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“I’ll push it,” I mouthed. “So, if I fuck it up and die, it’s not you. It was me.”
“Goddammit, Ethan!” She was crying, her face distorted.
“Love you, baby sis,” I whispered. “Proud of you.” I pushed a button for the thirty-three percent odds. Nothing. Time for fifty-fifty odds. I pushed the second button...
…and the pressure eased. I sagged against her, panting. And alive.
“Oh, dear God,” she whispered. “Dear God, Ethan.” She grabbed the front of my shirt, yanking it up, wadding a handful of cloth and pressing it to my neck. “Hold that on your throat. I’ve got to call an ambulance. Get you to a vascular surgeon. Right fucking now.”
“Hey,” I whispered, trying to press the cloth to my throat. “Holly. Where’s Holly?”
We both looked around, frantically. I opened my mouth, trying to call, but my throat stung from the slash.
“Holly!” Freya howled. “Holly! Where are you?”
I tried to get to my feet, but they buckled, dumping me onto the floor again. “Go after her,” I said. “I don’t see Nicole, either. Run!”
“Press that shirt against your throat!” Freya yelled back, as she took off at a dead sprint.
CHAPTER47
Kat
As luck would have it, the gate was grinding open the moment I arrived, so I bounced right through it, accelerating when I saw the black Mercedes sedan on the road in front of me. Nicole was driving, her face wild-eyed and blood-streaked.
My mind spun, trying to think of what to do now.Wipe her off the face of the earth, idiot, what else? Floor the accelerator. End that bitch. At all costs.
Yes. Nicole Volange was stopping all of her evil shit right…fucking…now.
Nicole’s eyes widened in panic as I sped toward her. Then Holly’s face popped up from behind her, from the backseat. Holly’s face was streaked with blood.
Shit!I braked, wrenching the van sharply to the left, skidding into their car sideways.
A hugecrunch.Glass shattering.Oh Holly, baby. Please be okay.
I stumbled out of the van, blinking the blood out of my eyes. I’d bonked my head. Nicole staggered out of her Mercedes, and came at me, wild-eyed, her hair in blood-stiffened elf-locks.
She had me on the defensive from the start, forcing me to block rapid-fire kicks and punches. I got in a few good ones, but she got in more. I was slowed down, clumsy. I risked getting in close, stabbed my fingers into her eye. Was rewarded by a shriek of rage, but she recovered fast, snatching my hand and torquing it until I was bent over, dragged off balance. Fuck. I was exhausted, concussed, seeing double, and she knocked me against her car and forced me down to the ground, pounding me.
Then she was on top of me, squeezing my throat with brutal strength. I fought her, clawing at her hands, but I felt everything start to get dimmer, quieter, farther away.
But even from that faraway place, I heard the wetcrunch. Then sudden silence.
Something landed on me heavily. Hot, wet, inert. I struggled, gasping for air, until it slid off me to one side, thudding to the ground.
As air came back, and awareness, I saw Nicole, lying unconscious. Our bodies were touching. I shrank away from the contact as if she were toxic waste.
Then I saw Holly standing over us, swaying. Her face was blank and shocked. She held a rusty piece of rebar, bloody on one end. She’d hit Nicole on the head.
I dragged myself to my feet, nudging gingerly at Nicole with my foot to see just how genuinely down for the count she was. I wanted no more surprises, thank you.
She showed no signs of movement, so I dared to turn away and gently pry the length of rebar from Holly’s cold, shaking hands. She couldn’t let go, so I had to peel her rigid, claw-like fingers off the thing one at a time.
When she dropped the rebar, I pulled her into my arms. I heard sirens in the distance. Saw the strobe of police lights.
Good. Bring them on. The more the merrier.
Then Holly started to cry, and damned if she didn’t get me sniffling right along with her. Tears were contagious.
