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I glance at his forearms. I knew the track marks would be there, but seeing the wounds peppering my best friend’s skin causes my chest to squeeze.
“Wesley, please…” I hold the gun level with his heart, willing him to stop so I don’t have to pull the trigger. “I’ll get you help. This doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Like hell it doesn’t.” His eyes are wild as he points his barrel at my forehead, his hand shaking. “I’m done living in your shadow. Callum is going to give me everything I want. I’m finally going to be somebody!” His voice rises to hysteria. “I’m going to be everything you’re not! I’m going to be the king!”
His gun goes off. The bullet whizzes past my ear and penetrates the wall behind me, but I don’t flinch. He tried to kill me. He tried to kill me. He tried to kill me.
The words echo in my head, and before I know what’s happening, my finger squeezes the trigger.
Bang!
Wes stumbles back, his eyes wide as crimson blossoms from the bullet hole in his shoulder.
“Y-you shot me!” He looks down at the wound as if it’s just now occurring to him. “It… hurts.”
My muscles freeze, and suddenly, I’m not looking at a thirty-year-old man. All at once, he’s the chocolate-eyed boy who used to climb trees with me. The giant crybaby I had to stick up for because he was too gentle to hurt a fly. My best friend. My brother.
I fire once, twice more, in the abdomen and upper thigh. Nonlethal.
Wes topples, crashing to the ground like a giant felled tree, his mouth open in a cry of agony. His gun falls from his hand, skidding across the floor and out of reach.
“W-wait!” he screams, clutching his stomach wound. “Please, don’t do this, Kain!” He looks from side to side, attempting to be discreet. He’s still trying to get his gun. Still trying to kill me.
At the murderous look in my eye, Wes changes tack.
“D-don’t do this, Kain,” he whimpers, his voice cracking every other word. “We can get past this! Please, I-I’m sorry I betrayed your trust. Please, Kain… I don’t want to die.”
I pause. Can I really do this to him? After everything we’ve been through?
At my hesitation, he lunges to the side, fumbling for the weapon too far out of his reach to help him. My chest cracks once, twice, and I point the barrel between his shit-colored eyes.
I’m finally seeing clearly enough to realize this thing isn’t my best friend. It’s a monster I don’t recognize, another casualty of this wretched world.
His shoulders shake with silent cries. “I’m your best friend. That should mean something…”
“You were my best friend,” I say, meeting his shattered gaze head-on. “That was my mistake.”
This time, I don’t hesitate when I pull the trigger.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
LILLITH
Bzzz… bzzz… bzzz
A low groan tumbles from my lips as I reach out, trying to find my phone so I can stop that awful noise and go back to sleep. My palm connects with something cold and hard where my pillow should be, and I jolt upright with a gasp.
I’m not in bed with Kain. I’m in danger. Horrible fucking danger.
The afternoon’s events rush through my mind like a slideshow of horrors, and I squeeze my eyes tight despite the fact the room is cloaked in darkness. A low chuckle echoes off the walls, and I jump so hard that the back of my head smacks against the concrete.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Lillith?”
That voice. I know that voice…
“You’re a difficult woman to track down, Lillith. Even my best men couldn’t locate that hole Kain had you locked up in.”
Where the hell have I heard that voice?
