Unwritten Rules (Rules 1)

“Get them out of here,” Kendrick calls to his friend. “I’ll take care of the traitor.” He then gets on top of Blake, pulling him up by the grasp he has of his collar.

“Kendrick, I—”

“No, you don’t get to speak. You are dead to me from now on. You are nothing. If you ever try to hurt my family again, I’ll kill you and make it so painful you’re going to wish you were never born, you hear me?” Kendrick circles Blake’s throat with both his hands.

“I’m sorry. I had to survive,” he chokes out.

Kendrick spits in Blake’s face as a response. “Yeah, well, what’s the point of surviving if it’s to spend the rest of your life alone?”

The punch he gives him when he finishes his sentence renders Blake unconscious.

“Come on, we have to go. Now!”

Kendrick throws something into the room and a foggy cloud of thick gas quickly fills up the atmosphere as we rush out of the building through the nearest entrance.

It’s over. The nightmare is over.

My cousin’s voice cuts through the uproar. “Run. Get to the car.”

We see it—Kendrick’s car in the distance. Alex is waiting inside. I bite my lower lip roughly, reliving the excruciating pain I’ve been through barely minutes ago every time I take a step forward. I’m supposed to be running when even putting pressure on my toe hurts me.

“Her leg. She’s hurt,” Haze screams through the chaos.

We’re this close. This close to escaping.

But when we hear rattling gunshots, my first instinct is to run… and my leg can’t take it.

I collapse to the ground, screaming in agony.

The asphalt doesn’t hurt. What truly hurts is the big chunk of glass entering my flesh.

Cutting my leg open with what I assume to be a beer bottle and bleeding profusely feels nothing like I expected. The pain isn’t even the worst part.

Watching my last chance to escape burst in flames is.

Haze bellows from afar, “No!”

I try to get up. I know Tanner’s guys aren’t far behind. I’m holding them back. They need to leave me.

I close my eyes, unable to see the red fluid gushing out of me any longer. I feel brawny arms pick me up from the ground. He’s running, holding me up like I’m weightless.

“No, no, no. Fuck! Winter, stay with me.” I recognize Haze’s voice instantly. It sounds so close but yet so far. “Open your eyes.”

“What the hell happened?” Kendrick’s voice is followed by the sound of a car door being slammed open. Haze puts me in the back seat and scrambles inside, followed by Will. The vehicle takes off in a booming roar.

Every ounce of strength I ever had leaves me, my body no longer listening to my brain. I always had no tolerance for pain, not to mention a phobia of blood ever since I was a kid. I struggle with my time of the month. So watching liters of blood pour out of me? I don’t think so.

“You’re going to be okay. It’s over,” Haze says. “Open your eyes, Winter. Look at me.”

Using the very last of my energy, I open my eyes, just enough to see the pain in his.

Even if I do survive this, Haze lost the fight. He has to hold up his end of the deal. We can never see each other again.

It’s now or never. I have to tell him how I feel.

“Haze, I—”

He cuts me off, his voice trembling. “Don’t speak. Save your strength.” He tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear. I can feel and hear the car screeching down the silent roads. I think back to the multiple gunshots. There’s no way nobody in the neighborhood heard it. The cops are probably already on their way.