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)
Tears began to fall from Jess’s face, but she didn’t show anything else. She was locked down.
“She wouldn’t stop, Jess. She was going to kill Nea. I knew it, and I—” She stopped, her whole face twisting up. Tormented.
“You what?” Jess asked, her teeth gritted.
“Kelly got the gun out of Nea’s hand, and it fell to the ground. It stopped a few feet from me. They didn’t notice. Nea was yelling for her to stop, and I—Nea wouldn’t do something unless her life was in danger. But Kelly wouldn’t stop. She wouldn’t—she kept slamming Nea’s head into the pavement and”—she took a shuddering breath—“I picked up the gun.”
Jess’s face was pure white but so hard. Her eyes were inflamed.
“She’s lying.” Nea coughed, her eyes troubled. Wild. “She’s the one who killed Justin. I came out, and I was the one who heard the shot. Kelly turned on her. Sloane was the one who said we could make it look like a Mafia hit. She said it happened all the time, that no one would even think twice since they were already leaving.”
Sloane was staring at her, dumbfounded “You . . . you’re the one who—you killed Justin! I saw it with my own eyes.”
Nea barely reacted. “Security cameras were already down that night. How are you going to prove that? Besides, I only went out there because Nico called. He said Justin knew about—”
Bang!
Her head went backward; half of it was missing, and her body slumped to the ground. Nurse Sloane let out a muffled scream.
Nea was gone.
Turning, looking, Nicolai had shot her. He was sitting up, a second gun in his hand. He started to point it at me next, until a guttural growl left Ashton as he started forward, his own gun already aiming at Nicolai.
He shot him.
I barely reacted to the sound this time. My eardrums were continuously ringing.
His own head went backward, too, his body falling the rest of the way back down.
Bang, bang, bang!
Ashton kept moving forward. He kept shooting Nicolai. His jaw was clenching hard. His shoulders rigid. His back as straight as could be, and he kept shooting. He emptied his entire clip into Nicolai Worthing’s body.
No one said a word until his clip ran out.
Even then, he kept trying to shoot him.
“Ashton.” Trace stepped for him, but Ashton whirled, only seeing me.
He took two steps, coming back to me, and he pulled me to him. His arms went around me, and he held me, half lifting me off my feet, his head burrowing into my neck. His one hand went up, smoothing down my hair, and he said into my neck, “Never again.”
I clasped onto him as hard as he was holding me.
Nothing else mattered in that moment.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
MOLLY
The rest of the story was pieced together.
Sloane filled in the initial blanks.
“You killed Kelly. Didn’t you?” Jess said rather than asked.
Sloane nodded. She’d been void of emotion by then, sitting in a separate room at the compound. Nicolai’s and Nea’s bodies were both—well, I didn’t know. I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to know, but now it was later, and it took time to learn the truth.
Everyone just wanted to know the truth.
“I did. I thought I was protecting her, but now I realized that Kelly was trying to protect herself. I came in at the wrong time. I—I’m so sorry, Jess. I’m so sorry.”
“Why did Nea kill Justin?” Trace moved to Jess’s side, his hand on her back.
Sloane raised her chin up. “She was dating Nicolai. They met a month after.” She looked Ashton’s way and at me. “I think that’s what she was saying earlier. She was hurting after.” She glanced in Ashton’s direction. “Then Nicolai came in asking questions. I don’t know what drew him to her, but she was beautiful. She meant well, in the beginning. I don’t think she went this way because of Ashton. It was Nicolai. She talked to me a little bit about it, but that was after she was already dating him. I knew who he was, but he was different. He wasn’t a Trace or an Ashton. There’s a difference. They might do the same work, but he wasn’t like them. Ashton, Trace, they’re good men who do bad things. I don’t like what they do, or didn’t, but I wasn’t scared of them as people. Well, except that one time.” She directed that statement to Ashton. “She was hurting because of you. He used that. He exploited that. He made her change, in ways that people sometimes do that, molding them or whatnot. He did that to her, but I thought she’d turned a new leaf over. She promised she had, said she wanted to make things right. It’s why we both came today. It’s the only reason. Jess, I . . .” The haunted expression hung over her like a dark cloud. “I can’t say I would’ve told you what I did, but I can say that I’m sorry. I liked Kelly. I am so sorry, for everything. I—”