“Payback is a bitch, Arden,” he says. “Once you’re out of the picture, I’ll be handling all that money of yours. While I’m at it, I’ll be shoving my cock in that little piece of ass you followed here.”
I let the words flow over me, refusing to envision the meaning behind them. If I’m to have a chance at this game of willpower, I can’t let anything he says get to me.
“Justin screamed like a little girl, you know,” I tell him. “Begged like a whore. ‘Don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me, Mr. Arden!’”
I laugh and shake my head but never move my eyes from the gun in Becca’s hand.
“We’re done with this asshole,” Joshua says. “Just fucking shoot him already.”
Apparently, he’s not interested in this game. I tense, watching Becca’s shoulder, arm, and hand for movement. I have nowhere to go except down to the ground, and being in a prone position isn’t going to help my chances. It will just make me an easier target.
“Evan!”
I hear Jonathan’s voice near the entrance to the alley, but I don’t turn to look at him. I keep my eyes on Becca and wait for that critical second when she’s distracted by the voice. She glares in Jonathan’s direction, and I make my move.
Crouching, I race for her, wrap my arms around her midsection, and take her to the ground. The gun goes off twice, and bits of brick from the side of the building rain down on us. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Jonathan scuffling with Taylor.
Becca is a lot stronger than she looks. I try to get the gun from her hand, but she’s holding onto it tightly as she brings her knee up into my stomach over and over again. I keep my hold on her wrist as I punch her face, but she still doesn’t release the weapon.
She grabs my face with the hand not holding the gun and digs her finger into my eye as she screams and curses at me. I turn my head to the right to get her finger away and feel cold metal on the side of my face. My arm is bent at an awkward angle, and I can’t move her wrist. There is no time to try another tactic.
Oh, fuck.
“LT!”
I never saw Eddie-boy enter the alley, but he is suddenly at my side. I feel him shove my shoulder with all his strength.
The gun goes off.
I hear the sound of my head hitting the brick wall behind me right before I slump to the ground. I drop into a pool of Don’s blood, and the smear on my forearm looks oddly like the stripes of an American flag. I feel compelled to turn my arm to get a better look at the pattern is strong, but I can’t move.
I’ve been shot.
The whole idea is puzzling. All that time I spent in combat zones, and I was never shot. All those people who have found themselves at the wrong end of my gun, and I’ve never been shot. I can’t even count the number of times someone has held up a gun and pointed it in my direction, but never once has a bullet entered my body.
I’m not even sure where I’ve been hit.
I hear Eddie-boy yelling.
I hear Becca screaming.
I feel nothing.
I really think I might need some rest now.
Chapter 23—Miraculous Awakening
Hums and beeps.
My ass hurts and so do my shoulders, but the throbbing in my head mutes most of the other pain. The very idea of opening my eyes makes the pounding ten times worse. The bed I’m on is uncomfortable as if the pillow is rolled up behind my neck in a lumpy ball.
There are voices, but they are muffled as if the speaker is trying to talk into a pillow.
My head continues to throb terribly, and I let myself slip back toward blackness. Time is pretty irrelevant. There’s just the dichotomy between bright pain and dark numbness. I choose the dark.
Disorientation when I wake is a fairly normal feeling. This still feels different.
There’s always whatever dream I’ve been having right at the very surface of my thoughts. There is a moment when I’m not sure if I’m awake, and reality is cloudy. For a while, the dream continues in my head even as my surroundings change.