Page 98 of Wicked Me
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Sam
LOUD. SHARP. THEN THEwhole world exploded with pain. My right shoulder was sagging, bringing the rest of me down with it. It was turning colors. Bright, bright red. This couldn’t be good.
I crashed against the table behind me, into the drug money piled high. For all the things money can do, it didn’t do shit to catch me or to stop the deafening hum in my ears. My body folded into the concrete, right shoulder first, of fucking course. Pain, so raw and real, darkened the room in a wet red.
The smell of blood filled my nose. Not just mine, but Alex’s, too. Dead. But I wasn’t. Not yet.
I blinked hard into the growing darkness, trying not to black out, scrambling to get my feet under me, because Slim was here. The fucker had shot me. If I didn’t pass out, if I could hear anything else besides this high-pitched hum, maybe I could get out. Alive. To Paige.
“Paige.” Her name ripped from my mouth at a whisper. The single-minded focus she gave me surged enough adrenaline to bring me to my feet.
To open my eyes to Slim’s gun pressed to my forehead.
My mouth went dry. Agony gritted my teeth together. The cold steel of Tony’s gun weighted my good arm. I didn’t want to use it. But I knew I would have to.
Sweat poured down Slim’s face to his numerous chins. Spit flew from his moving mouth. I could almost hear his shouts, so I tried to match his volume with my own.
“I didn’t kill her! Someone came in the door behind me!”
Maybe he heard me. Maybe not. I didn’t want to stick around and find out while I waited for him to take the next kill shot.
I released the safety, pointed, squeezed the trigger.
Self-defense. Self-defense. That was what I repeated to myself over and over as I ran past him toward the maze of steel beam shelves. I didn’t even know if I hit him.
Was that what Hill had wanted us to do? Kill each other so both me and his competition were toast without Hill’s skeletal hands doing any of the dirty work?
The roof creaked and groaned, its echoes throwing sound around every dark corner. Even if I did shoot Slim, would the rest of Hill’s men just let me walk out of here?
When I came to the metal door, I heaved it open and threw myself out into the bright sun. The glare burned the inside of my skull, so I closed my eyes and ran in what I hoped was the direction of my car. If they were going to shoot me, might as well do it now while I was blind and half deaf.
Tears streaked down my cheeks as I tried to pry open my eyes, blurring everything into watercolor soup.
A shot rang out from my right. Dust kicked up around my feet and bit into my gun hand. Too close. I took a sharp left turn, still toward the fence but not toward the hole in the ground and my car behind it.
Another shot rocketed past my left ear.
I zigzagged right, gripping my useless arm against my chest to lessen the constant jarring.
Almost to the fence.
I should’ve plowed ahead. I should’ve dove for freedom underneath the fence.Eyes on the road, soldier,Dad would always say. I’d never listened because my life had never been a fucking war. Until now.
