pull any air in because of the pressure of Darius’s weight pressing me into the ground. He smacks the back of my head with the barrel of his gun, and I’m so dizzy that I vomit into my mouth and into the dirt, sucking it into my nose. I choke and cough.
Darius again presses the gun to my head. “I should have done this a long fucking time ago,” he whispers in my ear.
“Get the fuck off of her!” Percy screams.
“You. You were in on this?” Darius grates. He turns to the crowd who is standing around us in shock as they witness the fall of their leader. “You think this is true? These are lies. Lies so that my son can take power before he’s ready.”
Percy scoffs. “I don’t want the fucking throne. I want out. Away from all of this, and away from you.” He’s goading him, and I know why. He’s trying to draw Darius’s attention away from me.
He glares at Percy. “No. You’re just weak. She’s made you weak!” He emphasizes the comment with a press of the gun to my head. His other hand is pressing my cheek into the dirt. “And now, I’m going to remove that weakness from your life. For good.”
On instinct, I blink away the blur and look for Pike. If I’m going to die, I want to see him one last time. Suddenly, he stands up. I blink again because what I’m seeing can’t be real. But it is. He’s standing, and his arms are free because…they were never bound to begin with. The guards remove their masks, revealing their faces. They aren’t guards, at all. They aren’t even members of the Reich.
I know this for certain because I know those faces, and they belong to none other than Nine, King, and Preppy.
Pike rushes Darius, who doesn’t see him coming. I suck in a long breath of air the second Pike tackles him, tossing him from my back. Darius lands on his back but Pike grabs a hold of Darius’s shirt and flips him over, pressing his fist against Darius’s chest. Pike removes his own gun from the waistband of his pants and shoves the barrel into Darius’s mouth. I roll over, coughing up mud and my own vomit. My vision begins to clear with every breath I take. I push up to my knees and watch Darius’s eyes grow wide with fear and disbelief.
His lips move, and his words are mumbled as he tries to speak around the gun in his mouth.
“You’ve said enough in this lifetime. Now, all that’s left to figure out is who is going to send you out of it,” Pike seethes, his chest rising and falling with his restrained anger.
Pike looks over to me. “He’s yours, Mic. If you want him,” he offers. “I’m not giving you this. This is yours to take. Your choice. Does he die by my hand or yours? Either way?” Pike glares at Darius. “He’s going to fucking die.”
Darius screams and tries to kick his feet.
Nine, King, and Preppy step out in front of Pike, holding their guns on the crowd in case any of them decide to leap to Darius’s defense. None of them do.
“Do it!” Someone shouts from the back of the crowd.
“Fuck, I’ll do it!”
I look over my shoulder to find the owner of the last voice. Surprisingly, it’s Hoppy. He shrugs. “What? I’m pretty sure he had my brother killed. Plus, he wouldn’t give me his Netflix password.”
I glance back at Pike who's still waiting for an answer.
The sentiment is almost sweet, considering he’s asking if I want to kill a man or let him. As much as I’ve yearned for this moment, imagined it a million times over, I never imagined I’d also be with the man I love. Things have changed. I’ve changed, and so has my purpose. I don’t want to hate those who hate.
I want to heal.
Everyone except Darius, that is.
I shake my head. “No, you were right. I can’t come back from that.”
Pike blows out a breath, looking relieved. “Good. Because I’ve already been there, so his death is nothing but a notch on my belt and a reason to fucking smile at night.” He fingers the trigger.
“No, wait,” Percy shouts.
Pike looks up. His nostrils flare. “We had a fucking deal.”
“I know, and I get it. I’m just asking you to wait before this gets worse.”
Preppy blurts out a burst of laughter. “It ain’t going to get much worse for