Page 148 of Angelic Vengeance

“I made you who you are! You’re nothing without–”

The bullet I put between her eyes shut her up for good.

Sirens echoed down the walls of the Brooklyn Bridge subway station.

I glanced back at Zach laying unmoving on the ground.

I’d abandoned him three years ago in México. Two weeks ago in Queens.

What was once more?

CHAPTER 44

Present

IMMENSE PAIN SHOT THROUGH MY body. I tried to move but my muscles ached and blood roared in my head. Forcing my eyes open, it took several blinks before I was able to see clearly in front of me.

Groaning in suppressed pain, I glanced around what looked like an empty hospital room. There were IV’s injected into me and monitors beeping and shit. I didn’t know how I’d gotten there.

Did the wound from the bullet that grazed me end up getting infected? Checking the screen on the wall, with the date and time, I saw it was only the morning after.

Looking down, I pulled my hospital gown apart to see four gauze pads along with a tube draining blood out of my chest.

What the…

My face fell, remembering everything.

City Hall station. Ruiz. Getting shot.

Alarm bells rang through my head before I remembered seeing Ruiz fall back as I also caught her with two bullets in the stomach.

There was no way Maria couldn’t have handled that.

Maria.

Like a dumbass, I looked around the room again as if I didn’t already know I was alone.Of course,she wasn’t here. She probably already left the country.

Defeat washed over me, making me close my eyes. An ache spread through my chest, muting the pain of my gunshot wounds.

I wondered how she was doing; how she was feeling. We’d just found out Ruiz was her… biological mom. Who’d also lied about it her whole life and tried to kill her. It was to say the least… extremely fucked up. I wished I could console her.

If there was something I was grateful for, it was giving Maria my bulletproof vest. My blood iced just thinking of the wrong ways last night could’ve gone.

I wasn’t ready to go back to life without her just yet. At least, when my eyes were closed,I could see her. Her soft smile, her serene eyes, her chocolate hair…

I kept my eyes closed, in hope I might fall asleep and dream of her.

Moments later, the door to the room opened, but I kept pretending I was still out – ignoring whatever nurse had come in to check my vitals and shit.

But then I heard sniffles, and a familiar scent invaded me.

I froze.Was I still dreaming?

She climbed into the bed, next to me, and snuggled her face into the side of my body. I didn’t dare move, as if she’d disappear if I even breathed the wrong way.

“I hate you.” Her whisper cut into me – the cracks fixing inside me, breaking again – but her soft cries slashed me open. “Ihateyou for taking those bullets for me.”

Opening my eyes, I marveled at the way she clutched onto me, as if I was her only source of life. I watched her push her face into the side of my body – while still avoiding touching my wounds.