Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“I’m not the one who told you I was dead! I was captured.”
“So you say.”
“Yeah.” I whirl around. “So I say. You’re the traitor.”
“You said that too.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “You didn’t even come look for me.”
Amon spits on the ground, an indirect insult to me. “Why the hell would we look for you?”
“Why? Because I was on the team, Amon! I went missing!”
“You didn’t go missing,” Collin growls. “You went dead.”
I sneer at him. “Everyone thinks you’re so fucking smart. But you’re nothing but a dog on a leash. I told you my defection coordinator’s name was Clayton Boseman. But that was a lie. His name wasn’t Clayton, it was Charlie. Charlie Beaufort. He was kissing your ass all those years. Building you up so you’d kill for him.” I look at Amon now. “And you too. Though Charlie liked you about as much as he liked me.” I don’t wait for Amon’s response. Just direct my attention back to Collin. “Lift up my shirt sleeve.” I nod to my right shoulder.
Collin makes a face. “What?”
“Lift it up, motherfucker! Lift it up!”
He won’t though. Because he knows what he’s gonna find.
I lean my head down, grab my shirt sleeve with my teeth, and pull it up. “Look,” I growl. “Look at it!”
Amon lets out a sigh.
Collin just glares at me. He doesn’t look at my shoulder. He doesn’t need to. We’ve all got the same tattoo.
“Silence,” I spit. “Silence, remember that? The oath? I took it. I got the tattoo. I was on the team, you piece-of-shit, megalomaniac fucking killer! Look at it!”
Finally, his eyes fall down to my shoulder to the tattoo.
It’s a bald eagle with wings stretched out and a shield covering its chest. Inside the shield is the word ‘silence.’
“That was us,” I say. “We were the silence. I was one of you. I didn’t do shit but follow your goddamned orders! I saved your ass twice. Twice! And I lived to tell about it. Which is more than I can say for Rick and Naveed!”
I’m looking at Amon when these two names come out. I know for a fact they’re just the beginning of those who died for Collin. Because the only ones left from our team are Nash and Ryan. So Amon lets out a breath here that is part heartbreak and part regret.
“We existed,” I say, growling my words out in Collin’s face, “to get you out alive. And we did. I did. Twice. I got inked up just like everyone else. I paid my dues. And some motherfucker—some fat, fucking D.C. bureaucrat motherfucker—comes along and just… tells you I’m dead and you… what? You believe him?”
“All right,” Amon says. “All right. Just… shut up for a minute while I think.”
“Amon,” Collin cautions him. “Where did we find him? Huh? Where? Down there.” He points to the ground. “You saw the footage. You know what he did to Clover!” Collin pulls out a gun, then looks me straight in the eyes. “Fuck that boneyard. I’ll end you right here.”
Amon puts a hand between us. “Collin—”
And that one word is my one way out. I bend over and ram Collin right in the chest with my head. The gun goes off. The boom from the discharge echoes into the night. And even though it’s not even dawn yet, birds take flight and fill the inky sky in a thunder of wingbeats.
CHAPTER 31 - CLOVER
Ike’s horse rears up when the gun goes off. Partly because it’s a gun goin’ off, but also because I scream, “Riggs!”
In the same moment there’s a swarm of birds up in the trees and they’re not far. Maybe a mile away. I kick the horse and he takes off again, heading in that direction.
“He’s not dead,” I say. “He’s not dead, he’s not dead.”
I’m gonna make it.
But then there’s another shot and some yelling.
“Riggs!” I scream again. But the wind from the galloping horse makes me swallow those words and there isn’t a chance in hell anyone heard them.
Another gunshot, and I lose all hope.
He’s dead. It’s over. I’m too late.
But it’s like Ike’s horse feels my desperation and he kicks it up a notch, tearing down the trail in the direction of the ruckus so fast, I have to drop the phone and hold on to his mane for dear life. If I fell off now, I’d probably die. And then everything would be lost.
So I hold on and then there’s a clearing up ahead and people fighting.
“Collin Creed!” I scream. And this time, my voice makes it past the wind trying to steal it away. “Collin Creed, you stop right now!”
And then I see them fighting in the tall grass. But Amon turns in my direction and he tackles Collin to the ground.
For a moment, they both disappear in the tall meadow grass and there’s no one else there.