Page 131 of Firefly (Redemption 2)

He looked shocked for countless seconds before his eyes turned murderous. Tightening his fingers around my throat, he growled out his demand, “What was that?”

“I gave you my heart blindly,” I choked out. “And continued to love you even after I found out who you were—who we were to each other.”

The cruel look was replaced with a horrified understanding, and his hand let up marginally.

“You silently demanded my soul, and I didn’t care that it would end like this, because it was beautiful while it lasted. So I let you take and take and take until there was nothing left of me to give,” I cried.

He shook his head roughly, like he was trying to clear my words from his mind. “Have you lost your mind, Princess?”

“Dare, you know me,” I cried out.

“Stop,” he demanded. “Your family has taken everything from me.” His finger slid from its resting place against the barrel of the gun to the trigger, and my tears fell faster.

“Dare, please—”

“Just kill the bitch,” Johnny demanded from beside me, his voice filled with a crazed excitement.

“For Gia and my dad, I will celebrate the day I ended your life,” Dare promised.

“Please. I love you,” I whispered, choking on my sobs. Holding his dark stare, I reached up to place my shaking fingers on the inside of his bicep. “Until the very end.”

I knew the moment it hit him. The gun relaxed slightly against my forehead and all the air seemed to be sucked up around us by the man holding me. “Elle?” he asked on a breath.

A pained cry left my chest. Unable to nod, unable to confirm, I just prayed he could see somewhere in the ice-blue eyes I was the girl he loved.

“If you want to live, let her go immediately,” Kieran warned in a lethal tone.

Dare tensed but didn’t turn.

“Bruise her, and I’ll kill you slowly,” Kieran promised, this time his voice was closer.

“Elle?” Dare repeated.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. I wanted to tell you,” I added quickly, my soul crying out when he abruptly shoved away from me, as if I’d burned him.

He ripped the bandana off his face, his expression pained as he roughed a hand through his hair.

“Fucking Holloway whore, I knew it,” Johnny growled. “Shoulda killed you when I had the chance.”

My pleading, broken stare hadn’t left Dare, but I knew the moment Johnny’s words reached Kieran . . . I felt it.

The hall was loud with Johnny’s curses and my quiet cries, but the house had never been more silent. It was as if death had passed by, leaving an ear-shattering silence in his path.

Johnny shot toward me then immediately staggered back, his roar breaking the heavy silence that surrounded us.

He pulled a blade from his shoulder, a sadistic laugh sounding in his chest. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to bring a knife to a gun fight, Nightshade?”

Kieran’s expression and tone as he focused on Johnny were calm . . . lethal. Pure assassin. “I’ll skin you alive for hurting her.”

Dare slammed into Kieran’s body when Kieran lunged for Johnny, sending them both into the wall beside me—Dare’s gun sliding across the floor as fists and curses flew.

“You let me think she was dead,” Dare seethed, landing a punch to Kieran’s side. “After everything I did and everything you pulled me back into, you’ve been fucking me over for—”

“You stole what was mine,” Kieran growled, finally showing his rage. “You stole every reason for living because yours was taken from you.”

“She ran from you.”

I wanted to scream at them to stop. I wanted to beg Kieran to drop the knife he’d just slid from his boot. I wanted to warn Dare of what Kieran’s next move would be.

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