CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE MOLLY
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
MOLLY
He laughed. “I see my reputation precedes myself.”
Christ. He was laughing. I opened my mouth, but what was there to say?
He nodded at my gun. “You should put that away.”
I blinked. “I should shoot you.”
Everyone else ceased to exist for me. It was him and me. My gun against his. He hadn’t raised his yet, but he would. I knew he would.
I was going to kill someone. That knowledge seeped through my spine, like a cold trickle.
I was going to kill him because I wasn’t going to let him hurt anyone else. It was me or him.
His eyes were still cold, but a different glint appeared. A cruel one. One I’d seen come over Ashton a few other times. He cocked his head to the side. “You know what I’m doing here. My men”—he motioned outside—“are out there, killing your man and his friends.”
That cold trickle turned into ice. “You’re lying.”
“You’ve not heard the gunshots. I’m here.
I got in. What does your common sense tell you to believe?
Me, who is here and telling you, who’s not threatened by your weapon?
I could lift my own gun up, you know. So quick.
I’ve killed before. I wouldn’t hesitate, but you, you might hesitate.
Have you shot someone before?” His eyes took on a whole pitying look.
“It’ll be okay, Molly. I’ll let you and your friends go. ”
He was lying.
He was calling my bluff, and as soon as I thought that, he started to raise his gun.
My mind wasn’t blanking. I wasn’t leaving my body.
I was here. I was present. I wasn’t flipping the switch, but this time, this time I knew exactly what I would do. He gave me no other option.
This was no overreaction.
I pulled the trigger.
Then I heard, from a distance, Ashton yelling my name.
He tore into the room as soon as I finished pulling the trigger.
“Molly!”
I was having a sense of déjà vu because I hadn’t shot Nicolai. My bullet had grazed him. What was wrong with me? I still couldn’t shoot right, but then a bloodcurdling scream sounded out next to me. “No!”
Nurse Sloane moved in, slamming Worthing’s arm away. The gun went off, but the bullet zipped past me. I still felt the burn and touched my cheek, falling back a step.
An arm swept around me, almost throwing me out of the way. Ashton was in front of me, blocking me. He had his own gun out, pointing it at Nicolai and looking way sturdier than I had been. “Don’t move!” He was barking orders at Worthing, who was temporarily stunned by the sudden change of events.
“Sloane!” Nea ran to her, and both of them reached for each other, moving to the side.
A stampede of feet came into the room right then.
Avery. Elijah. Two other big guys I didn’t know. Trace and Jess were behind them. Marco and Remmi were looking in from the outside, along with Jess’s mom, until security guards moved them aside.
Jess’s voice sounded from the other side of him. “Sloane? Are you guys okay?”
Nurse Sloane was crying, but I couldn’t look away from her because she wasn’t looking away. She wasn’t crying like she was scared. She was crying ... I didn’t know why, but that haunted look was back, and it got worse since Jess came into the room.
“Jess—” she started.
Nea cut her off. “He threatened me—”
“Let it go, Nea!” Sloane yelled, flinging her arm out. “It’s over. You let him in. You let him in . You did that, and you already started talking about how Ashton broke your heart. What were you thinking?”
I frowned. That didn’t feel right to me.
Sloane frowned too. “Nea.”
“No. I didn’t know. It’s over.” She was giving Sloane a meaningful glare.
“Molly,” Pialto hissed, coming over and shoving a picture in front of my face. “It’s her .” He nodded at Nea.
I—couldn’t breathe, because holy gods, I’d connected the dots, but I still couldn’t believe it. Not really. It seemed so surreal. I swung my gaze in Nea’s direction.
Her dress. Her hair. Her shoes.
Another memory flashed in my mind, as we were driving past her vehicle.
The day we ran from the hospital, when she’d helped us.
She was in the front, her door had been open, and her things were on the seat behind her.
I hadn’t noticed then, but there’d been a sparkle behind her—and remembering now, it was shoes.
The same shoes she was wearing the night this picture was taken.
The same shoes had been in her front seat, the day she gave us a ride away from the hospital.
When Ashton grabbed me from her car, and we were driving past.
I looked beyond her, and it was those shoes.
She was wearing them in the picture, the one from outside of Octavia.
She was the woman.
I took it from Pialto and held it to Ashton. “It’s her.”
I could see her now clearly, coming out of the back of Octavia, out the door that was never used, into the car that had shot at the nightclub’s manager moments earlier and the man ... I looked down at Worthing on the floor.
It was him.
That’s how I knew him.
Nicolai Worthing had been at Octavia with Nea.
Nea was a part of it.
“You let him in.”
She frowned, her eyes flickering to me, but she didn’t say anything. Her chest rose. She took a breath and held it. She was fighting back tears.
I added—the dots had all clicked and were now settling inside of me; I said it as it was making sense to me now—“You knew he was out there. You looked at your phone. You kept watching my gun. You went to the door. You let him in. You ...” She hadn’t been scared.
She was talking about Ashton, but she’d never been scared.
We were all scared.
She should’ve been scared. She hadn’t been.
But she was now, and she drew in another ragged breath.
“She killed Justin.”
Everything stopped, again .
All eyes went to Nurse Sloane, who was looking at Jess, that same haunted look on her face. I didn’t think I’d ever see her without it again. “Nea killed Justin, and I saw it.”
Jess fell back a whole step, her mouth dropping slightly. “What?”
“They called me. I told you.” She looked my way, including Jess.
“They called to say goodbye, but it wasn’t the night before.
It was that night. I heard a security guard in the background, telling them they needed to move out of the parking slot.
I knew where they were, and hurried down there.
I wanted to talk some sense into Kelly. Why was she leaving?
It didn’t make sense. She could’ve stayed.
None of it made sense. Kelly sounded happy, but they were saying goodbye, and she was asking me to look out for you, ’cause you’d need it, you’d need all the help you’d never let anyone give.
That’s what she said as she was laughing, so I knew she was okay, but she was still sad to be leaving you.
I wanted to talk them into not leaving.” She stopped, swallowing before looking away.
“I heard the shot as I was coming around the corner. Nea was standing over Justin’s body.
She had the gun in her hand, but before I could say anything, Kelly attacked her.
She was—she was screaming, and she was out for blood. ”
Tears began to fall from Jess’s face, but she didn’t show anything else. She was locked down.
“She wouldn’t stop, Jess. She was going to kill Nea. I knew it, and I—” She stopped, her whole face twisting up. Tormented.
“You what?” Jess asked, her teeth gritted.
“Kelly got the gun out of Nea’s hand, and it fell to the ground.
It stopped a few feet from me. They didn’t notice.
Nea was yelling for her to stop, and I—Nea wouldn’t do something unless her life was in danger.
But Kelly wouldn’t stop. She wouldn’t—she kept slamming Nea’s head into the pavement and”—she took a shuddering breath—“I picked up the gun.”
Jess’s face was pure white but so hard. Her eyes were inflamed.
“She’s lying.” Nea coughed, her eyes troubled.
Wild. “She’s the one who killed Justin. I came out, and I was the one who heard the shot.
Kelly turned on her. Sloane was the one who said we could make it look like a Mafia hit.
She said it happened all the time, that no one would even think twice since they were already leaving. ”
Sloane was staring at her, dumbfounded “You ... you’re the one who—you killed Justin! I saw it with my own eyes.”
Nea barely reacted. “Security cameras were already down that night. How are you going to prove that? Besides, I only went out there because Nico called. He said Justin knew about—”
Bang!
Her head went backward; half of it was missing, and her body slumped to the ground. Nurse Sloane let out a muffled scream.
Nea was gone.
Turning, looking, Nicolai had shot her. He was sitting up, a second gun in his hand. He started to point it at me next, until a guttural growl left Ashton as he started forward, his own gun already aiming at Nicolai.
He shot him.
I barely reacted to the sound this time. My eardrums were continuously ringing.
His own head went backward, too, his body falling the rest of the way back down.
Bang, bang, bang!
Ashton kept moving forward. He kept shooting Nicolai. His jaw was clenching hard. His shoulders rigid. His back as straight as could be, and he kept shooting. He emptied his entire clip into Nicolai Worthing’s body.
No one said a word until his clip ran out.
Even then, he kept trying to shoot him.
“Ashton.” Trace stepped for him, but Ashton whirled, only seeing me.
He took two steps, coming back to me, and he pulled me to him. His arms went around me, and he held me, half lifting me off my feet, his head burrowing into my neck. His one hand went up, smoothing down my hair, and he said into my neck, “Never again.”
I clasped onto him as hard as he was holding me.
Nothing else mattered in that moment.