi brings me out of the firing line. “Think of the baby! Get out of the doorway, Joy.”

“I don’t care! Don’t you see that?” Slapping his hands away, I glare at him. “My life is worthless without either of you. Let them take me!” Tears flow heavily down my face, clouding my sight, and maybe, to a point, my judgement.

Turning my face from the cold eyes of Salem, Mal entreats me to look his way. It hurts to look away. It’s painful.

“Let the officer talk to us,” a policeman shouts over the loudspeaker.

I yell out into the heat of day, “Fuck you! You shot Salem!”

“When the phone rings, please, Miss, pick it up.”

Stroking the soft hair on Salem’s head, I wipe a few stray hairs that are stuck to his bloodstained face. “You’ve killed one of the only people who loved me!” I can’t believe that some fat old bastard wants me to pick up a phone and spill my feelings.

With that, the phone chimes.

Two rings.

Three rings.

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