AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The shrill whine in my ears gives way to a deafening roar. It can't be more than a minute since I ran out of the lounge, but it feels like hours ago. Is the whole place on fire?
I have to find Vladi.
My legs don't want to carry me, but I force them to move. As I round the corner onto the stairwell, smoke billows into my face, acrid and sour, and I duck, trying to get below it. I see Vlad at the bottom, crawling. His pants are soaked in blood, his face ashen. I half-run, half-fall down the stairs, dropping to my knees beside him.
"I shot him, Vladi." I get my arm under him, but he's too heavy. "Come on. Get up."
"I've killed so many people," he whispers. "but when he put a knife to your throat, I felt like the world was ending. I was so afraid." He coughs. "But not anymore, because you're gonna be okay. Get out of here. You have my money and my family. You'll be fine."
"No!" I try again to lift him. "We have a life to live.Together." I punch him in the shoulder. "You don't get to make me love you only to leave me on my own! If you die now, I'll never forgive you!"
Vlad gets to his feet, leaning heavily on me. My knees are on the verge of buckling.
"Through the kitchen," he croaks. "The patio doors."
The kitchen is already burning but just about passable. I gasp at the heat, my skin stinging as we make for the doors that lead onto the deck.
A few more steps. Just a few more.
48
Vlad
Iroll onto my side, trying to focus. My eyes are hot from the fire, and I blink rapidly to stop them from drying out.
The dry, salt-burnished wood of the house didn't stand a chance. The whole place is an inferno. Nothing and no one could possibly survive.
Cassius is in there, riddled with bullets. There's no way he walked out of that building. But I don't know what happened to Morgana. After she shot Cassius and ran to me, things got hazy.
She helped me to my feet, and we made it out onto the deck. Or was it justmewho made it? I remember falling on the sand and rolling onto my back as the rain started. Now it's lashing down in sheets, and I'm soaked to the skin.
I took such an appalling risk, baiting Cassius like that. If he'd slit Morgana's throat there and then, I'd never have forgiven myself. But even as he raved and screamed, I knew. He'd been kicked down his whole life, knowing only the aggression and brutality he brought to bear as an adult. He was profoundly afraid to feel anything but rage and entitlement—if the mask cracked, the pain might hit him again. The gnawing thought that maybe his father was right. That's how I knew I could break him without laying a finger on him.
Cassius Jackson was the manIcould have been.
I haul myself onto my feet but collapse to my knees, feeble as a kitten. The sand beneath me is soaked in my blood.
If Morgana is in there, burning, I'll lie down and die. But while there's a chance she's alive, I have to try.
Lights on the drive. Headlamps.
I don't care who it is as long as they save Morgana. I could be arrested, tortured, or murdered. I don't give a shit. But let my love survive.
My feet feel like blocks of concrete. I slide them through the sand, barely lifting them as I walk. My vision is blurry, but I can see two figures approaching me.
"Vladi!"
I've never been happier to see Sasha. He hurls himself under my arm, supporting me, as Arman takes the other side.
"No," I say, my voice a painful rasp. "Morgana. Find my wife."
Sasha leans my weight onto Arman, and then he's away, running to the side of the house. I hear him yelling her name.
"Sasha," I say. "Find her."
“Take it easy,bratan,” Arman says. "Is that cunt Cassius in there?"
"Shot."
