Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 684(@200wpm)___ 547(@250wpm)___ 456(@300wpm)
The front window explodes a second later, glass showering down on us. Shots continue to ring out all around us. There are so many, it sounds like a war erupted right outside the front door. With every shot, dread claws its way through me, burning like acid.
January screams as another window shatters in a spray of glass.
And then everything falls silent, the chaos ending as abruptly as it started.
I lay on top of her for a second, not moving, but no more shots come. An engine roars outside.
"Stay here," I yell in her ear and then jump to my feet. Glass falls off me in a flood, crashing to the floor all around her. None of it hits her, thank God.
"Cade!" she cries when I fling the front door open.
"Stay here," I order her one more time and then run outside. "Please, please, please," I chant over and over as I pound down the front steps. The same SUV from earlier disappears at the end of the block, taking the turn hard.
I turn toward January's house to go check on Titan and Jana.
My entire world crashes to my feet.
Titan and Jana are on the sidewalk, pink wrapping paper and food scraps scattered all around them. They're so still it's almost like they're sleeping. Except they aren't.
"No!" I scream, but I already know the word isn't going to change anything.
Blood pools around them, turning the cement red.
I stumble toward them on legs that don't want to work. They give out as I get to Titan's side. He's been hit so many times he looks like a pin cushion. Only those aren't pinholes all over his shirt. They're bullet holes.
He's still breathing, but barely.
Jana isn't. I don't think she'll ever breathe again. Not with…not with…
I turn to the side and vomit. I can't help it. She's exactly what January will look like in twenty years…and she's dead. The entire right side of her face is gone. She still has a garbage bag clutched in her hand.
People run toward me, shouting my name, but I can't think straight. I try to help Titan, try to stop the bleeding, but I don't even know where to start. How do you make someone stop bleeding when you only have two hands but they have fifteen or sixteen bullet wounds? I don't know.
I try, but it's no use. He takes a rattling breath and then stops. His chest doesn't move again.
Quan and Boots drop to the ground beside me. They're both yelling, but I can't hear them. All I hear is my girl screaming as she realizes her entire world just ended.
"No!" she screams at the top of her lungs. "No! No! No!"
I push myself to my feet and stumble toward her, trying to get to her before she gets to Titan and her mom. She's running full out, practically flying through the grass toward them, but I can't let her see…I can't let her see.
"Let me go!" she screams when I wrap my arms around her. She fights me, kicking and scratching. Her little fists flail against me. Tears flow down her face in an endless flood. Every single one eviscerates me. She screams at me, pleading with me to let her go, to save her mom and brother, to help them…but I can't.
I can't.
I fucking can't.
They're beyond help now.
Thirty-two bullets.
That's how many it took to destroy my world. I know because I counted.
Seventeen million.
That's how much money it took to shatter hers. I know because I've still got the fucking bank statement in my hand.
Had I just said something about the money earlier, I could have saved Jana and Titan. Had I refused to keep his secret, I could have stopped this from ever happening. Had I stopped to think about that fucking SUV creeping down the street, I could have warned him.
I could have made a thousand different decisions that wouldn't have ended here—with January's entire world bleeding to death on a sidewalk while wrapping paper still flutters through the air like confetti.
Her entire family is gone, and it's my goddamn fault.
Christ, it's my fault.
She falls to the ground, and for the first time in my life, I don't have the strength to pick her up.
Chapter Seventeen
Cade
Present Day
She pushes against my chest and crawls from my lap, putting distance between us. Her stricken expression is like knives to my fucking soul. It hurts. Christ, it fucking hurts.
She's so pale, her face stained with tears. No one has ever talked about what happened with her. I don't think she's ever let anyone talk to her about it.
She still can't say out loud that her family was murdered in cold blood. They were gunned down in the street and died on a fucking sidewalk. That's how January turned eighteen—watching her family being carted away in body bags while the police asked her questions she didn't know how to answer. And she still can't say the words. Still can't face what happened.