Page 25 of Fallen Saint

I can finally breathe again.

“A????, come! We have to be quick.” I feel someone slip their forearms under my armpits and yank me up. I’m as floppy as a rag doll.

I have no control over my body and sag forward, but Saint won’t allow me to fall. Regardless of how I feel about him right now, he will keep his word and give me back my freedom. Just as he promised he would.

“I’m sorrreee.” My swollen tongue makes it hard for me to speak, but I need to apologize to Saint. I judged him when I shouldn’t have, and my anger was misdirected. I’m angry with myself for…for falling for the bad guy. Because when I inhale his scent and bask in his touch, I know that’s exactly what I’ve done.

I blamed him for me feeling this way, but there is no one to blame but me.

“Shh, it’s okay. Just lean on me, okay?” Like I have a choice. My legs are like overcooked spaghetti.

We commence a slow stagger, but to where, I don’t know because my eyes are sealed shut. I’ve read that before one dies, the last sense they lose is their hearing. I wonder if maybe I’ve poisoned myself because that’s the only thing I’m relying on right now because my body feels like it’s shutting down.

“I-I can’t feel m-my…body,” I wheeze, my heart beating frantically.

“I’ve got you, and I promise, I’ll never let you go.” Those words throw a warm blanket over me, and I allow Saint to lead the way. But one thought pounds against my temples, and I fight the urge to surrender to the darkness.

“Kill…him,” I push out between winded breaths.

I can’t leave this yacht knowing he’s still alive. After everything he’s done, this stops now. No more women are to take my place because I want this to end with me.

“We don’t have time.”

With the last bit of strength I have left, I use my weight to try to hold him back. It’s a lame attempt, but it has the desired effect. “Please.”

I want to say so much more, but I can’t, and I know we’re running out of time.

Just when I think Saint is about to pick me up and haul ass, he exhales loudly and then groans. We take a few steps forward, then I feel the soft plush sofa under my body as Saint lays me down gently. “Cover your ears,” he instructs before placing a frantic kiss to my forehead.

If I could move my arms, I would.

It feels like minutes, not seconds, but when I hear a gun being cocked, I know it’s really over. I’m safe.

Or so I thought.

“Drop your gun.”

There must be some mistake. I’m surely hallucinating. But when I feel myself being hauled to my feet and the cold barrel of a gun being shoved against my temple, I know this is really happening.

“Zoey,” Saint wheezes, his anguish clear as we are once again at gunpoint because of her. “Don’t do this. Come with us. We can finally go home.”

I don’t know how she’s awake, but she is, and with everyone out cold, it’s only us. Considering how this entire thing started, it seems fitting.

“What did you do to Alek?” she screams. The sound shreds my brain, and I moan in pain. The need to sleep overpowers me, but I force myself to stay awake. “Saint!”

I hiss when the metal stings my slick skin. Her patience is wearing thin, but so is Saint’s as our window of time to escape closes. “Give her to me and…and you can live.”

Both Zoey and I gasp because what he just said has drawn a distinct line in the sand.

“You’d chose thisbitchover me?” Zoey cries, her betrayal and surprise apparent. “Over your own flesh and blood?”

Time stands still.

“I will always,alwayschoose her. You’re dead to me, Zoey.”

The ultimate “fuck you” one could ever say to a sibling or to anyone, for that matter. My heart swells, knowing he chooses me.No onehas ever done that for me. I was never important enough to be someone’s number one.

All the warm and fuzzy feelings soon disappear, however, because when Zoey roars and cocks her gun, it’s now or never. “Fine then. Her blood will be on your hands!”

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