This is book 2 in the "Beautiful Destruction" series. You MUST READ "Theirs to Claim" first in order to understand this one.
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When I was ten, my father told me that all of my dreams would one day come true. Naively, I believed him.
I may have gr...
A/N: I decided to finish this up tonight so I could give you something a little early (however it might already be March 7th depending on where you live). Either way, I hope you enjoy and have an amazing rest of your day/night ♡
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Chapter 5 : Alec Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022
I could barely feel the splinters in my arms by the time I finally managed to break down that closet door, the broom Madelyn had used to lock me in snapped in pieces on the ground.
But still, I was too late.
When I'd finally broken out, Madelyn was gone, Caleb was yelling orders before the police could be called, and Xavier was silent and bleeding.
He didn't even spare a glance at the woman who was tending to his arm, tying off the gauze over the newly wrapped bandages. Instead, he was looking at the level below us, splattered blood on the ground in numerous spots.
That was ten minutes ago when I learned who he'd shot, even though it was accidentally. Now, I have a cigarette held between my lips, just waiting for everything to go away like it always eventually does.
"We're going to get her back, you know?" Caleb says as he comes to sit at my side on the upper balcony of the church, his eyes trained grimly on Xavier's back. I didn't offer anything in response, ignoring the way his nose scrunches slightly at the sight of me smoking.
He could fuck right off if he didn't like it.
In fact, I don't even know why he was here with me to begin with. We could've had Madelyn back by now, but she wasn't because of me. I'm weak when it comes to her, and I didn't use the pressure point on her neck to knock her out because I didn't want to risk causing her pain.
Now she's been shot, even if it wasn't Xavier's fault that she jumped in front of the bullet meant for her dickbag of a father.
We're just lucky it was her shoulder and not her heart.
That's what I keep telling myself at least.
So much could've been worse, but I was still going to have to spend another night knowing she wasn't safe because I fucked up.
"She acted..." Caleb began, trailing off as though at a loss for words. Apparently he saw the footage of Xavier shooting Madelyn, just as he saw the way she was shaking right after I was locked in that storage closet. "I honestly don't know what to make of the way she acted."
The fact that she took a bullet for the exact man who tore her away from us—the one who was clearly feeding her more lies than we ever could've predicted.
Xavier was experiencing silent shock as the woman patted his shoulder once when she was done cleaning his wounds, and Caleb was treating this like a math problem he just couldn't solve.
