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Even as she manages to strike Grayson, nailing him with a hard jab to his face, it’s already over. It’s done.
I feel the damp cotton graze my skin.
The event progresses as if in slow motion. Grayson touches his smarting cheek as he smiles and reaches out. Her gaze follows his hand as he makes contact with my leg, her eyes trailing upward as he moves out of her reach. She’s poised there, calm as our river, my force of wrath and vengeance, with nowhere to deliver her retribution.
When her eyes drift up to reach mine, a moment of pure mayhem passes between us, everything said and unsaid. There’s no going backward. Time doesn’t reverse. It won’t stand still.
The seconds keep slipping away.
I knew it would never end in a beautiful embrace. But I thought, with all my goddamn intelligence, it wouldn’t end so unsatisfactory, so wasteful. All the years ahead, every calculation I did to measure the time left on this planet…I’m a fucking asshole.
“Stop your inner monologuing, Chambers,” Grayson interrupts my thoughts, snapping his fingers to get my attention.
I blink a few times, wondering if the nerve agent is already causing hazard to my system. How long do I have before my brain deteriorates?
Blakely steps away from Grayson and takes out her phone, keeping her gaze level on him. “How long?” she demands, echoing my fear.
He lifts his chin. “By the time help arrives, he’ll be dead. He’s dead already. They both are.” He ticks his head in the direction of Addisyn. “If you call for help, you’ll just burden yourself with the obligation of trying to explain why there’s a dead body with a nerve agent in the blood.”
Thumb hovering over the Call button, Blakely narrows her gaze. “Adead body.”
I’m still mentally aware enough to catch the deliberate slip, and I look at the counter, to where Grayson set the two other vials.
After he discards the swab and bottle, along with his gloves, in the trash bin, he walks to the middle of the room and reaches up to flip the pocket watch around. “Perfect timing.” A slow smile stretches his lips. “Alex wrote so much about you in his journal, Blakely. You have a thing for bullies. They get under your skin. Addisyn is a bully, and Alex is a bully,” he points out.
Blakely shakes her head, her blond tresses bouncing along her shoulders in the way that always makes my chest ache. “Just answer the fucking question.”
I might be feeling the effects of the nerve agent already, or it could be psychosomatic. But I want my last vision as I leave consciousness to be of her.
Impatience gathers Blakely’s hands into fists as she makes for the vials, coming to the same deduction as me.
The antidote to the XV nerve agent is a combination of Atropine and pralidoxime chloride administered in a very specific dosage, delivered at specific intervals until the effects have subsided.
And it’s possibly residing in those glass bottles.
“You can choose only one to save,” Grayson says, halting Blakely’s steps. “There’s not enough antidote for two. But seriously, killing them both would save you a lot of trouble.”
“I’m not killing anyone. You are,” she retorts.
“You made a choice to kill this girl—” he motions to Addisyn “—the moment you used her for your selfish endeavor. Remember, honesty is your only course here.”
Blakely nails Grayson with a deadly glare. “How. Fucking.Long?”
Grayson leisurely heads toward the double doors. “Ten minutes,” he finally answers. “Maybe fifteen, before the symptoms present. And they are gruesome. But by then, it will be too late.”
“You’re a savage,” Blakely says to him, her voice laced with venom.
He grabs a strip of bandage. “I can cover their eyes with this—” he looks at the neon strip that reads:Give me treats—“doggy bandage. It is easier when you don’t have to look your victims in the eyes.”
Ignoring his chiding remark, Blakely proceeds to grab the vials. As she turns around to look for Grayson, he’s already gone.
“Fuck,” she hisses. “What is the dosage?” Her gaze wanders to me, and yes, I know the proper dosage.
But that’s not what she really wants to know.
I wish this was my choice to make. It’s an easy one for me.
I’d choose her. I will always choose her.
