“No, please!” I shouted, not able to stop myself. I wasn’t afraid to beg for my life. “I…it’s not how you made it sound. Curtis and I were never together. We were just friends.”
“Liar!” Eduardo shouted down my ear. “You’re a fuckin’ liar. You murdered him in cold blood.”
“No.” I desperately wanted to shake my head, but I was scared one small movement would cause the blade to slide over my skin. “I didn’t. He…he killed my friends and—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Eduardo murmured, and I felt him stand upright. “Because today, you will meet your match, and death will become you.”
My eyes widened as he put more pressure on the blade, and then he swiped it along my neck, blood instantly oozing out of me.
A shot rang out.
Footsteps pounded.
My body swayed forward, but someone caught me.
The ties were cut off my ankles and hands.
But the blood wasn’t stopping.
Hands gripped around my neck, trying to stop the flow, but it was no use. Nothing was holding it in. Nothing.
I lifted my hand and connected with the side of Ford’s face. “I…” I gurgled, blood flowing out of my mouth, but I was determined. If these would be my last words, then I’d use my last breath to say them. “I love you.”
* * *
FORD
I pressed my hands harder against her neck, praying that we had enough time to save her. It all happened so fast, the slice of his knife, the shot to his forehead. But now she was on the floor, the life draining from her.
“I love you,” she gurgled out, and her hand dropped from my face, her body giving in.
“No!” I screamed. “No! Don’t you dare leave me, Baby Belle. Don’t you dare.” Tears streamed down my face, but I didn’t care. Red oozed out of her at a pace I’d never seen before. The blood we
aved between my fingers, finding its path out of her.
“Keep pressure on her neck,” Brody gritted out as he lifted her off the floor. He cradled her against his body and rushed out of the building with me next to them, the blood an endless flow.
Her skin was pale.
The life draining out of her.
I was watching her die, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.
The helicopter sat in the field, its blades whizzing around, and it took us twenty steps to get to it.
But I was afraid.
Afraid this was it.
Afraid she was gone.
And as I met Brody’s stare when the helicopter took off, both of us covered in blood, it was like looking into a mirror. We both knew the chances were slim, but we’d fight.
We’d fight until we couldn’t fight any more.
Epilogue
FORD