Page 74 of Judgment Day

“I’ll find him either way.”

We hadn’t been gone that long. Sadie didn’t have time to take Ciaran to Ayelswick, then make it all the way back here. And she wouldn’t leave him so far that she couldn’t get to him. He had to be here, in this town, somewhere.

“No, you won’t. The man holding him has been instructed to take him to a different location every thirty minutes unless I show up to stop him.” Her tone was full of challenge. “Whatever happens next is something you’ll have to live with.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Lyric. Lincoln had removed the petal/cone and was using the metal edges to saw through the zip ties. It was morbid and fucked-up, but it was all we had.

I moved my gaze to Isla. “I opened my home to you, and this is how you repay me? You let her take him?” I dropped Sadie’s hands and stormed over to Isla’s chair, ripping the gag from her mouth. “Where the fuck is he?”

She shook her head, tears pouring. “She’s his mother. I thought—”

“Where the fuck is my son?” I didn’t give a fuck what she thought.

Isla glanced over her shoulder toward the back of the church. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Van Doren.” Her eyes cut toward the back of the church. “She left him in—”

Her words were cut short by a loudpopand the splattering of blood as a bullet pierced her face. Not her skull. Not her chest or her shoulder. Sadie shot her in the goddamn face.

Lyric screamed, “Oh my god.”

I spun to find Sadie standing behind me with her gun pointed at Lyric. I had no idea where it came from. She must have had it tucked into the pocket of her hoodie. Why the fuck didn’t I think to search her?

Lincoln dropped the clamp and jolted to his feet, standing in between Sadie’s aim and Lyric’s body.

“You want me to choose? Fine. I choose me.” I held my hands in the air. “Kill me.” She looked at me, and I held her stare. “I’m the one you hate. End me, and it all ends.”

Her hand shook and tears welled in her eyes as she slowly aimed the gun at my chest.

Maybe she felt something in this moment. I hoped that at least some small part of what we’d felt for each other hadn’t been a lie. I brought her here. My absence drove her to madness. I deserved her wrath. Me. No one else.

I prayed Lincoln took this moment for what it was—a distraction, a chance for him to figure out how to get them out of here.

I stared down at the steel barrel, breath steady, body calm, unmoving. “My sweet dove,” I said to Lyric, my voice unwavering. I wished I could have looked at her, wished I could have seen her face one last time. But I wasn’t the man who looked away from a bullet. I was the man who dared it to hit its mark. All I could do was pray that I’d made Sadie weak enough to think she’d won. I stepped forward, pressing my chest against the muzzle. “I wish we could have had more time.”

FORTY TWO

No.

No. No. No.

Please, God. If you’re here, save him.

What better place for prayer than a church, right?

My throat tightened as I pushed the words out. “Take me.”

Lincoln slammed a hand over my mouth. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Sadie tried to break me like she’d been broken. She’d said it should’ve been me. I should have suffered her fate. She said she was showing me what should’ve happened if Grey hadn’t saved me. Everything she’d done—the metal clawing at my skin, the vicious intrusion of that device inside of me—none of it compared to the pain my heart felt right now. It was like a blade stabbing through my chest, powerful and strong, slicing me open and causing more internal damage than Sadie could have ever done to my body. With every second that passed, every breath I took as she held the gun to Grey’s chest, it dug in deeper.

Tears poured down my cheeks.

“You said you weren’t a hero! What the fuck do you think this is?” I screamed at Grey, tried to break through somehow. And then a sob tore from my throat when I realized that the last words I might have ever spoken to him would have been cruel. “You have to live forhim, Grey. Ciaran needs his father.” I swallowed. I saw his shoulders move as he flinched. “Sadie, you don’t have to do this.” My throat was thick. Eyes stung with tears. “Take me instead.”

Lincoln was in my face now, holding my cheeks in both hands. “Don’t you fucking dare.” I’d seen this look before. It was the same one he gave me that night in the fight cage, the night I offered myself as a sacrifice to Malcolm.

My body hurt. It hurt so fucking bad. I was tired. Exhausted. I just wanted it to end.

“No fucking way, Songbird. You don’t get to end this.” Lincoln peppered kisses all over my face. “We’ll find another way out.”

---