PLAY WITH FIRE

CHAPTER 47

SCARLETT VALENTINE

PRESENT TIME

I was imagining it. 

I didn't hear his voice in real life, I heard hi breaking through the barrier between life and death. He was calling to me, letting me know he was there for me when I arrived. 

That had to be it, because if I wasn't imagining it and he was actually here I'd never recover. 

But then police officers in the vicinity all turned in the same direction watching as someone emerged from the back of the crowd, removing their hats and holding them by their sides. A sign of respect. 

It felt like someone had punched their fist through my chest, taking a hold of my heart, squeezing it. They didn't rip it out, they didn't kill me, they kept it in my chest where I'd feel the pain. And everything was hurting. 

Police officers stepped aside, making a clear path for Demetrie as he walked to the front, an emotionless Dean sauntering in behind him, looking like an oversized body guard. Like this was his job. 

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think, but I could feel everything. 

For the last almost 3 years I've lived in a world were my family were dead, yet here my big brother stood. Alive and well. 

Alive and well.

My chest jolted as I held back my sobs and tears. He had grown so much, no longer my 19 year old brother I saw for the last time in that court room. He was going on 25...and I'd missed it all. He was the spitting image of our Dad, except bigger in both height and muscle. 

It seems I wasn't the only one whose presence he effected. From across the area Holden stood, lips slightly parted as all the tension in his body had been drained. He looked exhausted, exhausted from the guilt he'd held for the last 3 years when my family died. Eros and Schmidt both had a hand resting on Holden's shoulders. They could tell how effect he was. I wanted to go to him, but I couldn't move. 

"Dem?" Carina's arm fell down by her side, the gun no longer pressed against the back of my head as she took a step forward and away from the ledge. Immediately from my left police officers came, grabbing me with desperate hands and pulling me off the ledge, and to safety. As they tried to pull me to the police car, away from Quita...Carina, I shoved against them, somebody off to the side giving them the okay to let me go. They backed away, letting me stand alone in the open area, staring at Carina approaching Demetrie. I began hyperventilating, feeling like someone was stealing the air right from my lungs. 

Just when I had almost lost hope. 

Police officers still held their guns, some with them even pointed at Carina in case she tried anything, not that she would. The second she exposed herself in the car it all made sense. I felt like an idiot for not having noticed my Quita, was actually Carina, a friend of Demetrie's an Wyatt's when they were friends...before Demetrie realised Wyatt wasn't a good person. Even looking to Dean, he had one hid, pressed against the side of his high but directed at Carina. 

Nobody would know it was him if he pulled the trigger. 

Carina had taken steps towards a disgusted Demetrie, her eyes wide with tears as she stumbled forward in shock. The gunshot wound pierced at my insides, making me groan. I placed my hand over the wound applying pressure. I was in a lot more pain emotionally than I was physically. 

I'll live. 

"Demetrie I-" Demetrie's hand shot out so fast I almost missed watching him wrap his hand around Carina's neck, holding her at arms length. Her hand immediately went up to his that was quickly cutting off her air flow, trying to claw him away. Demetrie leant in, sneering down at Carina as she stared at him in fear.