Page 85 of Crawl
But fuck it all. I love her. And this is for her.
He darts toward me, and this time, I hold up my knife, using it to stab him in the arm, but the detective uses that moment to get the knife out of my hand. He punches my face, flattening me against the asphalt, and I go still. Remedy presses her eyes to the window, handcuffs binding her wrists. There’s pain and destruction in her expression, and I can’t let her life be ruined.
This can’t be her end.
I spit a mouthful of blood onto the asphalt as the detective reaches for his handcuffs. “You’re under arrest—”
I lunge out of his reach, but he gets one cuff on my wrist. I punch my free fist into him, then knock the gun from his holster. His legs buckle and I twist onto my hands and knees, reaching for that gun.
“If you touch that weapon, I’ll have no choice,” he shouts.
But the bastard doesn’t kill me. He takes out a second gun from a hidden holster.
This is it. I’m gone.
But I don’t care about dying. All I care about is her.
“You’re under arrest for the murder of Cassius Winstone, and the—”
The headlights turn on, and both of us look into the light.
***
Remedy
Once I flick on the headlights, I switch back to the cuffs. The bobby pin slides between my clammy fingertips. “Shit, shit, shit,” I whisper to myself. I’m drenched in sweat and desperate to figure this out.
The lock on one of the cuffs finally pops open, giving me one free hand. I let the cuffs dangle from the other wrist and reach for the steering wheel. I’m so damn lucky that Peter left the keys in the ignition, but I don’t know what I’m going to do now.
I heard everything Cash said:Remedy was a pawn. She doesn’t mean shit in your investigation.But I know that he didn’t want me to get arrested too. I honk the horn incessantly. It screeches like a bat and the two men flinch, but Peter stays focused.We did you a favor,Cash said. We.Us.Cash believes in us.
Cash is on his hands and knees like an animal, limping to get to the other gun, but Peter has a second gun and we don’t have much time. Someone is going to die.
When Peter told Cash to drop the knife if he cared about me, Cash let go of the knife instantly.
Kill me. I’ll keep killing,Cash said.
He wants to die for me.
We should both be arrested. It’s the right thing to do.
But my hands find the key and I turn on the engine. The car roars to life.
Peter jabs the gun closer to Cash, and I don’t think anymore.
I step on the gas, ramming the car forward. The bumper hits him first, then his body tumbles over the car. In the rearview mirror, lightning flashes in the sky like a jagged razor blade, illuminating the lumpy forms, but I don’t take time to think. I put the car in reverse and fly backward, tumbling over his body. I go forward, then backward again, until I know there’s no way he’s still alive.
Cash’s hands are covered in blood. His lip is puffy. There’s dirt and blood on his shirt and jeans, and now there are three bodies in the parking lot. Handcuffs dangle from one of his wrists, just like me. But his spotted black eyes hold me, and there’s a look I’ve never seen on him before. He’s swaying slightly, but his gaze settles on me, and that shock melts into possession. I’ve chosen us.
This is in my hands, and now, we’re safe.
CHAPTER 22
Remedy
I kill the engine, then run to Cash. As I cup his face, I glance quickly back and forth between each eye, focusing on those dark spots, the murky circle and the line, the bait luring me in, as if it’s proof that he’s still here, still alive. He pulls my hands down, then yanks me into his arms. A thunderclap crashes across the sky, and the storm clouds pour open, raining down on us.
“Did he touch you?” he shouts through the rain.
