An alarm went off inside me when I felt her grab my other hunting knife from my belt.When I lifted my upper body, Jaden followed my movement, reaching up to swing the knife into my neck.Catching her wrist again, I stopped her from nearly cutting my throat, squeezing again to force her to drop the knife.But then an intensely sharp pain and immense pressure suddenly clamped down onto my shoulder, tearing into my skin with the ferocity of a wild animal.
And then I saw Jaden drop the knife into her other hand and plunged it deep into my inner thigh.A shock wave of acid speared its way through me, deafening and blinding all at once.
“Camaro, release!”she shouted.
Camaro?
I didn’t have much time or care to think on it before Jaden’s fist connected with my jaw, sending me over onto my side and allowing her to finally escape from my hold on the floor.With her one leg now loose, she was able to slam her foot against my ribs, knocking me completely over onto the floor, the pain taking all manner of breath away.
Rolling to an incline, I groaned as I slumped my back against a half-broken wall as blood streamed down my chest from my shoulder, saturating my shirt.I looked down at my leg where Jaden had stabbed me.An odd and unfamiliar sense of defeat settled in as I acknowledged the eight inches of steel sticking out of my femoral artery.
Son of a bitch.
I had maybe minutes left before I bled out, seconds if I removed the knife.
When I looked back up at Jaden, she was sitting on the floor, but the gun was in her hands now, pointed directly at me.And oddly enough, somehow, there was Camaro, growling right next to her.How had she survived?Jaden even glanced over at her in disbelief, likely wondering the same thing.
Pondering it was pointless though as reality slowly seeped in.For the first time in a long time, I actually felt cold, even as the warm blood seeped out of my leg like a river to pool beneath my lower body.
Check-fucking-mate.
For what felt like an eternity, we both just stared at each other, time slowing down despite my fading mortality.Our chests heaved from the exertion, the breath leaving our bodies in synchronized gusts of anguish and undeniable inevitability.The world around us continued to implode with endless chaos, gunfire still echoing off somewhere in the background.And still, she refused to lower her aim, clutching the gun so tightly her hands were white, and her rigid arm shook from the strain.
My body radiated nothing but pure agony, but it paled compared to the liquid agony glistening in Jaden’s eyes as it slowly slipped down her bruised cheek.One look could reveal a thousand words, none of which needed to be spoken since I could easily read every one of them playing in her head through that cold look in her eyes.
I was sure she had pictured this moment several times over, envisioning what she would say and how she would say it.But truthfully, she knew she didn’t have to say anything.I already knew.
Still seeing her now—dirty, bruised, and bloodied—she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.
“Do you remember,” she started, her breath still heavy as she fought against her own exhaustion.“Do you remember, all those years ago, what I told you, the first time you raped me?”
I would have laughed if I had the energy, so instead, I offered her a smirk as I reflected on one of my very first memories of her.Apparently, we were taking a trip down memory lane in my final moments.
“I warned you that this day would come,” she continued, the gun still firmly grasped in her hands.
“So you did,” I affirmed, tilting my chin.My head was already feeling so heavy.
“Would you like to hear how I did it?”she asked.“How I managed to get us here?While you still have some time left?”
Even in my tormented state, I wanted nothing more than to just listen to her voice, even if it was only to describe how much she hated me or how she orchestrated the downfall of my entire empire.
“Tell me everything,” I murmured, releasing what would likely be the last order I’d ever give her.
And she gladly obeyed.
Step by step, she revealed every move she made that had led to our final moments together.How she played to Regina’s insecurities, how she started a war by using Regina to stoke Dominic’s ego into going to Honduras, knowing what he would do.How she had secretly encountered Jason on our honeymoon and gave him all the intel she had learned, including the damn server farms that lead to the crippling of my corporate enterprises.How she had helped Kayla escape with the cloaking device for the tracking signals of their collars and convinced her to find Jason.How she had started a second war by using Matt’s family vow of vengeance by manipulating Daniel into publicly killing Regina.How she had conspired with Matt to persuade me into going to the country estate so they could launch an attack against me.And even though it ultimately failed, it still allowed Matt the opportunity to put that bullet through Daniel’s skull, which assisted in his downward spiral.She revealed how she had released the secret about my mother’s actions to Katherine’s father, who leaked them to the underground.But it was Jaden’s taunting and sacrifice of her body that had finally driven me to kill my own brother, the price for killing her dog.And how all of it combined had inevitably pushed me into killing my longest friend and ally.
The systematic layout of every single act Jaden had covertly executed, every manipulation, every resource she had exploited that led me into facilitating my own destruction, had now been laid bare at my feet.
And I couldn’t deny it was nothing short of pure brilliance.
Retrospectively, everyone around me had been right about Jaden.I was blind to her power.Buried deep in blissful denial.Swallowed by a sweet rapture disguised with an ever-evolving deception.Yet the reflections of my own arrogance and idealistic ambitions generated not one single speck of remorse.Even as I lay here dying, I regretted nothing.Absolutely nothing.
Compelled by pride and overwhelming admiration, I lifted my hands and clapped for her, weakly grinning in astonishment at one small girl's unyielding dedication and passion.I had finally been bested.
“Well done, Jaden,” I applauded her.“Truly impressive.”
Having now moved into a sitting position, Jaden bowed her head, briefly lowering her gaze in acknowledgment and acceptance of her victory.