Page 158 of Cold Mercy

The roar rips out of my chest, half-choked by the blood pooling in my throat.

“Run and hide in the darkest hole you can find, Mercer! Because I swear to you, if my heart beats one more time, it beats for the sole purpose of finding you. I won't just kill you, I will drag your soul to hell myself, do you hear me?”

Noah stands frozen, his gaze hollow and filled with a void-like disbelief as he watches the blood pool around the woman he claimed to love, unable to process how his perfect plan ended in this shattered reality. His men are forced to haul him backward, his feet dragging uselessly against the dirt, while I ignore the screaming agony in my leg. I drag my broken body across the concrete in a frantic, single-minded crawl until I finally collapse beside her.

My hands shake violently as I rip off my jacket and press it to her wound, and her blood saturates the fabric instantly. She gasps and curls toward me, eyes wide, unfocused, already slipping.

“Sophia…stay with me, baby,” I beg, voice cracking. “Stay with me, please. Don't close your eyes.”

The only thing I can feel is her hand weakly clutching my wrist.

I want to beg for her forgiveness, to tell her that the monster she read about in that folder died the moment I realized I couldn't live in a world where she didn't exist. I would trade every breath I have left just to hear her call me a liar one more time, to see one more spark of that defiant fire in her eyes.

I press her jacket against her stomach with everything I have left, my hands slipping because there’s too much blood and not enough strength in my fingers.

“Sophia, please, just look at me one more time. Don't leave me alone, baby, please don't leave me.”

The agony of knowing she might die believing my love was just another tactical maneuver is a torture worse than anything my body feels right now.

My vision narrows at the edges when I go down hard beside her, shoulder slamming into the concrete, breath ripping out of my lungs.

My body is failing piece by piece, but my eyes stay open, fixed on her face like that’s the only thing anchoring me here. It feels wrong, like my soul is still awake and furious while the rest of me is already checking out. I can hear myself breathing, too fast, too shallow, like I’m running out of time and pretending I’m not.

The world fractures into noise as the sound of metal clicking somewhere behind me is swallowed by a pressure wave that hits right before the air suddenly explodes.

White smoke floods the room and stings my eyes while the heavy pounding of boots against concrete grows so close that I can feel the vibrations traveling through the floor.

“Police! Hands where we can see them!”

I try to move, but my arms won’t listen, and my head won’t turn. I can't feel my leg, all I can see is her.

Then Grace’s voice cuts through everything, sharp and horrified, like she’s fighting to stay in control.

“Medics! Two down!”

Strong arms pull me away from her. I try to fight them, reaching blindly for her silhouette, but my body won’t respond.

Grace appears above me, pale as ash, while someone lifts me onto a stretcher.

“Thomas, what did you do…”

My eyes are barely staying open, but through the blur I can still see paramedics working frantically over Sophia in the distance, performing chest compressions while surrounded by too much blood.

“No… no, no, no…” My voice cracks, barely a breath. “Grace, don’t let her… please—”

She presses a hand to my shoulder, trying to steady me. “You have to rest, let us work.”

I swallow against the darkness pulling me under.

“It was Mercer…” I whisper. “Find him… Grace… f-find him…”

To be continued…

EPILOGUE

THOMAS, age seventeen

The first sensation is the grip of hard, bruising hands dragging me out of sleep, hauling me upright before I can even force my eyes open. A rough voice growls at me to get up, and I snap awake with adrenaline already flooding my system, my first thought screaming that intruders have breached the house. My shitty excuse for a father is an even shittier politician, and I wouldn't be surprised if he finally risked his entire family for a few extra dollars. So this nightmare has always been a possibility lurking in the back of my mind.