Page 71 of Vendetta

“No, stay,” she calls for me, a desperate sound that stops me in my tracks.

I come back to her, thinking I'm wasting time but I need to make sure she's okay. I cup her face in my hands. She looks at me, her eyes unfocused, her pupils dilated, and smiles. “Am I dead?”

“No, Leighton,” I say, placing a kiss to her forehead. “You'll be fine. I came for you.”

Her eyes fill with tears, making my heart hurt. “I didn't mean to—” she sobs. “—I killed you. I fucking killed you.”

“Leighton, I'm here. The bullet barely grazed me.” I repeat Amber's lie. It wouldn't hurt like a bitch if it just grazed me. Then again, I've never been shot before, so maybe it can be much worse than this.

She just cries harder. Whatever they gave her isn't anywhere near wearing off. I wipe away her tears, kissing her salty lips. It hurts like hell to leave her when she's like this, but I need to take care of Stevie first.

I peek from the room, and see Stevie is trying to crawl away, sliding across the floor toward the other storage room. I walk after him. He turns on his back and shoots, barely missing. I raise my gun and shoot his arm. His gun clatters to the floor, echoing in the hallway. He scrambles for it, so I shoot again, this time aiming at his stomach. He falls down to the floor, unmoving, as a red patch soaks his shirt.

I walk up to him, my gun still at aim, and kick his gun with my foot out of his reach, although there's no point. Blood gurgles audibly up his throat and out of his mouth, sliding down his cheek and dripping onto the floor. He's trying to say something, still conscious. I like it like that. I aim the gun at his groin, smiling, and shoot again. And again. And again, until there are no more bullets left.

I stand there for at least ten minutes, watching him die. It's a glorious feeling. I was fooling myself, thinking I'm above this. I wanted this revenge so bad. Amber was right; this is exactly who I am.

I walk back to the room where I left Leighton, only to find her still crying, mumbling to herself. “I just want to die,” I hear her say.

“Come on,” I say, lifting her up and supporting her on my good shoulder. The other one is starting to throb already.

She puts her arms around my waist, squeezing, still mumbling. We're slowly making our way up the stairs, when we hear another gunshot.

“Fuck,” I say, at the same time as Leighton squeals. I take out the spare gun from my waistband, and continue climbing up the stairs, hoping Leighton doesn't make another sound. We're so fucking close to being out of this place, and I amnotletting anything stop me now.

I sit her down at the top of the stairs, then lift the hatch and look out. The lights are on this time, and I recognize the person sitting against the wall as Dom, clutching a gun in his hand. I'd say I'm relieved he's alive, but that would be a lie. I've only seen him a handful of times, and I couldn't care less.

But I decide to be a good Samaritan, and lift the hatch all the way up, looking around to see if there's anyone else out there. “Don't shoot,” I shout. “It's Devon Andre, Leighton's with me.”

His eyes widen when he finds me on the other side of the office as I step out, and then lift Leighton up, as well.

“She's okay?” he asks, a tremble in his voice.

“Yeah, I think she's drugged. I have no idea what they gave her."”

He stands up, and I realize he's been shot in the leg. He sees me eyeing it. “He ran.” He points somewhere outside. “I got him, too. They held me separate.”

I consider going after whoever is out there, but decide against it. We better get out of here fast.

“We need to get away from this place. I have a car waiting,” I say, motioning for him to follow me as I lift up Leighton over my good shoulder. Now that the rush is wearing off, I can definitely feel my bad shoulder throbbing. Whatever drug I was given is wearing off. But if there are more of them out there, we need toget out of here fast. When Dom doesn't follow me, I turn around. “Can you walk?”

He nods, and then slowly gets up. I can see it hurts him to walk as he catches up to me, but he bravely soldiers on, and I lead the way outside to the car, my gun at my side, though it's no use in my hurt arm. I unlock the car and put Leighton in the back, placing a kiss on her temple when she moans. I take off my jacket and cover her with it. Dom gets in on the passenger side, slumping in the car seat and leaning his head back. The grimace on his face is just about how I feel right now.

I get in too, starting the car and getting the hell away from that place.

“God, this hurts like a bitch.” He leans down to inspect the wound on his thigh.

“Yeah. How did you get away?” I ask him after a while, turning on the radio at low volume.

“We heard a gunshot, and he didn't want to leave me to go see what it was all about, so he took me with him. We fumbled for the gun, and it fired before I took it from him. And then I shot him too, but he ran away.”

“Good,” I say. “You did good.”

“Yeah,” he answers.

LEIGHTON

I hear voices through the fog in my head, thinking there's no way I'm hearing it right. It's Dom's voice, but it's Devon's I know for sure I'm hallucinating.

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