The Rebel of Raleigh High (Raleigh Rebels #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,126

a step back for a second. We’re traveling at a hundred and eighty miles an hour right now. No one’s thinking clearly.”

“I am. I stood up for the first time in my life and said enough. Enough is enough. This is the clearest I’ve been able to think in a long, long time. I have no issues with you, Moretti. You’ve only been stuck at Raleigh a month. You seem like a decent guy. You should just leave now. Get the hell out of here. Be the last man standing.”

“Fuck, I’d love to do that, I really would. But there’s a girl inside this building who I love more than life itself, and I can’t just let you hurt her. And all of these other kids? They might be assholes, and they might treat other people like shit, but they have people waiting outside who love them. Would I be a decent guy if I turned my back on this and let it happen? How many hearts have to break? How many people have to—”

I’ve been so focused on trying to get through to him that I haven’t noticed Kacey. She’s not sitting on the floor in a puddle of her own piss anymore. She’s on her feet, and suddenly she’s rushing at Leon, screaming…

Leon spins, firing the rifle into the stack of books as he turns, spraying a hail of bullets in his wake.

Fuuuuck!

I charge him, grabbing for the rifle. The metal is warm and deadly in my hand, unrelenting. Leon has a firm grip on it, though, the weapon braced into his shoulder, locked against his body. I drop the empty gun, freeing up my other hand, and I drive a right hook into his ribs, trying to wind him. I wind him, all right, but Leon’s a stubborn bastard. He doesn’t let go. Staggering backward, he slams himself into the book stacks behind him, and Kacey screams out in pain. She falls to the floor, whimpering, scrambling away as I kick out at Leon’s legs, trying to take him out at the knees.

For someone so resigned to die, Leon sure puts up one hell of a fight. He’s desperate as he twists his body, struggling to aim the rifle at Kacey.

“Just her,” he grinds out between his teeth. “She’s the only one that really matters.”

“LEON, STOP!”

Everything happens in a blur.

The deafening bang.

The blow to my ribs.

Leon slumping to the ground.

The cold, wet chill that spreads outward across my chest.

I stagger back, stunned at the sight of Leon sprawled, glass-eyed, on the floor.

“What the…fuck?”

I look at Kacey, and her mouth is open, tears streaming down her face. She’s holding the gun I dropped in her hands. “God, I’m sorry, I…I don’t know what happened. I shot him. I shot him!”

I hold my hand to my chest, and…it comes away red.

The pain kicks in, just as I look down and see the small, smoking hole in my sternum.

Turns out I was wrong.

The gun Leon dropped outside the library wasn’t empty after all.

I just forgot to check the chamber…

35

SILVER

I’ve been climbing the walls, straining to listen, to hear anything for minutes now. Long minutes that have surrendered nothing but silence. At some point, not long after I let Jake into the booth and I watched him whimpering on the floor, I realized that I couldn’t let my fear control me anymore. Alex didn’t fucking blink before he went back down there, determined to help. What good am I here, locked away in a glorified closet, when he’s out there, risking himself for us?

“Fuck this. I’m not waiting here another second. It’s been quiet for too long. Something must have happened.” I head for the door, but Jake jumps to his feet, barring the exit. “You’re not going anywhere. We have to stay here and wait for the cops,” he growls.

I realize something else, as I look up at him, into a face that has scared the shit out of me for so long now. I know that I'm not scared of him anymore. “Don't worry, Jake. No one's expecting you to go out there and act. If anyone asks, I’ll be sure to tell them how bravely you handled all of this. Now get out of my way.”

“Sit down, Silver.”

I won’t sit down. I won’t listen to him anymore. No way in hell am I going to let his cowardice prevent me from trying to help in any way that I can. I stand my ground, folding my arms across