Page 130 of Single Teddy
“The number of zeros on my checks makes it all so easy.”
I shook my head.
I’d met a lot of people. I’d read a lot of stories. I knew what people were capable of, but this? These people… They weren’t human. They weren’t people. They were scum.
I opened my mouth to tell him where to put his zeros, but a loud bang made me jump. It made everyone jump.
“Wh-what was that?” I asked.
Barnes turned around and chuckled.
“That?” he said and walked over to the end of the room and turned a latch to open the window.
As I’d suspected, we were in a boathouse. The sea and beachgrass outside confirmed it. But it wasn’t the location that caught my attention. It was the plumes of smoke in the distance. And a building—another boathouse—on fire.
“That would be your military friends,” Barnes said. “May they rest in peace.”
My heart stilled in my chest, and I caught my breath.
“What?” I barely managed to utter.
My friends? Teddy? Wyatt? Slade?
And suddenly it all made sense. Why we were still alive. Why they hadn’t killed us yet. We’d been bait. I didn’t know or understand the specifics, but I knew it in my heart.
This was a trap for Teddy and his team, and they’d fallen right into it. Because of me.
I hunched over myself and tried to breathe, but it became impossible. The oxygen had left my body. This was my doing. My fault. It was all…my fault.
I closed my eyes and Teddy’s smile appeared before me. His warm hugs. His silky hair. The bright blue of his eyes. That first time we met, when he caught me in his strong arms and took my breath away. When he stole my heart.
All that beauty. All the wonder. All…gone. Because of me.
When I grabbed those kids off the street and took them to the police, I hadn’t just signed our death warrant, but Teddy’s. And everyone else’s.
How many tragedies had I caused with a stupid, rash decision?
“No,” I mumbled. “No, no, no.”
Barnes laughed.
“Yes, yes, yes. And now, it’s time for you to join your friends,” he said, and I looked at him as he aimed his gun at me.
I should close my eyes.
Oh well, what did it matter, anyway? In two seconds, I’d be dead. I started nodding, accepting my fate. My punishment. It was what I deserved after the chain reaction I’d caused. I didn’t deserve to live after that.
I closed my eyes after all. And I heard the bang. It rang in my ears. It made me jump.
I waited for the sweet release of death. The darkness. The end.
Yet it never came.
Whatdidcome was a groan, and I opened my eyes to find Barnes on the floor holding his arm, crying in pain.
His hand turned red. And both Bennet and the dragon skull tattoo guy dropped down as another loud bang made one of the wooden beams splinter and dust rain down on us.
“They found us,” Bennet shouted, and suddenly, it felt like the whole world turned the right side up again.
