I witnessed him starting to unfold the night in the bathroom, but seeing him now…he’s completely unhinged. There’s no doubt he would shoot me and then attempt to hurt Hannah all over again. I need to distract him so I can get close enough to take him down. Even if he shoots me, I’ll be able to tackle him, which will alert someone. He won’t get near her ever again.
I throw my head back and laugh. I search for all my energy and bellow out a deep howl. When my eyes return to his, he stares back in confusion. “You really think she—” I laugh harder. “Wow, that’s good. You actually think Hannah would ever be with you after figuring out what a fucking psycho you are?” I slap my knee, fighting the tinge of pain from my burns. “You’re a joke, man. And yeah…she screamed real loud for me. The feeling of her lips locked around my cock, like a sweet angel…damn, it felt like heaven.” I pause and watch as the seed I plant in his mind sets fire, the inferno of fury blazing in his eyes. His arm stiffens, and his finger tightens around the trigger.
“Shut up.”
“Why?” I taunt. “I thought you wanted to know. Man, did we get a good laugh about you. How stupid you were to think she would ever like you. How embarrassing for you, right?”
“Shut the fuck up! You don’t know what you’re talking about. She told me. She told me we could be together, but my dad put a stop to it. If it wasn’t for him, we’d be together.”
I take a step closer, my humorous mask falling, revealing my true anger. My hands shake with fury knowing he’s the reason Hannah’s fighting for her life in that bed. “Really? If it wasn’t for your dad, she wouldn’t be lying in a hospital bed fighting for her fucking life.”
“It was an accident. You—you did this!” he yells, and I only hope his loud voice alerts a nurse close by. “She shouldn’t have tried to run. She promised me she wasn’t going to run!” He squeezes his eyes shut, and my impulse kicks in as I dive for the gun. His eyes reopen just as I lunge at him and take him down. His legs kick out, and he falls backwards. My fist rears back and thrusts into his face, busting open my scabbed knuckles and reopening the slice on his lip from my previous hit.
Unlike the other times, he fights back. His knee surges forward, crushing into my balls, and I grunt, jerking just enough for him to flip me and crawl away. Before I can recover, his foot jams into my back, splitting open my fresh wounds. I growl out, white dots shooting through my vision. “Fuck!” I blink away the tears caused from the pain and reach for his ankle, pulling him toward me. He trips, a loud crack as his chin smacks against the hard tile echoing down the hall. He becomes limp, and I use the opportunity to take a breather, making the mistake of allowing my aching body a second to rest. That’s when he surges forward, clenching his fingers around his gun. He points it directly at me. “You should have let me just shoot you in the chest. At least she would have been able to say goodbye. Now I’m going to shoot you in the face and love every second of watching that pretty smile splatter around this bullet.” I stare at his hand, watching his finger press down on the trigger. I wait for the bullet, when someone surges out of nowhere and tackles Braydon. The gun goes off, the bullet whizzing so close to my face, it snips my earlobe, knocking me over before lodging into the wall behind me.
I lift my head to see Chase on top of Braydon, who’s knocked out by the attack. “Fuck, that was awesome. I knew I should have joined football. I would have whooped your ass, Dent.”
Jesus Christ, how is he making jokes at a time like this? When it all hits me that I almost just died, I can’t do anything but join in and laugh. I laugh so hard, tears start falling down my cheeks and I have to hold my chest in fear of damaging more skin on my back.
“Man…this guy has issues,” Chase pants, climbing off him, then taking his foot and slamming into his ribs to make sure he’s truly down. “Now, if you’re done cock fighting over the girl, I came out to tell you she’s awake.”
She’s awake.
Hannah’s awake.
I urge my legs to stand, still grabbing at my ear as it gushes blood.
“Shit, you may want to do something about that before—”
I don’t hear anything else. As I stand, a mixture of pain and dizziness take me out by my knees, and I pass out.