Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
This was no overreaction.
I pulled the trigger.
Then I heard, from a distance, Ashton yelling my name.
He tore into the room as soon as I finished pulling the trigger.
“Molly!”
I was having a sense of déjà vu because I hadn’t shot Nicolai. My bullet had grazed him. What was wrong with me? I still couldn’t shoot right, but then a bloodcurdling scream sounded out next to me. “No!”
Nurse Sloane moved in, slamming Worthing’s arm away. The gun went off, but the bullet zipped past me. I still felt the burn and touched my cheek, falling back a step.
An arm swept around me, almost throwing me out of the way. Ashton was in front of me, blocking me. He had his own gun out, pointing it at Nicolai and looking way sturdier than I had been. “Don’t move!” He was barking orders at Worthing, who was temporarily stunned by the sudden change of events.
“Sloane!” Nea ran to her, and both of them reached for each other, moving to the side.
A stampede of feet came into the room right then.
Avery. Elijah. Two other big guys I didn’t know. Trace and Jess were behind them. Marco and Remmi were looking in from the outside, along with Jess’s mom, until security guards moved them aside.
Jess’s voice sounded from the other side of him. “Sloane? Are you guys okay?”
Nurse Sloane was crying, but I couldn’t look away from her because she wasn’t looking away. She wasn’t crying like she was scared. She was crying . . . I didn’t know why, but that haunted look was back, and it got worse since Jess came into the room.
“Jess—” she started.
Nea cut her off. “He threatened me—”
“Let it go, Nea!” Sloane yelled, flinging her arm out. “It’s over. You let him in. You let him in. You did that, and you already started talking about how Ashton broke your heart. What were you thinking?”
I frowned. That didn’t feel right to me.
Sloane frowned too. “Nea.”
“No. I didn’t know. It’s over.” She was giving Sloane a meaningful glare.
“Molly,” Pialto hissed, coming over and shoving a picture in front of my face. “It’s her.” He nodded at Nea.
I—couldn’t breathe, because holy gods, I’d connected the dots, but I still couldn’t believe it. Not really. It seemed so surreal. I swung my gaze in Nea’s direction.
Her dress. Her hair. Her shoes.
Another memory flashed in my mind, as we were driving past her vehicle. The day we ran from the hospital, when she’d helped us. She was in the front, her door had been open, and her things were on the seat behind her. I hadn’t noticed then, but there’d been a sparkle behind her—and remembering now, it was shoes.
The same shoes she was wearing the night this picture was taken.
The same shoes had been in her front seat, the day she gave us a ride away from the hospital.
When Ashton grabbed me from her car, and we were driving past.
I looked beyond her, and it was those shoes.
She was wearing them in the picture, the one from outside of Octavia.
She was the woman.
I took it from Pialto and held it to Ashton. “It’s her.”
I could see her now clearly, coming out of the back of Octavia, out the door that was never used, into the car that had shot at the nightclub’s manager moments earlier and the man . . . I looked down at Worthing on the floor.
It was him.
That’s how I knew him.
Nicolai Worthing had been at Octavia with Nea.
Nea was a part of it.
“You let him in.”
She frowned, her eyes flickering to me, but she didn’t say anything. Her chest rose. She took a breath and held it. She was fighting back tears.
I added—the dots had all clicked and were now settling inside of me; I said it as it was making sense to me now—“You knew he was out there. You looked at your phone. You kept watching my gun. You went to the door. You let him in. You . . .” She hadn’t been scared. She was talking about Ashton, but she’d never been scared.
We were all scared.
She should’ve been scared. She hadn’t been.
But she was now, and she drew in another ragged breath.
“She killed Justin.”
Everything stopped, again.
All eyes went to Nurse Sloane, who was looking at Jess, that same haunted look on her face. I didn’t think I’d ever see her without it again. “Nea killed Justin, and I saw it.”
Jess fell back a whole step, her mouth dropping slightly. “What?”
“They called me. I told you.” She looked my way, including Jess. “They called to say goodbye, but it wasn’t the night before. It was that night. I heard a security guard in the background, telling them they needed to move out of the parking slot. I knew where they were, and hurried down there. I wanted to talk some sense into Kelly. Why was she leaving? It didn’t make sense. She could’ve stayed. None of it made sense. Kelly sounded happy, but they were saying goodbye, and she was asking me to look out for you, ’cause you’d need it, you’d need all the help you’d never let anyone give. That’s what she said as she was laughing, so I knew she was okay, but she was still sad to be leaving you. I wanted to talk them into not leaving.” She stopped, swallowing before looking away. “I heard the shot as I was coming around the corner. Nea was standing over Justin’s body. She had the gun in her hand, but before I could say anything, Kelly attacked her. She was—she was screaming, and she was out for blood.”