Page 21

For two weeks, they’d been calling me nonstop.

Sebastian. Priest. Lilith.

I’d been getting voicemails, texts, calls from blocked numbers. I ignored them all. Changed my number twice—and they still managed to get it.

They were driving me out of my fucking mind.

I wasn’t at my place anymore. Everything Priest had given me was back at the condo. Even the 2024 BMW.

I’d been staying with my friend Tasha—sleeping on her pull-out couch, keeping my head down. I didn’t go out. I didn’t answer the door.

There was no way Lilith was going to force me to deal with her brother. I’d rather do anything else.

Fuck the whole lot of them.

My sister would be out of rehab in two weeks .

I had nearly sixty thousand dollars that Priest had transferred to my account.

And I was seriously considering leaving the state. Taking my sister and disappearing into New York.

It was Friday. I took the bus to the grocery store. Tasha was at work.

By the time I got back to her place, the hallway light outside the apartment was out. I didn’t think anything of it.

I should have.

I unlocked the door.

I didn’t even get a chance to drop the bags—

Before someone grabbed my arm and shoved me inside, slamming the door behind us.

The takeout hit the floor.

I stumbled backward, hands out.

“Sebastian, what the hell—”

“You disappeared,” he snapped, eyes wild, sweat beading on his forehead. “I called you. I fucking called you.”

“Get out. Right now.”

How the hell had he found out where I was?

His hand flew through the air—fast.

The side of my face exploded in heat .

I froze, shocked. “You fucking slapped me,” I said, more to myself than to him.

Before I could get my bearings, his other hand was around my throat.

“I loved you,” he hissed, dragging me backward toward the wall.

He was really choking me—not like Priest did, where I never actually feared for my life.

I could barely breathe. I forced breaths through my nose. My heart felt like it was hiccupping.

I didn’t want to die.

“I fucking loved you, and you threw me away for him? I didn’t even mean what you heard.

I was just trying to keep him away from you.

I saw how he looked at you the moment we entered the house that night.

I had to say those things so he wouldn’t know how important you were to me. He had already taken my sister.”

He shook me.

“And you fell for him.”

Spittle flew from his mouth as he screamed.

The urge to wipe it from my face was as strong as the urge to run.

I scratched at his arms, kicked at his shins, tried to scream—but it came out choked .

I twisted free somehow and bolted down the hallway, slamming the bathroom door shut just in time.

Pure adrenaline kept me upright.

I locked it with shaking hands and backed up.

He was beating on the door, fists thudding like war drums.

“You think he’s gonna save you?” he screamed. “He used you! He’ll never leave my sister!”

I scrambled, pulling my phone from my pocket and dialing the one number I swore I wouldn’t ever again.

Priest answered on the first ring.

“Miyori ?”

“He’s here,” I whispered. “Sebastian. He hit me. He’s trying to fucking kill me. He’s outside the door—he’s not leaving—please—”

I didn’t even finish the sentence.

“Leave this phone on, I’m tracking you. I’m coming,” Priest said. His voice was dead calm. “Ten minutes. Don’t open that door.”

The line went dead.

I curled up on the tile floor. The taste of blood mixed with the smell of Sebastian’s cologne turned my stomach sour. My cheek was throbbing, heart pounding like it wanted out of my chest .

Sebastian was still screaming.

Calling me names.

Yelling about Priest.

Shouting that he was the one who deserved me.

“You think he’s special?” he roared.

“He took you because I wanted you! I wasn’t even going to kill you like the rest. I was going to keep you.”

I didn’t move.

What the fuck did he mean he wasn’t going to kill me like the rest?

The blood in my veins turned cold.

“You think he’s your savior?” he barked. “He doesn’t deserve you. I do! I’ve always been the one—I saw you first!”

But the truth was, he hadn’t.

I wanted to scream it back at him. Tell him I met Priest first—as if that would matter.

But my throat was too tight. My voice wouldn’t come.

“My sister said I could have you,” he growled. “She gives me anything I want. Now come the fuck out here!”

He banged harder .

Ten minutes passed—ten agonizing minutes of him screaming, slamming fists, rattling the knob.

Then suddenly—

Silence.

And then—

Boom.

The front door slammed open.

There was a struggle.

A crash.

Furniture breaking.

Then—

There was a muffled pew. pew.

Gunfire.

I gasped.

Then I heard Priest.

“Miyori ,” his voice called. “Come out. It’s safe now.”

I flew from the bathroom, straight into his arms.

Sebastian lay dead in the center of the floor, two bullet holes in his head. The smell of gunpowder lingered.

Priest covered my eyes.

“Don’t look,” he said gently.

Then scooped me into his arms like I weighed nothing.

We were leaving just as Tasha pulled into the driveway.

Priest didn’t slow.

Didn’t explain.

He barked at her, “Don’t come inside. Don’t come back until Miyori calls you.”

She froze, eyes wide.

He shoved me into his SUV, got in the driver’s side, and pulled out his phone.

“Clean it up at the address I sent you,” he said to whoever answered. “Everything. Now.”

I was gasping, heart galloping out of rhythm.

My vision tunneled.

The world tilted violently, Priest’s face swimming in and out of focus as darkness crept in from the edges like spilled ink.

Then darkness swallowed me whole.