Quite the opposite. She has her gun raised, and she’s aiming it directly at Mac.
Fuck!
Without thinking, I drop to the ground and sweep my leg out, knocking Mac clean off his feet as three gunshots ring out in rapid succession. The first one Mac fired into the air just before he hit the dirt. The second one shattered the passenger window of the SWAT vehicle he was standing in front of, splintering the glass—where his head would have been—like a spiderweb. And the third one came from somewhere to the left of me.
I turn in that direction and find Hoyt standing beside his cruiser, holding a smoking gun over the roof of his car. His face is slack-jawed and wide-eyed, just like the girl in the tree fifty feet behind him. Rain lowers her gun in stunned shock and raises one shaking finger to point at something on the other side of me.
Before I can even turn in that direction, I feel a rush of putrid air ruffle my hair as something hits the ground beside me like a three-hundred-pound sack of rotten potatoes. I swing my head around to find Governor Fuckface lying on the ground, bleeding out from the neck as he coughs and gurgles. His mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water as he holds one of his three chins with one hand and reaches out to me with the other.
“Ew!” Officer Elliott squeals as he walks over and lifts one perfectly polished hard-sole shoe, firmly placing it over the governor’s ribs. “Hoyt, did you have to shoot him in the neck? That’s so nasty!” With a disgusted grimace and a shove, Elliott rolls Beauregard Steele’s gasping body into the hole that was dug for me.
Or was it?
I did notice that it was a little bit wider than usual.
Another man in all-black civilian clothes, like a bodyguard, steps out of the tank and tells the riot cops to stand down. As soon as they holster their weapons, the crowd erupts in cheers. I walk on my knees over to Mac. I can’t help him up because my hands are still fucking cuffed behind my back, but he groans and sits up on his own, pulling his mask off in the process.
“You okay, old man?”
He nods and glares at Hoyt, who’s now getting a shoulder massage from Elliott.
“You’re jealous that he got the kill and not you, aren’t you?” I tease.
Mac’s jaw grinds, and his eyes narrow as they cut back to me. “Who knew those two clowns would have their own fucking plan?”
I chuckle. “Evidently, my girl had one, too. She damn near blew your head off, man.”
“You mean, that girl?”
I follow Mac’s smirk over my shoulder and find the riot cops helping Rain climb onto the hood of Hoyt’s cruiser. She’s wearing that fucking red lipstick again, and she has a red skirt or dress or some shit on under her spray-painted, blood-splattered hoodie.
I pull my lip between my teeth and stare as she hops down, the wind ruffling her hair and blowing her skirt up before she lands with a graceful thud just a few feet away from me.
She’s here.
She’s right fucking here.
I barely register the click of my handcuffs before I’m on my knees with my face buried in my girl’s belly and my arms wrapped around her thighs.
“Don’t look at me like that, little missy,” Mac’s deep voice grumbles behind me. “I wasn’t gonna kill him.”
I laugh. I fucking laugh until I damn near cry as Rain’s fingers comb through my hair and her body sinks into my lap and her swollen, red eyes stare through mine.
“Did you get tear-gassed?” I ask, swiping my thumbs over her wet cheeks.
“No, I’m just really happy,” she sobs, her red lips splitting into a smile that I’ve wanted to put on her face since the moment I fucking met her.
I let myself watch her smile for a whole second, maybe two, just long enough for me to take a picture of it with my mind. Then, I kiss that fucking grin right off her face.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, a voice tells me that I need to be careful. Stay vigilant. That my story doesn’t end like this. That I don’t get to be happy. That my world doesn’t work that way.
But I tell that voice to shut the fuck up.
It’s a new world now.
And in this world, we can be whatever the fuck we want to be.
Even happy.
Epilogue
One Year Later
Rain
I