Total pages in book: 214
Estimated words: 199879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 999(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 999(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
I take a shaking step back as his body continues to convulse. Tears fall from my cheeks as my throat closes. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “I—”
“Ash-tyn.” He coughs my name, blood splattering across his face.
“Saint?” Kashton yells once more, and he’s getting closer.
I lick my wet lips and turn my back to him, needing to leave. I didn’t shoot him for nothing. I rush out the hallway and down the corner. I scream when I hit a hard body. Looking up into a set of hard eyes, they drop to my gun.
My shaking hand tightens on it, ready to shoot anyone to get out of this place. “Get the fuck out of here. As far as I’m concerned, you’re dead. Do you understand me?” he growls, not making a move to take it from me or step back.
“I…understand.” I manage to say through a sob with a nod.
“Saint! Fuck!” Kashton shouts from around the corner. He just found his brother bleeding out in the hallway.
The man steps into me and lowers his lips to my ear. “We all pay for our sins, Ashtyn. You are no different. You can run from them all you want, but they will catch up with you no matter where you go.” Pulling back, he turns and walks back in the direction he came from, going away from the hallway I ran from.
Taking a deep breath, I run toward the EXIT and shove it open, entering the black night and run deep into the woods. I’m sucking in breath after breath, and my lungs burn. I try not to trip over the uneven ground as I come up to the door that’s hidden inside a hill.
I sniff, my shaking hands unlock it, and yank it open. Bending down, I pick up the flashlight left for me and turn it on, closing the door behind me.
The sound of dripping water and rats scatter away from the light. I feel the bile rising, and I can’t stop it. The smell, the fear, the blood…
Bending over, I hold my hair back as I vomit. My head pounds from the guard tossing me around, and my ears ring. I try to take a calming breath and get myself together. I can’t stop now. We’ve come too far.
SAINT
The gunshot echoes through the hall. One second, I’m staring at a blood-covered Ashtyn, and the next, I’m blinking up at the ceiling as it fades in and out.
“Christ,” a familiar voice hisses, and then Kashton hovers over me. His bloody face in mine.
“What … happened?” I’m having a hard time talking. I can’t seem to get the words out. Why is he bleeding? Did he hurt Ashtyn? Is that why they were both covered in blood?
“The bitch shot you,” he shouts before placing his hands on me and presses down.
“Nooo.” He can’t be talking about my sweetheart. She wouldn’t do that. She’d never hurt me. She loves me. The pain that shoots through my body makes me arch my back off the floor. I go to scream, but nothing comes out as my breath is taken away.
“You’re okay,” he rushes out. “Hang on.”
My body relaxes into the cold concrete floor, and I blink, my eyes heavy. The fluorescent lights that run along the ceiling fade in and out.
“Saint!” he screams as he looks up from me and down the end of the hall. “Haidyn, call the medics,” he orders.
“Ash-tyn?” I choke out. The guards were coming for her. Maybe they shot us both? Is she lying next to me bleeding out? If so, he needs to save her before they get to her. They’ll save me and leave her to die. She’s no one to them, but everything to me. That’s why I couldn’t let her leave me. I almost lost her once. I won’t let it happen again.
“She’s gone, Saint.” Kashton growls.
They killed her? “No.” I cough, and I taste blood. “Save her—”
“She ran,” Kashton snaps at me. “Haidyn, he’s been shot. She fucking shot him! He needs Devin! Now!”
“I—” My tongue won’t work. My lips are no longer able to move. I try to reach out for her, to hold her hand, but they don’t move either. She has to be next to me. Why isn’t he helping her?
“Fuck,” Kash curses, ripping my shirt open, and I feel like I’m floating. The lights dim, and the floor gets colder as he fades into nothing. The last thing on my mind is if they killed Ashtyn, I hope I die too.
I’m putting on my belt that Jessie had brought me this morning, finally getting out of my hospital stay here at Carnage.
They’ve kept me drugged up in here for two weeks, and I’m losing my goddamn mind. Ashtyn got away, and that’s two weeks that she’s had the opportunity to run. Every time I woke up and went to leave, they’d give me something to knock my ass out. Said I wasn’t ready and that I needed to take time.