Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
A wet noise followed his question, and then a moan so quiet that I nearly missed it.
“Let’s go. He’s not here,” another voice said.
“I fuckin’ saw him.”
“Well, he’s not here now. Come on. We get caught here, we’re fucked.”
“We come back without the kid, we’re equally as fucked.”
“He said no collateral damage, man.” There was a long pause. “We’re already fucked.”
It took every bit of willpower I had to close my one good eye as footsteps moved in my direction. My heartbeat thundered in my ears as they passed me, not even pausing as they let themselves back out the sliding glass door in the kitchen.
Once they were gone, I opened my eye again, blinking over and over to try to see past the haze of red that covered it.
When I tried to call for Finn or Dylan, I couldn’t get my mouth to open, and the sound came out like a garbled groan. Trying to ignore the way my head spun, I rolled to my side and then onto my belly, forcing my arms and legs underneath me so I could crawl toward the living room, following a wet clicking sound to its source.
Where the coffee table had been before it was smashed to pieces, the plush tan carpet was stained red, and in the center of it, Dylan was lying on his back.
“Dyl,” I called, the word barely a whisper. I gagged on the blood that was running down my throat and crawled toward him, pain making him float in and out of focus.
When I reached his head, panic beat at the base of my throat.
His eyes were on mine, but his mouth was opening and closing as he wheezed and choked on the blood that was pooling in his mouth. I lifted my head to look at the rest of him, and nearly fell when I realized that his hands were fisted in his shirt, pushing against some kind of wounds that were bleeding everywhere.
“Phone,” I mumbled, shaking as I looked around the floor.
There had to be one somewhere. Mine had been in my pocket, but it wasn’t there anymore. Dylan was always holding his. I searched frantically, gasping shallowly. With every breath, my chest felt like it was being ripped in half.
Finally, I found Dylan’s phone halfway under his side of the couch only because there was a notification that lit up the screen. I pulled it to me and tried to focus on the screen, but it was impossible.
When the dispatcher’s voice finally came through, my eye filled with tears.
“Help,” I said, the word coming out unrecognizable. “I need help.”
“Hello?” the dispatcher said. “Say that again, please.”
“I need help,” I moaned as I wrapped my hand around the phone and army crawled back to Dylan’s side. “Help me.”
“Tell me your address, please. I need to know where you are.”
“Help me,” I moaned as Dylan’s breathing seemed to slow.
“I can’t understand you,” the dispatcher said calmly. “Can you please speak up and tell me where you are?”
Tears of frustration ran down my face as I dropped the phone and reached for Dylan’s hand.
Then I did the only thing I could.
I screamed until the breath left my lungs, and the pain in my chest was so overwhelming that I started to lose consciousness again.
My last thought before the darkness took me under was that at least they hadn’t gotten Finn.
Chapter 16
Teddy
I was pulled to them like we were connected by an invisible tether. I’d carried neither of them in my body, but they were inexplicably tied to me in a way that surpassed muscle and bone and blood. They were shielded by the first responders who’d converged on our house, but I knew where they’d fallen, and I moved straight to them.
I’d known the moment that Curtis turned to look at me that I would be right where I was in that moment, falling to my knees next to Jesse as the paramedics strapped a collar around their neck. I would’ve known them anywhere, but their face was so swollen and mangled that they were unrecognizable. One paramedic cut Jesse’s T-shirt off and then their binder, unconcerned with the flesh he was exposing in his determination to check them for injury.
Beside them, another set of paramedics worked on Dylan. He was already stripped to the skin, and his pale face was almost gray as they spoke words that I didn’t understand, their hands working in frantic tandem as they stanched the bleeding from three different wounds on his torso.
Where was Finn? I looked around frantically.
The paramedics rolled Dylan like he was nothing but a doll, first onto his side and then onto his back, where they strapped him to a flat board.
“Any allergies or medications?” one of the paramedics asked. I wasn’t sure if he was there for Dylan or Jesse.