Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
It’s so much red.
Bright red blood, fresh, and pouring from his body.
I’m going to be sick. But I know I have to do what he says, and if I don’t, all of this will only be so much worse.
I run underneath the arch and get behind the barrier wall.
And I watch as Roman’s cousin, Maks, leans over the wall with a gun in hand. He’s hidden between a couple of hedges, out of sight of any passersby.
“Holy fuck,” I whisper.
Maks is steady.
He waits for the exact moment, and then he pulls the trigger.
I look over to see the SUV swerve, immediately hitting a stone wall, then spinning to hit a massive pole.
Maks wasn’t aiming to kill.
He hit the tire.
The pole slams into the driver’s side of the car, destroying it in a shattering crash.
Students are gathering all around now, and the car alarm starts blaring. People are panicking, and many are already calling the police. Some run, some gawk, and all I can do is stare at the blood coming from Torin.
He’s leaned up against the wall, hunched over a little, breathing hard.
His eyes narrow as he nods toward the SUV.
A guy in a scorpion hat swings open the back door, spilling out of the car with a gun loosely held in his hand.
“I never wanted to do this,” he screams in a feral, eerie voice, with a thick Russian accent.
He looks wrong.
I can see his bloodshot eyes even from here, and he looks like he hasn’t had a proper meal in months.
I hear sirens in the distance.
Are they too far?
“What is he doing?” Torin says.
“Roman,” the guy in the scorpion hat roars. “He is fucking dead. Enzo Maletti is dead. Are you happy? You are next.”
I recognize him.
Roman brought him to a party, once.
The front passenger side door of the SUV opens now, too.
Another man steps out.
His face is coated in blood, too, and he brings out a gun and without hesitation, he shoots.
Blood blooms right from the center of the scorpion logo.
He collapses forward and his gun clatters to the ground as he falls.
The police sirens get louder and they arrive right as the man from the passenger seat lowers his gun, drops it, and puts his hands in the air.
“Keep your hands in the air, and don’t move,” they say over a loudspeaker. “Antonio Maletti, you are under arrest.”
It’s not just police.
There’s also an ambulance, and paramedics are already rushing out, looking at Torin. I feel tears stinging at my eyes, and pure relief floods me.
Thank God.
Roman leans over and speaks low near my ear. “We need to leave. Now. Maks and I can’t be questioned about any of this. If that fucking Maletti speaks to the police—”
“Holy shit, Roman. Look.”
As Antonio Maletti turns to the side, he reveals that he already has a massive gunshot wound on his stomach.
Did he hurt himself?
Or did Roman’s young cousin shoot him inside the car?
“Go without me,” I whisper to Roman. “I have to stay with Torin.”
“Are you sure about that?” Roman asks.
“I’m completely fucking positive.”
Roman gives me a nod and takes off with Maks, disappearing back into the campus.
I get into the back of the ambulance with Torin, breathing heavy. The EMS responders have already given him some sort of painkilling sedative, and he’s blinking heavy.
“It’s over,” Torin says to me from the stretcher. “High-five?”
He tries to lift his arm up but I clutch it, putting it back down. “You need to rest.”
“Is your wrist okay?”
“It’s fucked up. Broken, probably. But that doesn’t matter.”
“Kiss me,” Torin mutters.
“Torin. Right now? Howcome—”
“Because you want to. I know you do.”
I lean over and kiss him. Over and over.
Because I want to.
Because he saved me, more than once.
And he’s still saving me, in ways that will stretch into my future, far beyond when all of these wounds will heal.
The back of the ambulance is a bumpy ride. I’m in pain, and the shock of adrenaline is still seeping into my nervous system. Nothing feels real.
But when I look at him, and all he asks me for is a kiss… and then another kiss, and then another, he’s the only thing I see in the world.
22
Torin
A lot of people change their whole life after a brush with death.
Massive career shifts. Renewed family bonds. Sweeping declarations.
For me?
It just makes me want to hold onto the life I have even harder.
It snuck up on me, realizing that I’ve actually enjoyed every moment of my summer spent at Onyx House, a place I thought would feel like a prison. But after a lifetime of feeling like I would never want to stay in one place, I finally understand why the guys love Onyx so much.
It’s been two weeks since that brush with death, and all I want is right in front of me.
Late in the day, when everyone else is down getting started with a rager of a block party on Red Row, I take Noah aside and lead him up into the attic of Onyx House with me.