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“Focus on me. Focus on me. Focus onme, Damon.”
It’s like that time at the park with Luke after we met August. I am trying to calm the man down, but I can still see the anger in his eyes.
But you know what?
The anger is starting to fade...
“I’ve waited for this moment, Ava, for so long,” he whispers, his voice faltering. “So fucking long.”
“You may have done bad things, Damon,” I say, “but you are a good man.”
“But what about Joshua Hall?” he asks. “What about my godfather?”
“You have a choice,” I murmur. “You always have a choice. You can end this all right now.”
And then he drops his knife. It clatters to the floor between our feet and slides away, but we both ignore it.
I realize that he’s done all this because of me, because I’ve been able to trulyseehim, just as I did in the park with Luke.
I can see his true character.
“I’m proud of you for doing that,” I whisper to my man. “I love you, Damon.”
The man lets out a long breath. Like relief from deep within him. It’s like he’s letting out all the tension built up in his body, letting out all those years of hurt and pain and focus on revenge to simply be himself again.
And he justlooksat me.
We’re together, in complete connection.
But then I hear movement behind me, and our focus is immediately shattered.
I glance down at the source of the sound.
It’s Eugene. He’s reaching for the knife. He’s looking at me as he does so.
It is too late to move.
The man is fast, faster than I’m anticipating. He shoots up, knife in hand.
And he’s aiming straight for me.
57
DAMON
I spotthe knife in Eugene’s hand a mere moment after Ava does, but it is too late for me to snatch the weapon back. It’s too late for me to yank the blade out of the hands of Luke’s father. Too late for me to stop the man from plunging the knife right toward Ava’s beating heart.
But thereisenough time for me to push my girl aside. There is enough time for me to take a slight step forward. Enough of a step so that it is I, and not Ava, who now stands in the way of the thrusting knife.
It all happens so quickly. I’m acting on pure instinct.
Anything for Ava...
Anything for my girl.
And then there’s a searing pain in my stomach. My legs buckle underneath me as I lose all the energy in my body. It seeps out of me.Gushing.
I can register what’s happened, but I can’t process it.
