AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She shakes her head. “Rose is somewhere around. Probably arguing with someone over something. I better go find her. I’ll catch you later. Enjoy the win!” With a wink at me, she’s on her way.
The people crowd me, tapping my shoulders and grabbing me until Elliot and Ethan push through. With bright smiles on their faces, they both grip my waist, pulling me up and settling me on a shoulder each. I’m on Elliot’s right and Ethan’s left. I have to grip both their necks. The height difference between them is minimal when you see them next to the other, but when you’ve got a leg on both, Elliot seems like a giant.
I can’t stop giggling. Even as they put me down and Faith brings us the money. “That’s the girl I know,” she cackles.
I wink at her, grabbing the bills. I take a twenty out.
“Racer’s tax.” I laugh at Elliot’s face as I give him his money back.
“You really are pushing me tonight.”
The three of us can’t stop laughing. Everything feels so fucking light. Almost like it shouldn’t be.
We’re criminals. We’ll be robbing a bank in just over a month. Surely, this kind of happiness shouldn’t even exist. Nothing in my life has ever felt like this. So happy I don’t care about anything and anyone else in the world.
“Happy birthday,” I tell Elliot, lifting onto my toes to give him a kiss.
Grabbing the back of my head, he presses me harder against his lips, and devours me like there’s no tomorrow. He bites my lower lip the exact way he loves, making it swell between his teeth.
As I go flat on my feet, I slip the twenty in the front pocket of my DiggyGraves hoodie. Well, Elliot’s.
Feeling something inside, I pull out a piece of paper.
My heart drops before I even open it.
If I shoot you through the head, you’ll be gone instantly.
If I shoot you through the heart, you’ve got a few minutes.
And if I put a bullet through your lungs, you could suffer for hours.
Soon, dead girl
My knees buckle, the weight of the words crushing into me.
“Fuck,” I whisper. Ethan is the one who catches me just as Elliot rips the paper out of my hands.
He looks around, circling us as he crushes it in his fist.
“H-how?”
It’s been long enough without notes that I started to believe it might have been Vickie and her friends. And that by killing them, we’d gotten rid of the threats.
I convinced myself I was safe.
My entire body shakes, but Ethan keeps me close to him. “We’re here. You risk nothing when we’re here, baby. I promise we won’t let anything happen to you.”
Elliot and Ethan might be killers, but they can’t stop a bullet. No one can.
“Let’s get you home,” Elliot finally says.
They eye each other, silently communicating. “What? What is it?” I don’t like the way my voice shakes. Ihatebeing vulnerable.
“Must have been when people crowded you earlier. They slipped it in your pocket,” Ethan explains.
It takes all of me not to burst into tears. The fear of knowing they were close enough to touch me. That they could have killed me right there and then.
“Fuck.” My chest freezes. A weight sitting on it. So heavy that I can’t take my next breath.
