Page 124 of Intent to Kill
Adam scoffed, turning away with his nostrils flaring. Never,not a chance in hell, would he ever do that.
When he turned back, Paul was nodding. Like he was giving him permission to do it. Fuck, hewasgiving him permission to do it. Adam shifted his eyes to find Dan and Carlos nodding similarly.
But Adam was past the point of listening.
“Or...” Blake let the words linger in the air, like he was testing them on his tongue to see how they would taste.
Adam looked back at the crazed gangster, who was sliding up next to Dan, Paul, and Carlos. “Counteroffer. Join me. Take the bullets that were meant for you, and use them to kill your friend. One shot to his chest, for each of you.”
“Never,” Dan growled.
Blake shrugged, like he couldn’t care less, but his eyes gave away his delight. “It’s you or them, Adam Vandemilio. Pull your team in line and make a choice.”
Adam looked over his friends and gave them a faint, sad look. He’d known he was going to die. As soon as he’d pushed Mercedes off that ledge and let himself be captured, he knew he was at his end.
Blake was wrong. This wasn’t difficult. It wasn’t painful. The choice, for him, would always be easy.
Adam forced his eyes open as he raised his head to look at Blake, that stupid smirk still pulling at his lips. Then, he turned to his strongest friend. “Paul,” Adam said. “Take the gun.”
Paul’s jaw tightened, his chest bobbing like his breaths weighed rocks. Dan and Carlos were whispering protests, but Adam kept his focus on Paul.
“Paul...” Adam said, wheezing as his breath failed him. He needed his friends to walk away from this. Needed them to keep each other safe. Of all of them, he had to be the one to die. And Paul was the only one strong enough to take the first shot. He glared at his friend. “Take. The. Gun.”
“Do it,” Blake said. “And pledge your loyalty to me.”
With a sharp breath Paul straightened, taking the gun. He lifted it with one hand and settled his breathing, that sniper’s control showing. He stared down the barrel at Adam like he was the one about to be shot.
“Make sure you hit his heart, sharpshooter, or it’s your head, too,” Blake said.
On an exhale, Paul shot.
The punch to his sternum was agonizing, the bullet burning flesh and worming through his chest. It was as if all capacity to hear anything but the dulling echo of Blake’s manic laughter disappeared.
“Fucking say it,” Blake said as his laughter died down.
Paul squeezed his eyes shut for only a moment before he held his chin high. “I pledge my loyalty to you,” Paul said, eyes on Blake. But Adam knew the words were really meant for him. This was his show of loyalty. Paul would be strong where Adam couldn’t. Paul would look after them now.
Adam clenched his fists like they alone could block out the pain.
Paul held the gun out for Dan. Furiously shaking his head, and with tears in his eyes, Dan stared at his feet. Paul patted his shoulder and whispered something to him that Adam couldn’t make out.
With a shaky hand, Dan took the gun, too, and raised it. Closing his eyes, like he couldn’t bear to look, he squeezed the trigger, and another bullet went whirling into Adam’s ribcage.
“I pledge my loyalty to you,” Dan said to Blake, coughing out his tears.
Adam screamed this time. His torso now drenched in fresh blood, leaking onto that spot on the floor. Tomorrow, it would surely be bleached away to leave no trace of him left.
Dan shoved the gun into Carlos’s hands, like holding it burned his skin.
A pitiful frown creased Carlos’ sweet eyes as he held the gun weakly and looked at Adam. Struggling to move, Adam did his best to manage a small bob of his head, a nod, to show Carlos it was okay. That this was what he wanted.
Carlos looked like he wanted to turn the gun on himself from the way his eyes watered, but he kept them open the whole time, as if he were trying to project his plea for forgiveness. But he didn’t need to, Adam was thankful.
He was going to go. But, damn, what a way to go. He wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“I pledge my loyalty to you.” Carlos fired the final shot. It landed in Adam’s lower torso, the force of it making Adam tip his head back and knocking him out of his chair.
Now that he let the pain in, it felt like he’d been set on fire from the inside out. Like drowning and suffocating all at once. Until it just wasn’t. Until the pain throbbed itself away. Which really wasn’t fucking good. He couldn’t feel his lower body anymore.
