The Glass Slipper (Cinderella 3)
“Nate,” I growl. “Just go. She’s not worth all this. Trust me.”
“Screw off, Winny,” Meredith hisses.
“I risked everything for you,” Nate murmurs to Meredith, his voice cracking. “It was all a lie, wasn’t it? I was the pawn. It was never the three of us doing this together. It was always you and Manda.” He laughs and it’s empty. “I guess we know how this ends.”
The finality in his tone has me stepping forward. With his free hand, he shoves the glass door open. Ash lets out an anguished cry as the blade cuts deeper into her flesh. I stop dead in my tracks.
“Nate,” I plead. “Don’t do this. Please don’t fucking do this.”
“You two can have each other,” Nate says in a defeated tone as he walks backwards onto the balcony. “It was always going to end that way. I was just too stupid to believe her.” Then to Meredith he shakes his head, disgust on his face. “I loved you. Since we were kids. I loved you and you always loved him. You could have married me but you didn’t. You chose Duncan because marrying me would be ‘too obvious’ and we’d never get what we wanted. I fucking believed you. Fuck.”
He’s too close to the balcony edge. My heart is hammering in my chest but I don’t know what the fuck to do. I could charge for them but he’d probably slit her throat before I made it.
“Nate,” I choke out, approaching slowly so that I’m at the threshold, “we can talk this out, man. Just us. You’re my best friend. The girls can get out of here. We can have a drink and get this shit off our chest.”
For a moment, he considers it, and then he gives a violent shake of his head. “I’m not stupid, Win. I don’t walk out of this situation unscathed. But since this whole fucking thing is Ash’s fault, I don’t think she should walk out unscathed either. If I’m going down, she’s going with me.”
Down.
Down. Down. Down.
No.
“Nate!” Meredith yells, pointing to the right of the balcony where a gun is aimed his way.
As soon as Nate turns his head, a deafening crack can be heard as the person on the other end of the gun fires. I’m rushing forward even as Nate’s head snaps back, tracking each move with sharp calculations. Ash’s scream is otherworldly as Nate falls over the edge with Ash still in his grip. I’m already on the move, diving across the concrete, my arm chasing after them between the iron bars.
The side of my face digs painfully into the railing, but I don’t give a fuck because a tiny, feminine wrist is in my grasp. And she’s screaming. She’s screaming so fucking loud. Still so fucking close.
“Don’t drop me!”
My grip on her wrist is so tight I actually feel the bones pop from the pressure. She screams some more, her words littered with more curse words than I’ve ever heard in one sentence.
“Stop. Fucking. Moving,” I growl. “I’m going to drop your ass if you don’t stop.”
Her sobs are my undoing. If I can’t figure out a way to pull her up, she’ll drop sixteen floors and she won’t live. I can’t lose her. Fuck.
Meredith is crying hysterically from nearby. Shut the hell up.
“Don’t let go, boss,” Xavier growls. “I’m coming down to get her.”
I tighten my grasp on Ash, refusing to let go even if I break all the bones in her goddamn arm. If only I could see her. I want to see her face. I fucking need to see her face.
“Cinderelliott,” I rasp out. “I love you.”
Her sobs slow and she chokes out a teary laugh. “I hate you.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I’m hanging from the side of a building and now you tell me?! You’re the biggest asshole I know!”
“I wanted to make you work for it.”
At least when she’s talking, she’s not moving so goddamn much. My palm is sweaty but I don’t let go. I’ll never let go.
“Okay, boss,” Xavier bellows from a floor below. “You can let go now.”
“I can’t,” I whisper. “I can’t see you. I can’t.”
“You have to, man. You can’t hold on to her forever.”
“Fucking watch me,” I growl.
She screams and it feels as though she’s being tugged from my grip. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I try to hold on but she’s slipping. My hand is too slick from sweat.
“No,” I roar. “Nooo!”
“Win!” Ash screeches.
And then she’s gone.
One second she’s in my hand and the next she’s being yanked away by gravity.
“Got her,” Xavier yells. “She’s on the balcony below!”
“Win,” Ash cries out. “Win!”
“Ash!”
“I’m okay!” She sobs and her words are filled with disbelief. “Oh my God, I’m okay!”
Pain lances through my shoulder and I grimace as I pull my arm back through the iron bars. My face begins throbbing and I can feel burning across my chest. Rolling onto my back, I glance down to see blood seeping through my now torn dress shirt from skidding across the concrete. My shoulder is screaming like a motherfucker and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a bruise the size of Texas on my face.