Page 71 of Dissent (The Dissenter Saga #1)

“M ara!”

My name came crashing into my reality, and as I opened my eyes, Wes’s face came into view. I noticed the feel of his hands on my shoulders, shaking me. The pain of his grip on my injured arm shuttered through me, jarring me wide awake as I gasped.

“Shit!” He scooped me up into an embrace, pulling me into him. I realized I was on the ground, lying on my back with Wes crouched over me. But now I was pressed firmly against his chest, more pain ricocheting within me. “I thought I fucking lost you.”

“Ouch!” I pushed back against him as hard as I could, my hands pressing against his shoulders and chest.

He released me, but grimaced as his hand flew up to grip his shoulder. I looked at him, noticing the blood drenching his shirt, but I couldn’t tell if it was his or someone else’s.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” I offered. But it was as far as I got when the world spun on me again. I threw my hands to the ground, regaining some sense of stability.

“It’s okay…I’m fine,” he grumbled as he got up off the floor.

He offered me a hand, which I accepted, and he pulled me to my feet.

As I stood, the world spun again, and I felt as though I was about to fall back over.

His hands were on me though, gentler this time, steadying me.

I looked at him, and his bad temper quickly replaced the fear that was on his face.

“Don’t you ever fucking do that to me again. ”

I felt weak, but the knowledge that we just abandoned Edith and Matias came crashing back on me. My anger flared. “ Me? Do you know what you did ? You left them!”

His face grew stern, his expression blank. “Let’s go. We’ve got to make it to the top of the Center. Giza’s got a chopper coming for Sasha any minute.”

“What?” I looked around and realized that we had made it to the training center, already inside but on the bottom floor. “Sasha’s here ?”

“Move it,” he snapped, brushing past me.

“Hey, wait!” I walked after him, my legs feeling a little like jelly. “What about everyone else?” He kept walking, back stiff. “Wes, listen to me!”

He whirled on me, his hazel eyes ablaze.

“We’re not doing this again, Mara.” He was pissed.

Every word came from deep within him, like a growl on the brink of becoming a roar, as he walked toward me.

“This ends only one way.” Each step he took pushed me a step back until I came up against the wall.

“You will be on the top of this building when that chopper arrives. And that’s going to be any minute.

So walk or be dragged, but stop arguing with me.

” He held my gaze for only a heartbeat before he stepped back and turned on his heels.

My heart thrummed with the power of my survival instincts—my flight-or-flight response threatening to hijack my brain. My thoughts drifted back to Edith, to Matias, and my rage flared all over again, emboldening me.

“You know what, asshole —”

A scream came from further down the hall, followed by a nauseating clack, and then a thump . Wes looked back to me as confusion riddled his face. Someone was clearly in trouble, and I had a sickening feeling about who it was. We both spoke in unison.

“Sasha.”

Wes spun around, rushing down the hall. I followed close behind, adrenaline providing me with the strength I needed to keep moving.

He turned into the room first, but he barely caught a glimpse before my eyes were on the scene, too.

And there, on the floor of the training center command room, was Sasha, blood pooling by a gash on her head.

My hands flew to my mouth as my brows flew to my hairline.

I shifted my gaze up to catch the culprit, and standing before me, holding a piece of concrete rubble in her hand, was Chelsea.

“Holy fuck,” Wes breathed out. “Chelsea, what did you do?”

Her eyes were wide like those of a doe, riddled with fear and tears staining her cheeks.

“I didn’t mean too… It wasn’t me!” She looked at the stone in her hand and yelped as she dropped it to the floor, sobs overtaking her.

“Oh god, I swear! I don’t know what happened.

Something’s wrong with me!” Her face was in her hands, and her whole body was trembling with such force, I thought she was about to come apart. “I’m so sorry!”

I looked at Wes while he looked to the floor at Sasha, and the emotions that flashed across his face were so many and came so fast that I didn’t know what he was thinking. I glanced back at Chelsea when she screamed, gripping her hair and pulling on it, yanking on it with all her might.

“Make it stop! Please make it STOP!” She gripped her ears then, shaking her head back and forth. “The sound! PLEASE! Make it stop!”

I was taken aback, completely freaked out by what I was witnessing. She’d gone nuts. Chelsea was seriously losing her mind. I looked at Wes again. “She’s not okay. Something’s wrong. They did something to her. The REG must have done something to her. She never would have done something like this.”

Wes looked at Chelsea, who had finally stopped screaming and was now hugging herself, rocking herself back and forth. “You’re right.”

“Wes?” I didn’t know what I was asking of him. I didn’t know what I expected him to do, but he looked at me and held my gaze— one second, two seconds—and then he was moving.

He untied his belt and pulled it free from his waist. “Tie Chelsea’s hands behind her back. Until we know what’s going on, they stay tied, you hear me?” I nodded, taking the belt from him and rushing to Chelsea before she went nuts-o on us again. “I’m going to carry Sasha. But we’ve got to hurry.”

Chelsea didn’t even seem to register my presence by her side.

Her gaze was empty, and she seemed lost in thought.

I gently guided her arms behind her back and wrapped the belt around her wrists several times, checking to make sure they were tight enough.

I looked back to Wes as I held on to Chelsea’s bound wrists.

He stood over Sasha, looking back and forth across her body, before kneeling down and hauling her over his shoulder.

A growled out roar emanated from him as he did—a cry of pain mixed with the grunt of strength.

He closed his eyes as he ground his teeth, slowly standing up with Sasha slung over him.

“Oh my god… are you okay?”

“No, I’m not fucking okay ,” he growled. “None of this is fucking okay .”

I snapped my mouth closed. I shoved my annoyance with him down, trying to remember that he was just as battered and bruised as I was, and he just hauled my dead weight up the side of a freaking mountain. Yeah, I guess he’d earned his right to be pissed…but that was going to make two of us.

“Let’s go.” He didn’t wait for a response.

He was out the door, across the hall, and to the stairwell.

I guided Chelsea along behind him. Up we went, past the second floor, the third, until we reached the door that opened to the roof.

Using the shoulder that wasn’t carrying a body, Wes shoved the door open and moved out.

I was quick behind him, urging Chelsea along who seemed to have become nothing but an empty shell.

Pouring out onto the roof, Wes walked to the center and put Sasha down on the floor as gently as he could before he turned around, looking across the sky, searching for the helicopter that was due to arrive any minute.

I guided Chelsea to sit down next to Sasha.

Wes walked off to the far side of the building, still looking desperately.

Then he lifted his hand, typing into his tab, probably trying to get a beat on where the hell the copter was.

I stayed next to Sasha and Chelsea. Sasha wasn’t going anywhere, but I had no clue what was going on with Chelsea.

She was rocking herself again on the floor, muttering incoherently under her breath.

I crouched down next to her. “Shh…it’s okay,” I whispered, tucking a strand of her red curls behind her ear.

“It’s going to be okay. We’re going to figure this out. ”

“I told you it would be too late, Mara.”

The voice that hit me sent a chill down my spine. And as I turned around to face the man behind me, I already knew who I was going to find. “Jacob.”

He was dressed in black tactical gear. REG stitched in white across his chest. His arm was stretched out toward me, holding a handgun. The pained look on his face told me everything I needed to know. “Why did you have to come back here?”

“Mara!” I heard Wes yell behind me, but I didn’t dare turn around.

“Don’t move,” Jacob called out to him. “I don’t want to shoot her, but I will if I have to.”

“If you fucking hurt her—”

“I said don’t move !” Jacob yelled back as he kept his gun firmly aimed at me. He took measured steps to the side as more REG soldiers flooded onto the roof. His aim never wavered. Jacob glanced at his reinforcements. “Apprehend him.”

“No!” I put my hands out toward Jacob.

I looked back at Wes as three members of the REG seized him, pulling his arms behind his back, causing Wes to grimace again in pain.

I noticed that there appeared to be more blood on his clothing than before.

While two soldiers kept a hold of him, the other patted him down, relieving him of any weapons he still carried.

“Please, Jacob,” I turned back to face my brother. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

I could see his eyes glistening now. “Hell, Mara, why did you have to make this hard? I told you! I told you I wouldn’t be able to help you again. What the hell am I supposed to do?”

“You don’t have to do this. You know that.” My brain was searching for a solution, anything! I felt the desperation clawing within me, but I was out of ideas. “Please…I’ll do anything, just don’t harm them.”

Jacob grimaced, and then he looked around, seeing all his men—about ten of them—watching everything. And I knew exactly what he was thinking. He couldn’t just let me go, not with them watching. And even if he agreed to help me, there was no way we could take them out.

We would all die anyway.

His gaze traveled back to me. “Mara, I can’t. We can’t fight this.”

I scrambled, looking around desperately. But I came up short. Where was that freaking helicopter? “Jacob,” I dared to take a step toward him, but he stiffened, cocking back the hammer of the gun. I froze.

I watched as a tear rolled down his cheek. “I love you, Mara. You’re my baby sister. I’ll always love you.”

My own eyes became blurry, but I blinked, trying to clear my vision. I sniffed. “I know. I love you too.”

We held each other’s gaze, telling each other everything we wanted to say and couldn’t.

And then, then the corners of his lips tipped upwards, gracing me with that charming smile I knew so well.

It was then that I knew. I knew Jacob loved me more than his duty to Telvia.

And he would protect me, like he always had, until his last breath.

“This won’t be easy,” he said.

I returned his smile, letting him know I knew exactly what he was trying to tell me. That the bullet in his gun wasn’t meant for me. That, what he was about to do next, was going to be hard, because it was going to be three against ten.

With a soft chuckle, I said, “I didn’t think it would be.” His smile grew then, reaching his eyes. I nodded, letting him know I was ready.

But we never got the chance.

“Mara, get out of the way!”

The voice came from the right side of me. I whipped my head around to see the source, catching sight of Matias pointing a handgun straight at Jacob. “ Move! ”

It took me one second to process what was happening, but it cost me dearly. Matias pulled the trigger on his gun, and then everything moved in slow motion.

I didn’t hesitate.

“Nooo!” The words cascaded off my lips as I threw myself in the way of the speeding projectile. For the third time that night, time stood still.

I was frozen, sensing pressure digging deep into my belly, my hands instantly cradling my stomach.

I looked down at them, pulling them back to see them bathed in crimson.

I tried to breathe, but the tightness in my stomach was too much.

I returned my gaze to my brother and watched as his eyes widened—a look of horror creeping across his face. And then he was running forward.

I inhaled deeply, but I was falling backward, the sky filling my vision once again.

I heard my name called, but I didn’t know who was calling it.

And before anyone could reach me, I felt my eyelids grow heavy as darkness circled my vision, and I disappeared into the black.

And this time, when I closed my eyes into unconsciousness, I didn’t wake up.