CHAPTER 17
The gunshot broke through the air.
For a heartbeat, nobody moved. The ringing in my ears was so loud it drowned everything out. Then-
Maya screamed. It was a strangled, awful sound, except it wasn’t a scream. It was a gurgle.
Her body crumpled beside me, her legs giving way like a puppet with its strings cut. She hit the floor with a dull, lifeless thud.
Blood pooled instantly. There was so much blood.
Her wide eyes stared up at the ceiling, glassy and unblinking. The bullet had ripped straight through her temple.
Dead.
She was dead.
“Oh God… oh God, no…” Henry’s voice broke into a guttural sob. His gun clattered to the ground as he dropped to his knees beside her. His hands trembled violently as he reached for her face, cupping her cheeks and smearing blood everywhere. “Maya? Baby, please… open your eyes. Please!”
He shook her limp body like he could somehow jolt her awake. “No, no, no, no, don’t leave me. You can’t leave me. Not you!”
I stared, frozen in place, and I felt bile crawling up my throat. This man had destroyed everything! Me, Asher, the company, my father, and yet in this moment, he looked so small. Pathetic and broken.
Still, the fury in me didn’t dim. This was his doing. All of it.
“She’s gone,” I whispered, my voice raw. “You killed her.”
His head snapped toward me, eyes bloodshot and teeth bared. “Shut your mouth!” He lurched for the gun on the floor, with a look of madness twisting his face.
But the warehouse doors burst open before his fingers could even brush the metal.
“POLICE! FREEZE!”
Floodlights blinded the room, voices were shouting commands, boots were pounding against the concrete. Red and blue strobes bled into the darkness.
Uncle Henry spun around, and panic instantly flooded his face.
“No! No, you don’t understand-”
He didn’t even finish his sentence before he tried to run again.
BANG.
The shot rang out, sharp and loud. Uncle Henry screamed as a bullet tore into his leg, ripping him off his feet. He crashed onto the floor beside his daughter’s body, clutching at the wound as blood soaked his pants.
“Hands where we can see them!” an officer barked, rushing forward with his weapon drawn.
Henry writhed, sobbing, his palms covered in his daughter’s blood. “Maya… my baby, I’m sorry… I
didn’t mannta
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didn’t mean to-”
They wrestled him onto his stomach, cuffing him as he howled in despair.
But while Henry’s body was dragged across the concrete, my gaze snapped to the corner of the
chaos-
Matt.
He was standing frozen in the shadows, staring at Maya’s body with an expression I couldn’t read. Horror. Grief and something darker.
And then, just like that, he turned and bolted.
“Matt!” I screamed, thrashing in my chair. “Stop him!”
Two officers gave chase, but he was already gone. A side door slammed open, and his footsteps vanished into the night.
The room was still chaos, voices were everywhere, but my entire world narrowed to the man bleeding at my feet.
“Asher,” I whispered hoarsely.
His head lolled against his chest, his shirt was soaked through with blood.
“Somebody help him!” I cried, my voice breaking as tears streaked my face. “Please, he’s been shot! He’s losing too much blood!”
Paramedics rushed in, cutting through the crowd with a stretcher. One knelt at my side immediately, slicing through the ropes around my wrists. My hands shook violently as they freed me, and the rope burns were angry and raw against my skin.
I collapsed forward, catching myself just before my body hit the floor. My arms wrapped around Asher’s neck, pulling his head into my chest. “Stay with me. Please. You can’t leave me too.”
His eyes fluttered open for a second, hazy and unfocused. “Jada…”
“I’m here.” My tears fell onto his face, mixing with his blood. “I’m right here. Just hold on.”
“We’ve got him,” one paramedic said, gently prying me away as another applied pressure to Asher’s wound. “Ma’am, you need medical attention too.”
“I don’t care!” My voice cracked as I clung to Asher’s hand. “Don’t you dare take me away from him.”
“You’ll both be going in the same ambulance,” the medic promised quickly, nodding at the others. “But we need space to work. Let us do our jobs.”
I forced myself to loosen my grip, even as every part of me screamed to never let him go.
They lifted him onto the stretcher, oxygen mask pressed over his face, his pulse was being monitored too. My heart dropped at the sight of his blood soaking through the bandages faster than they could wrap up the wound.
“Pressure’s not holding,” one medic muttered. “We need him in the OR immediately.”
I stumbled after them as they rushed him out of the warehouse. My knees threatened to give out with every step, but I refused to fall.
As they loaded him into the ambulance, one paramedic grabbed my arm. “Ma’am, we need to check you. You’ve got bruising, possible concussion, dehydration-”
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“I’m fine!” I snapped, yanking away from him. My voice was ragged and desperate. “I’m going with him.”
The medic hesitated, then nodded. “Fine. Get in.”
I climbed into the back of the ambulance, gripping Asher’s cold hand with both of mine. The doors slammed shut, sirens started wailing, and the vehicle lurched forward.
I leaned over him, brushing damp hair off his forehead. His eyes fluttered open again, weak but searching.
“Don’t…” His lips moved behind the oxygen mask. “…don’t cry.”
I laughed through my tears, pressing my forehead against his. “Too late. You idiot.”
The medic barked numbers I didn’t understand, calling for more pressure, more fluids, but I blocked it all out. All I could see was him.
“Asher, you listen to me.” My voice trembled, but I forced every word out like a vow. “You don’t ge to leave me. Not after everything. Not after finally finding me again. You’re going to fight, anc you’re going to live, and we’re going to burn this whole world down together. Do you hear me?”
His fingers twitched around mine. That was enough.
I kissed the back of his hand, my tears soaking into his skin. “I love you. I should’ve said it sooner, but I’m saying it now. I love you. And I won’t let you go.”
The sirens screamed louder, cutting through the night.
Behind us, the warehouse shrank into the distance. Henry was bleeding in cuffs. Maya’s body lay cold and lifeless on the floor. Matt was gone, like a shadow slipping further away.
But in the ambulance, it was just us. Me, and the man I refused to lose.
And I prayed. God, I prayed… that this wasn’t the end of him.
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