Good Girls & Gangsters. (Book 2)

Chapter 25

Hadassah POV

The tide of dusk rolls over the land, immersing the forest in westering light. The horizon bleeds, hemorrhaging red. The wind whistles in my ears as I run in blind desperation with nothing on my mind but escaping him. Even though I have a gun in my hand, I still feel defenceless.

"Sakura," he taunts.

His voice reverberates through the timberland, sounding as if he is everywhere all at once. I glance behind me but I see nothing but soaring trees—a brute force collides into me, besieged by the solid strength of his arms—inescapable. My blood runs cold, turning into ice. Surprisingly, he frees me and I swivel around to whip up the gun, aiming it at his forehead.

He cocks his head to the side curiously.

I hold a firm grip around it. I thumb the trigger but I can't seem to pull it.

He notices this and prowls forward.

"Move again and I shoot."

He moves again, coming closer and closer, forcing me to retreat.

"Stop!" The gun quivers in my hand. "I said stop."

My back hits the trunk of the tree. The gun still raised, he comes closer, leaning his forehead against the barrel and closing his eyes. Tears sear their way out at the unspeakable frustration as to why I can't do it. My body denies my demand, anger and anguish surging through me.

"Do what we both know I deserve," he whispers. "There is no amount of pain in this world or even death itself that can equate to the devastation of what I caused you...and losing you because of it."

"You never had me to begin with." I press the barrel against his forehead. "I could never care for a monster like you."

His eyes open, the black cosmos encapsulated in those midnight gems. "You took a bullet that was meant for me. What we speak of is something much more powerful than love. Your torment is not what I did to you, but despite it, you still care for me. That is what eats at you."

My face twists into a scowl, angered tears flowing, but still I can't pull the trigger. His raven eyes glimmer with steel determination as my grip on the gun becomes shakier and shakier. I release a strangled cry, breaking into a scream that cleaves the blood-tainted air. My hand drops to the side and he moves to loom over me, cast under the shadow of a mountain.

"What I did was unforgivable, an atonement I couldn't make even a thousand lifetimes." The dark intensity in his eyes sends a shudder down my spine. "But I can start with a day—no matter how long—no distance is too far nor cost too great. You may think you're safe with my brother, but you only traded one monster for another."

I meet his gaze; I struggle to hold it, but hold it I do.

"People seem to get it wrong. The devil never transformed; he was disguised." His eyes take in every inch of me, outlining my features. "I showed you everything that I am and capable of doing. I never hid that from you, unlike him. You were the fulcrum of his plan of defection from the moment you stole the book from Gaza. He never saved you. He's been using you."

I inhale a measured breath. "There is nothing you can say that will make me go with you or help you in any way. So you better finish what you started the day I met you and kill me."

"And in turn, I'd be killing myself." A dark look eclipses his face like the darkness that blots out the sun. "But if that's what you want from me. I will give it."

He disarms me with breakneck speed, pointing the gun at me. My throat turns to sandpaper, my insides turning into the stones that anchor me where I stand. I lift my trembling chin, ready for what follows...but I'm not.

He turns the gun on himself, setting the barrel against his temple.

"Whether in this life or the next, you cannot outrun what we share for it is immortal. But if my death will grant you peace, then—"

He thumbs the trigger. I lunge for him—the gun goes off and I knock it from his grasp—the bullet lodging into a nearby tree. I gawk back at him, shock-stricken that he was actually prepared to go through with it without hesitation.

"I meant what I said," he says as if reading my thoughts.

"It only proves how psychotic you are."

"I am," he says with boundless confidence. "When it comes to you, I am. You haunt my every thought, infiltrate every dream, even the breaths I draw remind me of you."He takes my face in his hands and holds my forehead to his, allowing his thumb to trace the line of my lips. "I am bound to you as you are to me. So you can trust me when I say that my brother does not have your best interests at heart."

A delirious laugh seeps out of my lips. "What makes you think I trust any of you?"

A blinking device lands at our feet, yanking our gaze to the ground. Orian grabs me and tucks me beneath him, using his body as a shield to protect me. The force of the explosions propels us both in the air. The ground rises to catch me and I slam down hard.

My consciousness goes out for a stretch because the next thing I know. Fire engulfs everything, devouring the green, the flames burning a deep red, surrounded by an inferno. Summoning strength, I move upright, my heartbeat pounding in my ears, smoke filling my lungs. I cough uncontrollably as my head throbs with pain. Orian's too-still body lies a few paces from where I am.

Blood leaks from my temple, but I crawl over to him on all fours. I gently grasp his chin to turn his face to me. Half of it is severely burnt, his blistered flesh bubbling, his breaths faint. I move to my knees, scooping him to lay his upper body on my lap. I try to hoist him up, but his heft is unbearable for me. I look around and from the wall of fire, a figure emerges. Out from the fiery amber haze of crackling flames, a herculean silhouette walks out, a thousand tongues of fire licking at him. A man with deep olive skin, light eyes and tattooed fingers. He clasps his hands in front of him and many more men appear.

"Ahí está el alborotador," he says with a voice cured in frost. "I've been looking for you for a long time."

Suddenly, a bullet tears through the throat of the man behind him, followed by a barrage of gunfire. Orian's men sweep in. The man I assume who's Santos barks out his order and signals to me before he retreats. Promptly, two men flank my sides, grabbing my arms and hauling me to my feet and dragging me away from Orian's body.