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“If you don’t know anything, I’ll just kill you,” he spits, coming at me with his blade. My mind is still in and out of focus. I have to keep blinking to see his form in front of me, but I feel the steel on my neck. Swallowing tightly, I realize he’s done talking.
Except, one second the blade is there, then the next it isn’t. Kyle starts pacing the room, mumbling to himself. He’s talking himself up to kill me. He can’t do it.
“Never kill anyone before, Kyle?” I ask, not able to keep my dumb mouth shut.
“SHUT UP!” He yells, pacing some more. He walks toward me, blade out, but quickly turns back to pacing.
I close my eyes, preparing for death. He’ll gain the courage, it’s just a matter of when. All I hope is that Thea can grieve for me and move on with her life. I hope she doesn’t let this break her when she’s come so far in her healing. I never should have gotten twisted up in her life. It’s all my fault.
Wanting to see her face in my last moments, I focus on her. Even in death, I never want to forget her beauty, her smile. I never want to forget the love I have for her or the love I hope she has for me. I imagine her looking down at me now, running her fingers through my hair. Lying in bed, covered in the early morning light. The only sound around us is a mourning dove outside her window.
A mourning dove…
A mourning dove?
In my confusion, my daydream quickly fades into reality. Kyle is grabbing at his hair, struggling with his morality while I lay aching in the dirt. All the shit I’ve done in my career and this is how I go? Unreal.
Seconds pass agonizingly slow while watching my fate unfold until I hear the mourning dove again. What the hell? Am I losing my mind?
I can’t see anything aside from the inside of the barn, the gaps in the boards in the ceiling are my only clue that it’s still nighttime. Birds like that don’t call at night.
Sometimes during our special forces operations, we’d signal each other using bird calls, but I’d know about it beforehand. This could just be a coincidence. I’m out of it, it’s probably a barn owl.
I’m too far gone to think that I’ll get out of this myself, but if there is a chance for help, I’ll hold onto hope. I don’t know if I am doing the right thing but I do know I’m desperate. So after the dove calls again, I start whistling. It’s a slow, sad tune, signaling to whoever is out there that I know they’re here, but I’m not doing well.
It’s probably another hallucination. I don’t know how else to explain the chance that someone found me. No one knows I’m here and my phone is long gone. Nathan is with Thea, and Malec wouldn’t even be aware that I’m missing until it’s too late.
“Shut the fuck up!” Kyle yells at me then takes a deep breath, shaking his head. “Any last words?”
There’s a coolness over him now that tells me he’s come to terms with the murder he is about to commit. This is it.
“Fuck you.” I spit blood in his direction, solidifying my statement. This time he comes at me with determination, the blade glistening in the light of the swinging bulb above us.
I love you, Thea.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I tense for the strike. Instead, my whole body flinches as firepower comes flying over my head. Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow!
Silence descends.
All I can hear is the sound of my ragged breathing.
When I open my eyes, Kyle’s prone body lies bleeding on the floor in front of me. His cold lifeless eyes stare back at me.
Chapter Forty-Three
Thea
As the sun rises, my head rests on my knees, watching the rays stretch across the bedroom ceiling. Callie insisted I sleep in bed with her. She’s snoozing restlessly beside me. Blinking awake ever so often to check on me. It’s like her body is aware of my turmoil.
Despite an emotionally draining last twenty-four hours, I’ve hardly slept a wink. All I’ve been able to do is think about Jesse and all the horrible things he might be going through. Wondering if he’s scared or in pain. My mind continuously thought of worse and worse scenarios as the night went on. I’m grateful that morning is here but devastated that I still haven’t heard anything.
I know that the more time that passes, the worse the outcome. The likelihood that he might not come back to me becomes greater and greater with every passing hour. The knot of dread in my stomach grows with every passing minute.
When a chime sounds from somewhere in the living room, I shake Callie awake. “I think someone’s here, I heard your alarm.”
She shoots up to a sitting position, rubbing her eyes. “Did it sound like a doorbell or a beep beep?” She asks, making me look at her in confusion.
“Uhh. A doorbell I think.” I shrug.
