Hazel knew she was better off if she stayed still.For now.
I could distract them. Then she could run.
“Grant will be happy to be done with you. Think about it. No longer a burden. No longer a job he needs to fulfill,” Christine said. She smiled. “Sure, once you’re dead, it’ll be a failure on his end, but he’ll move on. They always do. It’ll be like you never existed. Just another assignment. Like my brother was to you.”
A door was in the middle of the shack, the only visible entrance to the inside. I crept around the structure, avoiding the breakable foliage, and kept each movement silent. Their voices were muffled now. I had to act quickly. Eliminate Oliver. Separate Hazel from Christine. Eliminate Christine.
I slammed open the door, gun raised, aimed at Oliver. He raised his own, but my bullet rammed into his skull, the thin spray of blood from his forehead flying forth and landing on the dirt.
“Run!” I bellowed, trying to wake Hazel from her frozen state. But before I could lunge towards Christine, she grabbed a gun out of her own pocket and raised it to Hazel’s temple. I kept my gun on Christine, aimed at her forehead. She angled her body behind Hazel’s, using her as a shield.
“Ah. So the saviorhascome to rescue the damsel,” she scoffed. “You’re a little late.”
“Not a damsel,” I said. It was a reminder to Hazel. She might not have fought backyet, but she knew how to handle herself. I had the scars to prove it.
“I could kill her right now if I wanted,” Christine said. Oliver’s body lay lifeless on the floor, dark red blood mixing with the earth.
“You don’t care that your friend is dead. You don’t want to die too,” I warned.
“Friend?” She laughed. “He’s bait. My personal red herring. Didn’t you get that when I sent him to run you over? I knew he’d be too much of a coward to follow through with it.” She jabbed the gun into Hazel’s temple. “As long as I kill her, I don’t care if I die.”
Hazel shook her head. The bruise on her face had a red streak in the middle, the whole mark swollen and visibly throbbing. But she didn’t seem in pain. Adrenaline had cured her of that, or perhaps her tendencies had. But she could barely open her eye. It reminded me too much of Mom.
“You weren’t supposed to go to that wedding,” Christine said in a loud whisper to Hazel. “I thought we agreed on this, bestie. Don’t you remember?”
“We didn’t—”
“Shut up,” Christine yelled, twisting the gun in Hazel’s temple. She turned towards me. “I wanted to do you a favor, Grant, to thank you for,” she tilted her head towards Hazel, “exterminating threats like this, but you never did murder anyone unless your boss ordered it. So I guess I should be thanking him. Not you.”
I knew what she was doing, trying to knock down my sense of authority. But I didn’t care. She could insult me. It wouldn’t change the fact that I was going to protect Hazel.
“Eric meant for Hazel to take those drugs,” I said in a low voice. “You know that. All of the members of the Afterglow know that.” I narrowed my eyes, focusing on Christine. “Eric wanted Hazel to die on the Afterglow’s watch. He sent her as a warning. It wasn’t her fault that your brother stole the drugs from her purse—”
“You actually believe that?” she hissed. She ground the gun into Hazel’s temple, and Hazel whimpered. For half of a second, I was glad that Hazel was terrified and not in her usual cursing spirit. One wrong move, and it would be an instant bloodbath.
“Hazel’s death won’t mean revenge,” I said. “Taking her life won’t bring your brother back.”
“It’s funny that you say the word revenge,” Christine said, smiling to herself. “Come to think of it, a true revenge would have been to kill Heather. Think about it. Her wedding night. The sacred collaring. The bliss and glory. And then here comes the enemy no one knew about. I mean, Hazel didn’t feel comfortable telling her own sister about me, her stalker, right? And suddenly Heather is murdered in her sleep. A brother for a sister. It’s a fair trade, don’t you think?”
I didn’t move, my gun still aimed at Christine. “You would have never gotten past Zaid.”
“But I got past you, didn’t I?” she smirked. “Here’s the thing. IlikeHeather. I had nothing against her. But I despise you, Hazel. You claim you’re a masochist, but really, you’re a soulless, guilty piece of shit. Punishing yourself, as if you can narrow it down to a sexual feeling, just so it makes you a little less pathetic.”
Christine raised the pistol and brought it down like a hammer onto Hazel’s face. She grimaced, but was otherwise silent. Her adrenaline must have been so high that she couldn’t feel it. I was grateful for that.
“I thought you liked pain,” Christine said in a mocking tone. “Or was I right?” She laughed. “You’re no pain slut. You’re a guilty piece of shit.”
“You want to know something, Christine?” I asked. She rolled her eyes, but I continued. “I never trusted you. I knew you had bad intentions.”
She tilted her head. “And we’re still here, aren’t we?”
“You can’t bring your brother back,” I said. “Killing Hazel won’t make it any better. You’ll go to his grave every night. And he’ll still be there. Buried in the ground.”
“But it’ll feel so good,” she said, an angry gleam forcing its way across her face, tensing every muscle, ready for the final action. “You know what? I’ll make you both a deal.” She tilted her mouth to Hazel’s ear. “Admit that you killed him, and I’ll leave you alone.”
But the look in Christine’s eyes betrayed her. She had no intention of letting Hazel walk out of that shack alive.
“Don’t do it, Hazel,” I said. “She’s not going to let us free.”
