“Come here, girl,” I called her, still in disbelief.But as she pressed her body into mine and I wrapped my arms around her, sobs of overwhelming gratitude ruptured through me.“How are you here?”I whispered to her.“How did you survive?”
I had no idea how she could live through two gunshots and then not immediately drown in the ocean, but someone or something had been watching out for her.And I would be forever grateful to whoever it was.
For a long time, we just sat there while I stared at Darren’s body, the weight of my own seemingly heavier than it had ever felt before.His eyelids were lowered, but not all the way closed.The blue of his irises still peeked out from their enclosures.And I suddenly decided I never wanted those eyes to exist ever again.
Dragging my exhausted body to a stand, I trudged my way over to where he lay and lifted my pistol one final time.Squeezing the trigger twice, I planted a bullet through each eye, decimating the windows that could inflict such torment with just a single look.
“You won’t be seeing shit, asshole.”
The weight of my shoulders suddenly became unbearable, and I slumped down to my knees in front of Darren’s body, Camaro quickly moving next to me.But as I sat there drained and wrecked, I realized there was still one final task left to do before I could ever seek rest.
Reaching forward with shaking arms, I searched his pockets for his phone, my anxiety flaring at the possibility of waking the fucking dead.When I found it, I lifted his thumb for the fingerprint scan to unlock it and searched for the app that would finally release me.It took me several minutes to find it, but when I did, I pressed the setting for disengagement and held my breath.
The weight of a thousand worlds suddenly fell from my body, the cuffs around my wrists, ankles, and throat disconnecting in a harmonized synchrony.Grasping the collar, I yanked it down and chucked it at Darren’s feet, the cuffs on my ankles and wrists quickly following suit, wrenched away to clink against the floor.
And then I exhaled all my torment from my chest until the pitch reached an octave indiscernible to any human ear.It grew and grew until I had no breath left in my body, and I could no longer hold myself up.I collapsed, my hands gripping my arms as I leaned over, attempting to convince my lungs to take in oxygen in rapid, uneven breaths.Camaro sniffed along my body, whining and licking me where she could in an attempt to comfort me.
Reality had dawned on me, causing me to shake uncontrollably.
I had completed my goal.Defeated my enemy.And now I was free.
But I was also completely fucking lost.
What the fuck do I do now?Where do I go from here?
Sid had told me this was supposed to be an extraction, but I hadn’t encountered any of my alleged saviors.I was too busy shooting the same targets.I still needed to find Romero, assuming he was even still alive.If he wasn’t, Kayla and I needed to disappear quickly.I just didn’t have the energy to move.
But the faint sound of my name had me lifting my head, fear paralyzing my frame as I stared up at the dead man in front of me.The call echoed in my ears, but it did not come from a corpse.
It grew louder and louder, bouncing in my head with a familiarity I thought wasn’t possible.And then the jostled footsteps over rubble and debris carried the source of the voice into view.
And once again, I was staring at another dead man.Or so I thought.
“Jaden!”
Solid.Firm.Unmistakable.
An illusion?
But then it came again.Even stronger.
I blinked away my denial and stared back at the mossy-green eyes I thought I would never see again.
Jason.
He was alive.
I blinked again, sure my brain was playing tricks on me.Darren had told me he killed him, and at that moment, I had believed him.But there he was, standing right in front of me, weathered and worn, bleeding and bruised—but still very much alive.
“Jason,” I breathed.
The single word gave me the strength to stand, my need for validation that this was real fueling my steps until we had reached each other’s embrace.I wrapped my arms around him, and his solid frame stood firm in my hold, warming me almost instantly as his arms pulled me closer.I could smell the sweat on him, feel the sticky coating of drying blood on his skin, and hear his steady breathing in my ear.
This was real.
He was real.
“You’re alive,” I murmured against him, afraid to let go lest he disappear on me again forever.