Page 149 of Inevitable Endings
I didn’t flinch.
I stared at him. I made him see me, bloodied, bruised, unbroken.
‘‘You’ll have to kill me,’’ I said, voice rough but steady. ‘‘Or I’ll find you. I’ll make you beg for death. I’ll make you crawl.’’
The men behind him laughed, ugly and loud.
Rocco just sighed, almost regretful.
‘‘Good lungs,’’ he said. ‘‘Shame about what’s coming.’’
I fought when they pried my mouth open, fought like a rabid fucking animal. Bit at fingers, snapped my head forward, tasted blood that wasn’t mine. But they pinned me down; one knee crushing my throat, another on my chest. My ribs screamed. My vision tunneled.
I remember the cold brush of the blade against my tongue.
The moment before.
The horror wasn’t in the pain. Not yet.
It was in the knowing.
The moment of silence before the scream that would never come.
Rocco leaned closer, breath hot against my ear.
‘‘I hope you remember this forever,’’ he said.
And then hecut.
The world exploded, white-hot agony, splinters of sound and light shredding through me. The razor carved through flesh and nerve and soul. Blood poured down my chin in thick ropes. I tried to scream—I think I did—but it came out wet, broken, useless.
It wasn’t just pain.
It was erasure.
It was being unmade.
I convulsed, choking, the world spinning so fast it felt like falling through space.
I thought I would die there, drowning in my own blood, in the stink of their laughter.
But then, gunfire.
Sharp. Ruthless.
Like the gates of Hell kicking open.
Bullets tore through the night, ripping bodies apart mid-laugh. Men dropped like ragdolls, blood spraying the gravel, slicking the concrete.
Through the chaos, through the red haze blinding my vision, I saw him.
Aslanov.
His face was carved from rage and grief. His eyes burned like two suns about to collapse. He moved like death itself, a storm of fists and steel, a gun in each hand.
He killed them all.
Without mercy. Without hesitation.
