Page 11 of Dangerous Promises

Even if he does best me one day, he'll have to look in the mirror and remember how I hurt him. Even if he does kill me, I will still haunt him. Perhaps that's enough to make everything worth it.

I go to sit up but he's right there, with his boot on my chest he pushes me back down. He watches me with anger as his foot slides up my neck and begins to press down, crushing my windpipe as he does.

It starts off slow, not quite enough to steal my breath, but gets gradually harder and harder until it hurts. I grab at his boot and gasp for air, struggling while his eyes get even more vicious.

"Can't breathe?" Alexei taunts.

He pushes a little harder and I start to panic. My hands claw at him and my legs flail while I look for control.

"Scared to die, princess?" Alexei smiles. He pulls back to give me an evil look and allow me to answer but I feel nothing.

I always feel nothing. So I tell the truth.

"No," I say. "I'm scared to live."

Confusion floods his stormy eyes. A tiny frown appears between his brows and his hold on my neck falters as he wrestles with my words. I think I've said something that's managed to surprise him. His grip loosens for just long enough that I can free myself. I throw all my weight and strength behind shoving him off me, and he loses his footing, stumbling back from me.

I stand quickly, but before I can do anything else, he pulls his gun and aims it.

I freeze on the spot.

He could end this right here if he chose to pull the trigger. He's fast and calculated. Imperceptibly so. I know from experience that he's an excellent shot and if he really wanted, it could all be over right here and now.

But we've been here before, so I hold my head high and refuse to surrender.

"Tell me," he starts, gun pointed right at my head. He looks so broken in this moment. Deranged beyond comprehension. It presents as anger with his bared teeth, wild eyes and disheveled black hair. But this may be the first time I've actually seen something in him that looks like grief. He's different. There's something much more sinister in him now than the boy I knew the year before. I frown as I watch him, wondering why I feel like I recognize what I'm seeing. "What is it that goes through your head before you die?"

I could say any number of things to fuck with him, any number of things that would distract him and throw him off his game. In the end, I decide the truth is just as damaging.

"I'm thinking..." I start, pursing my lips, and he shakes the gun to urge me on. "You look exactly like your brother right now."

His eyes flood with an emotion I can't name. He only closes them for a second, the breath he takes looking more destructive than cleansing. It's only the briefest distraction, because when he opens them again, the settled storms behind his eyes have returned. He's back in control when he aims the gun again with purpose.

Just as he's about to finish the job and shoot me, headshot I'd guess, a knife comes flying out of nowhere, hitting Alexei's gun and dislodging it from his hand before he can act.

Alexei follows the path of the knife, eyes tracing a path behind me. "What the fuck, Fallon?!"

I look over my shoulder and find Freddie standing behind me, hands outstretched from throwing the knife that very much intervened and most likely saved my life.

"You can't interfere," Alexei says, gritting his teeth.

"I didn't," Freddie insists.

Uncle Anton appears too now, taking my arm to drag me behind them to safety.

"I just so happened to want to throw a knife right where you were standing in this exact moment. It had nothing to do with what's going on with you," Freddie smirks. "Sorry."

Alexei meets our eyes one by one. "You're pushing it."

Freddie shrugs.

"Time for you to go now," Anton says. "Sage, get to the car."

I reel back and take his knife from his pocket. "Absolutely no-"

"Get in the God damn car!!"

The volume and seriousness in his tone has me pausing, feeling like a scared little girl again. I turn away in shock, trying not to let tears flood my eyes like a scolded toddler. I slink backbehind Freddie. Hiding, like I always seem to do when I end up in confrontation with Alexei.