Page 130 of Lies Like Love

He shot me for my unwillingness to play his game. He shot me because he thinks Fel is his. All these years in the shadows, and he reveals himself just to claim her after all he’s done. Killing her mother, destroying her life, and letting me take the blame.

He might have said it was an offering, but he was handing us a noose to join him. And walking in here, I knew how this would end. Not that it would keep me away.

Fel’s grandmother runs over to me, and presses her hands over my bleeding wound, while her grandfather sits, frozen. They didn’t speak so much as a word during her father’s unhinged rant, confirming they’re pawns as much as we are. One man has held control this entire time. A man who should have been dead.

Looking toward the doorway, my imagination places her in it, even when I know she’s running from her father and his men.

Her ghost, a figment with eyes screaming louder than her mouth. Cheeks wet with tears. Hair spilling like the blood I want to pour from their throats for touching her.

“Get off me.”

I pull away from Fel’s grandmother and stumble to stand. It’ll kill me to fight through and find her, but it’ll kill me if I don’t, so there’s no decision to be made.

“You need to sit down,” she says like I’ll listen. “We need a doctor.”

Her comment almost makes me laugh because I’m a dead man walking. I feel it as numbness spreads. Not pain, but the absence of all things I should be feeling.

Doesn’t matter. I’ll fight until the grim reaper’s at my doorstep. It’s Fel and me to the fucking end, and her father needs to learn that lesson.

I stumble forward as I fight to catch my bearings.

Blood sticks my shirt to my side, but I barely feel it. Nothing matters but a scream ripping down the hallway, like it’s growing legs and guiding my path. Her fear is fuel in my veins when I’m losing the fight.

Grabbing my side with one hand, I pull out my switchblade with the other.

It’s not ideal when he has a gun, but it’s all I have. I’ll move quick and quiet, knowing he’ll finish me if I don’t get close enough to finish him first. He won’t hesitate a second time.

I stumble out of the room, and the hallway stretches as my vision tunnels. Spots of light blur my vision, and it takes all my focus to blink it clear.

“Where did she go?” Someone is close, hunting her. And I can’t help the grin at how Fel slipped from their grasp.

Good girl.

A game of cat and mouse I’ll willingly play if it means she’s mine at the end of it.

I press my back to one of the walls as footsteps close in. My heartbeat hammers between my temples in the deadly silent foyer.

One step, another. Closer and closer as I steady my breath. Each step they take more frantic as they search for her. They’re panicking, and I can’t help but smile at my luck. While they’re running on adrenaline, my loss of blood calms me.

A clear head wins every time. No matter the size. No matter the strength. No matter the weapon.

In this moment, my mind is clear for her. All I see is Fel and what I need to do to end this for us both.

A man comes around the corner so quick he doesn’t see me stick my leg out and trip him. He falls face first to the tile, and I land with a knee on the center of his back as I sink my blade into his artery.

Blood has a way of making art when it’s spilled.

It spreads like oil in water.

It pours like sap from a tree.

It spouts like water in a fountain.

All dependent on the tool you use. And I paint the most beautiful picture for her.

I’m not sure if this is how it’s supposed to feel when you take a life. I’ve hurt people before, but never been the one to actually kill them.

But this—my knife—my hand forcing this man’s soul from his body as blood spills out onto the tile, my fate is written. There’s no denying what I’ve done.

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