53. Christian
CHRISTIAN
T he moment he tosses the match, I’m on him, tackling him to the ground.
Mila screams as the entire room erupts in flames, and I grunt with a blow of Sebastian’s fist to the side of my head.
Rearing back, I punch him, hitting him so hard, blood seeps from his nose.
“You going to kill me, Christian?” Sebastian grins through red-tinged teeth. He scrambles to his feet, but I’m stronger, grabbing him around the throat and hauling him to his feet.
He took my mother. He tried to take my wife.
“Christian!” Mila shouts from somewhere behind me, and I falter only long enough for him to bash his forehead into mine. I stumble from the impact, shaking my head and dropping him from my hands.
He falls to the floor in a heap, and I grab him by the ankles, dragging him towards me and shoving him to his back.
End this.
Pressing him down into the ground with all my weight, I wrap my hands around his throat, cutting off whatever bullshit was about to come out of his mouth.
When I thought about all the ways I would kill him, I wanted it to be slow. Excruciatingly painful.
Now, I just want him dead.
I don’t give a fuck how we get there.
I watch the light drain from his eyes, his lashes fluttering over the tears that seep through his vision.
The house around us is burning, but this problem can’t wait.
It’s either now or a lifetime of the same cat-and-mouse game.
I growl through my teeth, snarling with the burn in my veins while my brother chokes underneath me. My twin. The same person I shared a womb with.
All our earlier years flash through my mind, but instead of happy memories, I now see them for what they were. He was always different. A little fucked in the head. I just wish I’d seen it sooner.
“CHRISTIAN!”
That’s all it takes. One single second and, a gunshot rings out over the roar of the fire surrounding us.
Instant pain blurs my eyes, and Sebastian manages to thrust my hands away from him, sucking in oxygen. He attempts to scramble out from under me, but we’ve come too fucking far to lose him again.
Ignoring the blistering pain in my chest, I grab his ankles when he stands, sending him flying to the ground. Both of us are wounded, but the one thing he doesn’t have is the sheer fucking will to keep going.
He thrashes in my hold when I wrap my arm around his neck, securing the handcuff to his wrist and then the radiator attached to the concrete beneath him.
“You fucking—” he sputters, shock in his eyes while he fights with its hold. Sweat drips down my face and back, and my vision grows spotty, but I’ve got to get to Mila. She’s tied up. I have to get her out.
Dragging myself to my feet, I immediately fall back to the ground.
“Fuck,” I curse, blinking as the room sways around me. “Mila?” I call but can’t see her through the smoke and flames reaching up the walls.
Sebastian lets out a maniacal laugh across the room from me, his eyes glinting in the wickedness of the inferno.
“Looks like it’s just you and me, brother.”
Just let her get out . . .
I press a hand to my chest where I’ve been hit, gritting my teeth at the pain. I attempt to stand again, but I’m fucking weak.
“Christian!”
Surely, I fucking imagined that.
“Mila, go!”
The fire roars, bright and blinding, but through the haze, I see her at the same time she sees me. She rushes for me, falling to her knees beside me.
“Mila, get the fuck out of here,” I grit when she reaches for me.
“NO,” she growls, trying to slip her arms around me. “I’m not leaving you here.”
“ Mila —”
“Shut the fuck up and help me.”
Gritting my teeth through the pain, I raise on shaking legs, letting her help to steady me. Up in the smoke, it’s hard to breathe, and we both cough, trying to suck air into our lungs, but none comes.
Sebastian looks shocked, looking back and forth between us before he starts screeching.
“Talia!” he screams, but she doesn’t come.
Looks like her inherent selfishness won out, after all.
“Looks like it’s just you . . . brother.”
Sirens sound outside, but there’s no way in hell they’ll be able to get him out of here now.
“Mila,” Sebastian tries, tears slipping down his cheeks.
She takes one look at him and starts forward.
“Mila, please?”
“Go to hell.”
Sebastian’s screams of pain tear through the night sky as sirens draw near.
Mila and I stumble out onto the clearing, sucking in air through the smoke in our lungs.
My chest heaves with the force of each breath and is rippling with pain, but I ignore it when we both fall to the ground, panting.
Immediately, Mila throws herself into my arms with a soft cry, and for the first time since I made her my wife, I realize I fucking did something right.
“You came,” she whimpers, burying her head in the side of my neck while I hold her.
Fuck, I never thought I’d get to hold her again.
“Where’s Bella? Is she okay?” She pulls back to look at me through the tears in her eyes.
“She’s okay. Levi’s got her.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she rushes, and I take her face in my hands despite the agony radiating through me. “I couldn’t. He was going to hurt her.”
“Mila,” I try to focus on her gaze, but the world is spinning around me. A dozen blue and red sirens race up the path, but their lights go in and out. Like a poorly-timed dimmer switch. “I love you.”
Her eyes widen, filling with tears, and she closes the distance between us, pressing her lips to mine.
“I love you,” she whispers against my mouth, and I groan in satisfaction, holding her tighter.
The pain in my chest takes on a sharp edge as the adrenaline wears off, and I pause, feeling a sickening sensation rise in my gut.
Fucking hell. Not again.
Mila’s eyes widen when she pulls back, looking down at the front of my shirt.
“Christian . . .”
“It’s okay, little devil.”
Fuck, if I die, at least I can die knowing she’s safe. My brother will take care of her. Paulina. Her family.
“You’ve been shot,” she whispers, her fingers roaming aimlessly over me, shaking with fear. “Help!”
My head spins, and she slides from my grasp, no matter if I try to hold onto her.
Fuck . . . I just want to hold her.
“He’s been shot,” I hear her whimper when I lay back on the ground, looking up at the cloudy sky overhead. I’ve been expecting it to rain all fucking day, but none has come.
Levi looms over me, then Bella, their faces grim.
“Fuck, Mila. Press this on his chest. The ambulance is almost here.”
“Hey,” I reach for her when she presses Levi’s shirt to my chest. “It’s okay.”
“Stop saying that,” she growls, placing pressure on the wound.
Ironically, it’s on the other side of my chest this time.
“Mila . . . look at me.” The light from the fire is fading, but I can still see the panic in her gaze. My wife. My fucking everything. “I love you.”
“Stop it, Christian Cross. You aren’t allowed to die. You’re unkillable,” she growls, tears mixing with the blood on her face.
I open my mouth to tell her I’m not and that this bullet hurts a whole lot fucking more than the last one, but I can’t speak.
Come to think of it, I can’t even feel it. All I can do is watch her as the moon darkens above me, my last vision of her with tears in her eyes, screaming at me to stay awake when all I can do is close my eyes and fade out.