Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
I was barely listening to him. I saw nothing but the knife in his whitening grip—its tip coated with my blood.
“I was so close. Now my family is out of the Royal line. Business partners are canceling contracts with the company out of nowhere. Mom’s friends have stopped answering her calls. And my dad... My dad is going to kill me,” he rasped.
“Everything they promised me is gone. I can’t be on top of the Royal line if I’m not fucking in it!” Levi scrabbled at his pocket. Snatching out his phone, he opened an app and shoved it at my face. “That’s why you’re going to take it back.”
I inched to the side, hugging the bark. “What are you talking about?”
His hand flashed. I stilled as the blade kissed my throat.
“Don’t move.”
“Okay, relax,” I screamed, chest heaving. “Fuck you, Thompkins. You call me the psycho.”
He grinned. “I know, right? In another life, we’d be soulmates. But in this one, you’re a piece-of-shit Dreg who doesn’t get to ruin my life and walk off laughing.” He practically slapped me with the phone. “You’re going to take back everything. Ashton didn’t rape anyone and I didn’t help him cover it up. You convinced Sadie to lie about me carving up her skull, and... you murdered Owen.” Levi pressed the knife deeper. “Say it.”
My throat bobbed against the knife’s edge. “You really think this will work? Some recording on your phone? What good will it do you? Saylor isn’t in a position to help anyone at the moment.”
“Saylor isn’t the only Burkhardt, dumbass. When her father hears that you’re a liar and Katie Langford’s pet, he’ll take back what she did. Now, say it.”
Here were more hate-filled eyes I could read clear as day. Levi wasn’t bluffing. He would happily hurt me if I didn’t do what he said. Part of him wanted me to give him a reason.
Taking a deep breath, I let it out slow, and said, “Fuck you, you sadistic piece of shit.”
Levi’s face hardened.
“I spent months planning the perfect revenge against you, then Katie served it up on a silver platter all on her own. She took away the only thing you care about just like you bastards did to me.” I spat in his face. “I’ll die if it means ruining your worthless life. No contest.”
“You’re a stupid fool.” Levi said it like it was a fact of life. “I can kill you, but no one said I’d do it quick. How much pain—?”
I kicked him in the crotch.
“Agh!” Levi doubled over—the knife falling away.
I seized my chance and ran.
“Get back here!” He grabbed me around the waist.
“Help! Someone help! He’s got a knife!”
Levi threw me at the tree. “Take it back! Admit it was all a lie.” He snatched up the phone he dropped. “Do it now or—”
“Nooo!” I ripped the cell and smashed it against the bark. Over, over, and over again, I screeched my rage and pain as it became nothing but glass, plastic, and silicone. “I’ll never do what you want! You’re a murderer and a beast. And you’ll die as what you hate—” My gaze pierced him through. “A Dreg.”
His face went blank—leached of all emotion, even hatred.
I bolted to get past him, and he struck. The knife sailed in a graceful arc, leading straight to me.
My hands flew up. To block. To grab. I didn’t know under the white-hot terror that flooded my senses, blocking out the flashback of my life.
In that final moment, I didn’t get to see my mom’s smile or hear Winter’s snorty laugh. I didn’t bask in the summer we went apple-picking. Or the single sweet moment with Jack when he presented me and Winter with rings the night of his engagement party, saying his ring to Mom made him a husband, but his rings to us made us a family.
I wasn’t gifted any of those treasured moments in the final seconds of the knife’s path. All I saw was the sunlight reflecting off the blade in Levi’s dead eyes.
Fierce, hot pain ripped my stomach. The knife struck, sheathing itself in my skin.
It was okay that Winter didn’t come to me at the end.
Because I was finally going to her.
Chapter Ten
“Argh!”
Levi shoved me back, straining to drive the knife deeper.
Limbs trembling, sweat soaking my back, I gaped at the weapon, and the little metal buckle that stopped it going further.
My ears popped. Sight, sound, smell, and rage all flooded in.
Rearing back, I backhanded him across the face. Levi snapped around and fell, sending the knife flying. I dove for it. A hand closed on my ankle, yanking me off my feet. I dropped flat on my front—rocking pain through my wound.
“Ahh,” I sobbed hoarsely, my mind bleeding white in agony.
Levi scrambled over the dirt and leaves, crawling for the knife inches from my fingertips.