AllFreeNovel
Share Us
PROLOGUE
JADE
Ghost of You - 5 Seconds of Summer
“If we don’t get her to a hospital within the next ten minutes, she’s dead.”
“Jade…”
Such a beautiful voice. It sounds like an echo lost in a mountain. It beats in my ears with a need for me.
“Jade…baby, please open your eyes.”
A deep breath swallows the last note of his plea. The scattered kind, broken down by meaningful sobs.
“If you open your eyes…I swear…I swear I will make it right.”
There’s a void inside me. Something that grabbed me a few minutes ago when that gun was aimed at me.
I cough when I try to breathe. It tastes like blood in my mouth. It tastes like death in my heart.
My chest constricts when the car hits a bump.
“Small breaths…” That’s a new voice. “Hold on for us, Mi Cielo. Please, hold on. Kay, take the next right.”
“My love…” Elliot’s voice barely makes it past the ringing in my ears this time.
Those breaths are becoming really fucking hard to take. I cough and feel the burst of blood spurting out of my mouth.
That must be all over Elliot now.
The light is too bright when I try to open my eyes. Like a flash right in front of my face.
Click.Here’s your last shot as a woman alive.
I can feel a slap on my cheek, barely. Like being hit by soft cotton. My body shakes from the cold coming from within me.
“Ethan.” Elliot’s panic has gone up a notch. It’s desperate now. “She’s not…”
Isn’t it insane? That I still feel conscious, perfectly knowing my breathing has stopped and so aware that there’s nothing to do about it.
This is the end.
1
ELLIOT
Three months earlier…
Pac Ave - Diggy Graves
Alexandra Delacroix notices the second our car parks in front of Xi’s house. She gasps, her eyes rounding with fear. She’s wearing a large t-shirt that must belong to her boyfriend.
I wonder if Xi realizes how much of a lucky motherfucker he is. The Kings and the North Shore Crew have been at war since before Ethan and I even joined. Xi used to be part of NSC, our enemy since my brother and I are part of the Kings. Yet the fucker managed to strike a deal and leave his crew so he could peacefully be with his rich princess. His house is neutral territory now…or so he wishes.
The city of Silver Falls is split in two by the Silver Snake River. The south of the river, or what we call South Bank, is where the average middle-class American lives. Spacious, full of lovely families, a beautiful newly built mall, restaurants, and even a trail that leads to the Silver Falls, where middle-class families can go picnic on the weekends.
We don’t live there. We live north of the river, also known as the North Shore. A place destroyed by the war between our two gangs, and where flowers are crushed under our boots before they have a chance to grow. A place we’ve had control of for over three years, forcing NSC to live on our scraps. Our boss struck a deal with the American Bratva, and thanks to the support of the Wolves, we are practically indestructible. NSC is trying to do the same with the Cosa Nostra, and they’ll fucking die trying.
