Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“What street is this?” West asked through clenched teeth.
Jin searched the area until he spotted a street sign and read it off. West repeated it for Kairo and informed him that he’d been shot.
Yes, Alexei and Gabriel had to be close. They could take West to the hospital. Kairo would organize all of them to save West.
“Is he dead? General Zhan…is he dead?”
“I—”
Another gunshot tore through the night, and West collapsed in Jin’s arms. Screams echoed all around as Jin kneeled beside his lover in the middle of the street, his eyes going to the new gunshot wound in West’s thigh.
Jin pressed both of his hands down on West’s leg, trying to stop the gush of blood, wringing a loud shout of pain from him.
“Go! You need to run!” West cried out.
“No, I’m not leaving you here!” Jin shouted back. With his hands growing slick and sticky with warm blood, his eyes frantically searched the ground for the gun West had been carrying. He’d dropped it when he fell and the damn thing had slid away from them.
“Baobei.” The single word sounded harsh and tight in West’s throat. “My Ah-Wei. Please, run. Please don’t die here.”
“I’m not leaving you,” was all Jin could choke out past the pained lump in his throat. Nothing in this world could make him leave West right now. He loved his people and his family. He didn’t want to die.
But more than that, he didn’t want to live if it meant leaving West behind. He would always fight for the man he loved.
And he’d die with him if that was what fate chose for them.
“You’ve fucked this all up, haven’t you Dianxia?” Zhan Bo Wen roared as he came hobbling up the street. Blood soaked the front of his shirt and coat at his stomach. He kept one blood-covered hand pressed to the wound in his gut. More blood coated his throat; it appeared as if West had winged his neck. But that was all nothing as his eyes locked on the gun pointed at his head.
“I was supposed to kill Deng Rong and then kill you with his gun, making it look like I was trying to be the hero but arrived just a little too late to save you and your lover,” Zhan continued, his words slurred by blood loss and pain. “Fucking useless princes.”
“Killing me won’t change anything,” Jin shouted. The words trembled as he shifted his body to block more of West from Zhan’s view. “Gaoxing won’t fall into Russian hands or any other foreign power’s. Gaoxing is more than one person or even one family. The Jin family has always fought for the people, but even if we fall tonight, that won’t stop our nation. The people will continue to fight on together. Gaoxing will fight on for our independence and our way of life. Killing me changes nothing. All you did was sell your soul for money and betray everything you swore to protect.”
Jin tore his gaze away from the old general to gaze at West’s pale face. His vision blurred as he blinked tears away, only to have them streak down his cheeks. This. If this was going to be his last moment in the world, he wanted to spend it staring into West’s eyes. He wanted this man to be the very last thing he saw.
“I love you,” Jin whispered thickly. “I love you with everything that I am in this life and I swear I’ll love you just as much in the next.”
“Dianxia,” West said, and this time he heard it. That word had always sounded different on West’s tongue. Jin thought it was because he wasn’t a native, but that wasn’t it. When West said it, that single word held all the love, respect, and pure worship he felt in his heart.
Jin tensed, waiting for the bullet that would end his life, but all he heard was the clatter of dozens of footsteps running closer across the concrete. Almost reluctantly, he lifted his gaze away from West to find that a thin wall of people had formed between him and the general.
“You can’t touch Dianxia!”
“We won’t let you hurt him!”
More and more people darted from the sidewalks and buildings, creating a larger and larger wall. Their voices rose louder and louder, defying the general until it became a unified chant.
“We are Gaoxing! We are Gaoxing!”
Jin dipped his head, more tears streaming down his cheeks at the love and support of his people.
A crooked, pained smile spread across West’s lips. “I’m not the only one who loves you.”
Jin’s choked laugh was cut off when two gunshots cut through the chanting. The people screamed and Jin shouted with them. Had that old bastard shot into the crowd of innocent people? He couldn’t move from West’s side, but he needed to see what was happening.