Page 44 of Shifting Gears

“What? You didn’t think I would fight you one-on-one if I was only a man who sat behind a desk all day, did you? Contrary to what you might think, I do most of my dirty work in person. Watching the life leave someone’s eyes is a euphoric feeling unlike any other.”

He stepped toward me, and with each one, I stepped backward, until I backed into a shelf with a decent-sized vase on it. I reached behind me and gripped it as he moved in, biding my time.

“I think watching you slip away will almost be as pleasurable as when I watched your father’s eyes dim as he was hanging in front of me, pleading for me to spare his daughters. Funny how life comes full circle … especially when it ends the same way. Like father, like daughter. Neither of you knew when to give up and bow down to the better man.”

I froze.

There is no way. Father killed himself. He left a note. It was his handwriting.

“You’re a liar,” I said, my hand loosening around the vase. “My father committed suicide.”

My heart plummeted as I tried to deny his words in my heart. But as much as I didn’t want to believe him, if he really had murdered my father and my father hadn’t chosen to leave us, then he had robbed me of more than I’d thought. And I couldn’t let him get away with this.

Kaito sneered, “If you want to call two of my men hoisting him up into the rafters after I allowed him to write a little note to his children a suicide, then, yes, I suppose he did. But if you want to accept reality, I can tell you how he begged for his life. I heard his cries as I tightened the rope around his neck, and I watched him struggle against it as his windpipe collapsed.”

I grabbed the vase with a renewed vengeance and swung. The sound of it shattering against the side of Kaito’s head was mixed with his shout of pain and the noise of metal clattering onto the ground as he dropped his knife. I shoved him and ran past as he stumbled from the blow, holding where I had hit him.

Where is it?!

My blood was pounding as I searched frantically for the knife. Just as I saw a glimmer of the blade sticking out from under his desk and my heart leaped with hope, I felt a searing pain in the side of my shoulder where it met my neck.

Warmth pooled down my body, and a floating sensation began to take over as I reached my hand up and touched the place where pain began to spring from. When I dragged it back, seeing it covered in blood, I glanced down.

A shard of the vase had been jammed into my body, and from the amount of blood, it had hit something vital.

I fell to my knees as I heard footsteps begin to walk around me.

“You bitch. You will look at me as you fucking die,” Kaito said as he crouched down and gripped my chin. “Don’t worry; I’ve already got a plan on how to get rid of the man you were with. It’s fitting. Too bad you won’t be here to see it.”

The world was becoming fuzzy. His voice grew muffled. Soon, I couldn’t hear anything but the sound of my heart beating, and it was getting slower by the second.

I closed my eyes, picturing my sisters’ faces.

I’m so sorry, Sydney, Regan. I tried ... I meant to keep you both safe, and I failed. Please forgive me, sisters. Look out for each other better than I did for the both of you.

I thought he might have slapped me, but I kept my eyes closed as I fell sideways. The floor didn’t feel cold now.

Another face appeared before me.

AJ, I whispered in my mind.

I reached out for him, and he turned, smiling at me with his dumb, cocky smirk.

Thank you. For giving me one small glimpse of what it means to be loved.

And then, with one final beat, everything faded into darkness.

CHAPTER 16

SYDNEY

I felt sobad for Touma.

I was dismissing my other students for the day as I saw him use his crutches to get to his feet. Then he groaned as he realized his duffel bag was just out of his reach.

He was stubborn. He was supposed to be on bed rest but had pressed that he could at the very least come to training and help watch the other students’ form during the day. I’d let it slide because I knew how stir-crazy he would be at home, alone. Plus, Touma was the closest thing to a brother I had. It would be weird for him to not be here most days.

“Here, let me grab that for you,” I said as I walked over, leaning down and picking up his bag.

---