Page 109 of The Triangle

My attacker is gripping my ankle. Crawling up my body. Head in the crook of my neck like a lover. Faceplate up, or gone, or whatever, because I can feel his breath when he says, “Christine.”

Then Alec. Poor, poor Alec.

Because I know who this is now. I know this man. I know him.

“Lars?” Alec says.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX - DANNY

I don’t know what makes me reach for the phone in my jeans pocket. Maybe I’m looking for a gun? Not sure. I just find that I now have a phone in my hand. And as Lars tackles Christine, I bring it out. Don’t look at it. No time to look at it.

But I don’t need to look at it.

I caused this. I brought these people here. Me and my stupid obsession with GPS coordinates.

They tracked me through my phone. Because of course they did.

They are Lars. Alec’s brother. The only person on this planet he trusts outside of our triangle.

I stuff the phone back in my pocket, pick up a rocket, load it into the launcher and feel… pretty fucking ridiculous because who the fuck am I gonna save with this thing?

Christine is thirty feet away. On the ground, face covered in mud as Lars kneels on her back and points his pistol at her head. “Don’t do it,” he says.

“Do it!” Christine screams. It’s a wild scream. A little bit of hysteria in that scream. My gut clenches at the sound of her fear.

Lars yells, “Don’t do it, Fortnight. Don’t fokken do it. I’ll shoot her in the fokken head before you can pull that bleeding trigger!”

He’s on his feet. He’s got Christine up too. Pistol still flat against her temple.

“Do it!” Christine screams again. “Fuckin’ do it!”

“Lars!” Alec yells. “What the fok—”

“He sold you out, you know?” Lars cuts him off.

I look at Alec. I shouldn’t. Because Lars could kill me in that moment of shame.

“Him! Your precious fokken Danny! He sold you out to Brasil Lynch. Oh, yeah, bru, I do know who Brasil Lynch is, by the way. Sorry. I lied. Danny’s only with you to take you in. Hand you over. He fokked you, man!”

“What the fok is happening right now, bru?” Alec yells at me.

I keep staring at Alec. I look back at Lars. I look around at the destroyed house, the blown-apart forest, the screaming and burning bodies around us. How the fuck did we wind up here? I drop the rocket launcher on the ground.

Lars smiles.

And I make a decision. One I will probably regret. But I make it anyway. I honor Christine’s request. Kind of. I dive to the ground, retrieving a weapon from the clutches of some poor, dead asshole, and lay down fire aimed directly at Alec’s little brother.

Lars shoots back. Empties his fucking magazine as he retreats. And as he runs, one thing strikes me as especially strange.

He doesn’t hold Christine in front of him like a shield in the way I would expect. He pushes her behind him.

He shields her.

Christ.

My stomach sinks. He was never going to kill Christine. Because they’re together. They’re together. And again, I ask myself: How the fuck did we wind up here?

The realization has me laying off the trigger. Stunned. And suddenly… More gunfire. Not from Lars’ gun, from another weapon’s barrel. One of Lars’ gunmen is still alive. He’s not wearing a mask for some reason. Young guy. A goddamn baby. Dark skin and scared eyes.