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This isn’t happening. Not like this.
I watch, nauseated and horrified, as Jacqueline raises the gun and rests the barrel against Dante’s forehead. Then it hits me.
I’m already dead.
There’s no saving me.
But I can save him.
I’m not even aware I’m on my feet until I’m running. My hands are tied in front of me, but Jacqueline never bothered with my legs, since she had a gun on me.
That’s going to cost her.
She whirls at the last second when she hears my footsteps. But just as her face pales, and she tries to swing the gun toward me, I slam into her as hard as I can. We both scream and go toppling backward, backward, backward….
…And hit the patio railing at waist height.
I hear Dante roaring my name. I feel the lift as I shove Jacqueline backward into midair, then the pull of gravity as I follow her over the railing, forty-odd stories above the streets of New York.
It’s okay.
My bill has already been paid. My ticket already punched. And I’ve always thought the worst part about this whole dying business was that I was going to die slowly.
Looks like it’s going to be much faster now.
And besides, I had the time I shared with Dante.
I got to feel love.
And that’s a life well lived.
My body follows Jacqueline’s over the edge, momentum yanking me down until we both slip over into the abyss.
38
DANTE
It all happens so fucking fastit’s like watching a bullet leave a gun.
…But I’m faster.
The split-second Tempest and Jacqueline hit the railing, the ropes at my back finally snap under the strain I’ve been putting on them. I’m pretty sure I’ve just dislocated my shoulder, but fuck that.
I’m on my feet a nanosecond later. The rope is still tangled in the chair, so I grab that too as I bolt toward the two women teetering on the edge.
You are not going to die like this, Tempest.
I can save her.
I’mgoing tosave her.
Just as they start to slip, I wrap the end of the rope around my wrist and hurl the chair at the planters dotting the side of the patio.
Hey, Dante. Don’t go over the edge, okay? There’s a whole world out there.
I never did go over the edge again.
But I’m going to now. For Tempest.
