Series: Shame On You Series by Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51495 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51495 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Declan moves his finger up to hover over mine. Our fingers are arranged above the trigger, neither of us touching it yet. “Whenever you’re ready,” he tells me and I can barely hear him over the rushing of the blood in my ears.
“What the fuck.” Nate laughs, and it’s a wild, terrified sound. “I can’t fucking believe you, Braelynn. You’re a fucking liar. You just wanted to take a shot at me, and this is how you’re going to do it. You’re a goddamn—”
Rage flashes through me, hot as anything I’ve ever felt. “I never lied,” I tell him, my voice rising above his bullshit, and then I pull the trigger. Bang!
Once and then twice. “I’m not a liar!” It doesn’t take much pressure at all. So little pressure, actually, that I keep firing. Nate slumps in the chair, but I don’t stop shooting. Blood seeps out of each hole so slowly. My hands shake as I fire again.
Declan stands at my back, his arms strong and steady on mine. If I faltered, he’d catch me. I don’t, though. I’m breathing hard, the rush of air painful, but I’m not falling.
I keep firing until the gun clicks in my hand. All the bullets are gone.
I lower the gun, pointing it to the ground, as my ragged breathing slowly calms.
Nate doesn’t move. He’s still. Dead. He’ll never do anything to any of us again. “It’s over,” Declan says, reaching for the gun.
Numbly, I hand the gun off to Declan.
It takes me a moment of standing there, realizing what happened before I can straighten my back and know that it’s over.
“You okay?” Declan asks, tipping my chin up.
I look him in the eye and tell him, “I don’t want to be involved.” My voice is loud enough that his brothers can hear, and I want them to. I don’t want anyone to be confused about how my life is going to be going forward. “In any of this. Ever again.”
“Okay,” Declan says with a half smirk. “Do you feel…does it feel like—”
“I’m happy he’s dead,” I rush the words out, not recognizing the person I am as I look over to Nate’s blood-soaked chest. I swallow thickly. “It feels like it’s over,” I tell Declan and then I turn and walk out of the room without another glance in Nate’s direction.
I feel Jase and Carter’s eyes on me. There’s a moment of dead silence as I leave the room.
Footsteps follow me into the hall, and then Declan’s hands are on me. He shoves me into the wall and kisses me, his lips hot on mine. His tongue is possessive in my mouth. He nips at my lip and kisses me deeper, his whole body leaning toward mine.
The heat is all consuming. The need for him to take all of this away by putting his body on mine.
The tension from before is gone. I kiss him back with everything I have. It’s a strange lightness that takes over. I never wanted to have to kill anyone, but in a way, it’s like taking my own life back. Nobody else can have it. All that matters now is Declan.
He pulls back, and pride shines in his eyes. He looks over my face and comes in for another deep kiss before he can speak. “I fucking love you.”
I slide my hands around his neck, feeling his pulse along the way. Declan’s warm and soft and alive, and mine. No one can ever tell me differently.
“Is it…” I’m emotional. Choked up over the way he looks right now. Over the relief I feel, and that he must feel, too. “Is it over now?”
He huffs out a laugh. “There are things I need to take care of. But for you? All of this is done. It’s over, Brae. You never want to deal with any of this again, you don’t have to.”
“I don’t.”
“I love you so fucking much.” Declan bends down and kisses me and I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline or the relief or just his hands on mine telling me everything I’ve wanted to hear since it all started.
“I just want you to love me,” I murmur and press myself into him.
He cracks a devilishly charming smile that makes my heart skip a beat. Declan has always been hot, breathtakingly handsome, but there’s something about the way he smiles that makes me fall even harder for him. He presses a gentle kiss to my forehead as his hands tighten around my waist. He’s still very, very close, like he can’t pull himself away.
“Then,” he says, “all you have to do now is love me back.”
I rise up on tiptoes and kiss him again. This is the taste of the man I love. The man I’m going to love for the rest of my life. He makes everything worth it. “I can do that.”