River’s eyes beam as they meet mine. “I’ll show you.”
“What the fuck?” Sebastian whispers to himself.
“She can’t do it, can she?” Nolen’s voice grates my ears like nails on a chalkboard. “I knew you wouldn’t.”
“Shut up,” Sebastian tells him, then turns to River. “Are you sure about this?”
With one more look at me, River nods. “Yeah.”
Sebastian clasps his hands behind his head with apprehension and frustration.
I swallow hard, trying to remember the times my father took me to the shooting range, which was only a few times, but I enjoyed it. He insisted, reminding me knowing how to properly use a firearm doesn’t mean I’ll ever have to use one. But now I find myself face-to-face with a predator, feeling grateful I learned the basics.
“With a gun, right?” I ask, I hear my voice shake with adrenaline.
Can I really do this?
Am I able to take another human’s life?
I have to. I have to stop him from hurting someone else.
Sensing my fear, River rubs his thumb on the inside of my palm. “Yes. I’ll be right here with you.”
I nod, biting my lip.
“You can do it,” he tells me, guiding me over the bed where Nolen lies, still secured to the frame.
Drops of blood spill from the inch-long slice in his face while he flushes with panic. “Listen, if you let me go, I will tell you whatever you want to know.”
“I already know what I need to know,” River says with steady authority.
Nolen grimaces, fighting to keep his mouth shut, accepting he’ll have to give in. An attempt to save his own life, but what he doesn’t realize is that it won’t make a difference.
With a heavy inhale, I breath in ready to say what I need to say. “You cannot hurt me anymore,” I begin.”
“You’re still standing, so apparently you didn’t meet the same fate as the others. Maybe, be grateful?” Nolen’s lips pursed together with anger, the whites of his eye now filling with a deep scarlet.
Anger flows through my veins in combination with adrenaline.
I should be grateful that I’m the one who survived? And how am I using my spared life if not for avenging what happened?
“You have no more power over me. When you’re dead, we will move on to the rest of your friends and we won’t stop until we’ve taken care of all of you.”
River wraps a hand around my back, placing a handgun into my right palm. The metal shocking my skin, but on reflex, my fingers curl around it.
“Okay, fine, I get it. You’re pissed, but this is all Andrew’s fault. That’s why he had his eyes on you that night. Some stupid vendetta he has against the police because of what they did to his brother.” He coughs up phlegm and blood, his words slurring as he drifts in and out of consciousness from the needle I pricked him with. “And Thompson, I knew there was something fucking weird about you.”
My chest tightens from his words. “What vendetta against the police?”
“Okay, let’s get this show on the road,” Sebastian chimes in from behind us, sounding annoyed.
River agrees with Sebastian, because his body is suddenly flush with mine. Standing at my back, he brings both hands over mine as we grab the trigger together. “Okay, Lux.”
Bile creeps up my throat, but I swallow it down. “I’m ready.”
River brings his face close to mine as we both stand with our arms out pointing the barrel at our target. “This is for everything he and his friend took from you.”
“This is one step closer to getting my life back.”
