Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 71212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71212 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“Me,” Steven said. “I snuck into your house easy after I made a copy of your key, and I streamed that video footage to your TV during book club. I thought you’d need comfort, thought you’d come to me for it. But then you went to Gabriel, and I realized both of you needed to be handled.”
“But you and Mason?” I asked, slowly inching my way closer to the bed. I had to get to Gabe. That’s when a thought struck. A possible miscalculation.
Shit… was Mason a victim in all this? Did I just take a hostage hostage?
“Have an understanding,” Steven said. “Right, Mace?”
“Yes,” he said, his hands coming up to my forearm and yanking down. The force took me by surprise. I wasn’t a fighter; I was a writer. Mason could have sneezed and I likely would have dropped the knife. It fell from my hand and clattered onto the ground and was immediately snatched up by Steven.
A small, distant, far-off part of me felt relieved. No longer did I have to face the prospect of killing a man. Now, all I had to do was face the prospect of the end.
But maybe I could bargain. Maybe I could still get Gabriel out of here.
Mason moved to Steven’s side. An arm looped around Steven’s waist, his fingers gripping the dirty black T-shirt. My eyes widened. They weren’t just sidekicks; they were partners. The bartender had looked so saddened when we had asked him about his murdered boyfriend. “How could you?” I asked, hoping to buy some time. “He killed your boyfriend.”
“Steven was my boyfriend,” Mason said. “We’ve always been together. Ever since we were kids. We met at a neighborhood New Year’s Eve party. Exactly at midnight. We made a promise that we’d meet again at midnight, and guess what happened?”
Steven’s face twisted into a grin. He now had a needle full of life-ending toxins inches away from Gabe’s exposed thigh with the butcher knife in his other hand, aimed out at me. There was a scar on his face I’d never seen before, painted in broad strokes of bleak white light and pitch-dark shadows. “My dad thought he could keep me from him, but that was always impossible.”
“Did you know he was the Midnight Chemist? From the beginning?”
Mason shook his head. “No, I didn’t know. But when he told me, I was okay with it. He gave me his reasoning and—” His voice cracked with emotion, like a loud whip in a silent room.
I cocked my head. Something clicked. “No. You weren’t okay with it. Not anymore. That’s why you gave us Steven’s real name at the bar. Because you wanted us to finally figure it out.”
Mason’s big brown eyes cracked open, like a nuclear explosion had just gone off inside his pupils.
“You did what?” Steven asked, turning on Mason.
“You didn’t use that name. Haven’t used it in years. I got nervous. They had my phone. Who knows what they’d find in there. They were asking too many questions—they already knew I was connected to you somehow. I thought—maybe if they thought I was a victim, too. I didn’t think you used that name anymore.”
Steven appeared dumb-founded. Betrayed. I considered using this moment to launch my lamp at him. Maybe I could knock him out? But if I didn’t, he’d instinctively plunge that syringe directly into Gabe.
Shit. Fuck.
Mason looked like he was on the verge of tears. He started squeezing on the back of his neck. I must have struck some kind of nerve.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Steven shook his head and moved closer to Mason, not noticing that Gabriel looked wide-awake. But that needle. It would be so easy for Steven to get at least half of that dose into him, if not the entire thing. Without an antidote, it would sign Gabe’s death certificate on the spot.
But maybe if I distracted him?
Maybe if he injected me with it instead? Only one of us had to die tonight.
Maybe.
“Mason was the one who turned you in,” I said, pushing into the gaping wound I had uncovered. “He’s the one responsible for what’s about to happen to you.”
I saw a flash of anger twist Steven’s features. The scene appeared as if it were drawn in a comic book, using bold black and white markers to draw out the thick outlines and deep shadows. Gabe twitched. He sat up a little straighter, his eyes dropping to the needle and rising up to the knife, now aimed at Mason’s chest.
He was about to act. Which meant I needed to act first. I had to be a hero.
I lurched forward. Someone shouted. A gunshot rang out like a massive boom, a star falling through the ceiling, the sky collapsing. I yelled, fell to the floor, another gunshot. Someone was on top of me, covering me. A strong, warm human fortress.