AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The next blasts into his chest.
“For Carmine,” she whispers.
Then, she glides the aim of the gun upwards, all the way up to the head of the moaning frat-boy-fuck, the piece of shit that deserves all of this and so much more.
She’s about to squeeze the trigger, to blow his lights out, to say that this one is for her—
But curiosity furrows her face as he lifts his hand, just one hand, the other pressed so firmly onto his bleeding crotch, and he moans a bubbled sound. Like he’s trying to speak.
His raised hand, at first, she thought was a feeble try to shield himself from the final bullet. But one bloody finger straightens out—and it points.
Points right at Preston.
Before she can speak, react, squeeze the trigger, or even make her mind up on her next move, Preston’s moving around her and snatches the gun from her.
In a blink, he’s aiming it at Trevor.
And the final blast thunders through the hospital corridor.
“And that’s for Billie,” Preston says.
She looks up at him.
He stands at the now-dead body of his oldest, closest friend. But he only has eyes for her as he turns and that hateful, tense look on his face shifts into concern.
Preston drops the gun.
It lands on the floor—but not before he’s stealing her up in his arms. And there. She’s home again, against his cashmere sweater, the familiar scent of his cologne, the hardness of his chest, his arms caging her in.
“I love you.”
Billie doesn’t know who said it. Preston or her.
But for the first time, those words were said aloud without the poison between them decaying them.
But Preston is the one to say, “It’s over… You’re safe now.”
And she believes him.
16
Preston was wrong.
It isn’t over.
Blood Hood is dead. Trevor was buried.
But that doesn’t mean it’s over, not when the pain and the loss stay to haunt Billie—
Not when all she knows is the horror of death and murder.
17
ONE MONTH LATER
JULY 1998
Billie can’t decide which is worse. Is it that—of all the funerals and the memorial—she didn’t go to a single one? Or that she didn’twantto go to any of them?
