Page 43 of Don't Trust Him

She starts pressing the blade against my skin, and I close my eyes.

This is it.

I defied the cartel. I tried to do things my way.

And this is the price I’ll have to pay.

But I don’t mind.

Because no price is too high when you love someone. And I love Grayson Teague. If for that I’ll have to pay with my life, then so be it. That’s a price I’ll gladly pay.

“Goodbye, Eliza,” I hear my mother whisper. “This is the end of the road for—”

The loud sound of gunfire drowns her finals words, and my eyes open in an instant, right in time to see Grayson storm inside the room, gun held high. He shoots my mother’s goon, hitting him right in the middle of his forehead before he has the time to make a move, and then he points at my mother.

He doesn’t even tell her to drop the knife.

He just lowers his gun slightly and shoots her in the leg. She drops to the ground, screaming and thrashing around.

“ELIZA!” Grayson shouts, and I offer him a smile as I feel about to pass out, consciousness slipping through my fingers again.

“You...you came for me…”

He unties the knots binding, and pulls me against his chest, holding me close.

“I’ll always come, Eliza. Always.”

Twenty-Five

Eliza

It seems too good to be true.

“Can’t take my eyes off of you,” I sing out weakly at the blessed sight of Grayson Teague.

He laughs nervously scooping me up in his arms.

I’m weak. But I can’t help but keep singing. It’s this warped up thing where I don’t have to be lucid to be happy to see him? I part my lips, caked in blood. “You’d be like heaven to touch…” I start to cough, blood spilling out of my mouth at an uneven pace. I want to choke it all up, but I am also missing out on my song.

“I wanna hold you so much,” Grayson finishes. “That’s what you’re doing? Woman, you’re fucking crazy, strong as hell, but fucking crazy,” he says, pulling me tight against him. I groan and I can tell when he lets go a little, he doesn’t want to.

Grayson puts me down, and I didn’t realize he’d picked me up. My head is woozy. My body’s aching.

But I rise, because I have to kill that bitch, my mother.

I lunge toward her, hearing her cackle. That cold look in her eyes, it’s harsh. It says, I liked torturing you and I want to fucking do it again.

But she won’t.

She’ll never do another thing, ever again.

Grayson pins me down and I watch him crack her neck, just turn it to the side like child’s play, like it was nothing.

She’s fucking dead.

In one goddamn blindingly fast second, Grayson’s got me down, and her body’s hitting the ground.

“How could you!” I shout. “How fucking could you? She was my goddamn kill. That bitch killed my father.” I jump up and I’m so dizzy I start to fall over.

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