Page 109 of Temptation
He lifted the gun and pointed it right at me.
I’d thought about death more often than not, and I thought I would be prepared for it. I thought I would be okay when it finally came for me, but standing here with his gun pointed at me, I knew I was far from ready.
I wanted to live. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to hug Dylan and Ash, to tell them how much I loved them. I wanted to grow old, dammit. This town ate away at my soul and if this was how my life ended, it wasn’t fair.
But a part of me always knew that death wasn’t just some far away thought. It was always there, waiting for me in the dark corners of my room whenever I swallowed those pills. Every time I tried to chase away the dreams, it whispered in my ear, telling me to let go. But I didn’t want to let go.
I wanted to fight. I wanted to travel the world, to see all the wonders it offered. I didn’t want to die on the riverbank in this forsaken little town. I didn’t want to die like this.
“Danny—” But I never got to finish my sentence.
A light from my left side suddenly broke the darkness of the night, illuminating both Danny and me. Underneath the lights, I could see how bad he looked. How sunken his cheeks were and how much weight he’d lost.
I didn’t dare to move, my body locked tight in one spot, but a small sense of relief washed over me as I heard the footsteps coming closer to us.
“Danny!” a male voice thundered. “Drop that gun.”
“What the fuck are you doing here, Rowan?” Danny sneered, looking over my shoulder. “You’re not supposed to be here!”
“Neither are you, Brother.” Rowan’s voice was closer now, and I closed my eyes as I felt his presence next to me.
My head turned to the left, and I saw him standing there with his hands up in the air, looking straight at Danny.
“She isn’t the enemy.”
“She is! Can’t you see? If it wasn’t for her, all of us would be happy. All of us would be able to do whatever the fuck we wanted, but no. Everything always had to be about her. Every single thing.”
“Danny, you know that’s not true,” Rowan argued with him. “Skylar is a victim. Just like you are.”
“I am not a victim,” Danny spat out. “Don’t give me that fucking speech, Brother. You know very well that I wanted this. I’ve wanted him since we were kids.”
God, I was going to be sick.
“Daniel, please,” Rowan pleaded. “Drop the gun and then we can talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” Danny snickered and pulled the safety off the gun. “She needs to die.” He looked at me. “Only then will things be okay again.”
There was no use trying to reason with him. Danny, my darling little Danny, who used to be the happiest of us all, was gone. This person in front of me wasn’t the Danny I knew. This person in front of me was a brainwashed version of the guy that gave me all those hugs, all those things he shared with me.
He wasn’t my friend anymore.
He was a stranger.
I closed my eyes, bracing myself for the impact. I always wondered what it would feel like when somebody shot you, but I never thought it would come this soon. And I wasn’t scared of dying anymore.
With a whisper on my lips, I murmured. “Forgive me,” to the wind, hoping that one day Dylan and Ash would be able to forgive me for leaving when I should’ve stayed. I should’ve listened to them instead of coming here. I should’ve understood that the danger I was in didn’t only come from the Syndicate, the Outfit and Judah. I should’ve thought twice before getting on Atlas’s bike.
I should’ve, would’ve, could’ve… I had many regrets, but the biggest one was not living my life fully. I waited too long to run and look where that got me.
Maybe in another life I would do things differently.
The blast from the gun tore through the night, disrupting the otherwise silent forest, but the pain never came. A body collided with mine, sending me straight to the ground.
“Noooo!” Danny screeched. “Rowan!” His painful cry shattered through my mind, and as I opened my eyes, I saw why.
Rowan’s face was right in front of mine; his eyes hooded, his hands holding me to the ground, but it was the fluttering of his eyelashes and the pain oozing off of him that woke me up.
“Ro,” I murmured. “What have you done?”
