Page 73 of Restitution

Jason was getting clean. He was going to therapy, he’d started back at the gym and had a goal to be better. Not just for the woman he loved but for himself.

He was supposed to live. To get his life back. To help Kade gethislife back and fix his relationship with his brother. He isn’t supposed to be gone. He wasn’t supposed to jump in front of a bullet for me.

But he did. And now he’s dead.

A bullet that was meant for me has penetrated Jason’s skull, and he’s dead. He’s had his final blink. His last moment. His milestones and achievements abruptly halted.

Muffled voices echo around me, and there’s a piercing ringing in my ears so powerful my vision blurs. I don’t blink. I don’t even breathe, though my lungs plead with me for air.

I’ve seen death. I’ve killed before and watched Kade murder, but nothing could have prepared me for this. My body is shaking as my eyelids manage a single, hard blink that restarts the chaos all around me.

There’s so much blood.

My hands, clothes, face, the floor – all stained with Jason’s blood while he lies limp in Aria’s arms. I stare at his lifeless body in complete shock, unable to look away.

I don’t even realise there’s a war going on around us until bodies start to drop, windows smashing from a spray of bullets, pelting us with fragments of shattered glass.

Does Tobias know Bernadette lied? That she killed Jason despite agreeing to leave his family alone? Is he outside fighting like the rest of them?

Someone stands close to me. Black, shiny shoes with suit trousers. His fingers clutch a radio as he pulls another magazine from his stash and reloads his gun.

It’s Barry. He cocks the weapon and calls for backup, ordering them to stop the cars from leaving.

“The Russians are here,” I hear over the radio, and Barry gives us one last look before taking three quick breaths and running into the war zone outside.

He has a wife and baby waiting for him in his safe house, and he’s running outside where bullets fly like birds and take even more lives.

I pray he survives.

A radio nearby beeps, and a voice confirms that they successfully stopped one of the cars, but not the one with Bernadette and Tobias inside. They’d ploughed over one of the new guards and vanished.

Aria sobs in front of me. I sit back on my heels and watch her beg Jason to wake up, her words shattering. She’s grabbing his face and yelling his name, screaming for her husband, anyone.

And then the radio beeps again, and a voice says, “We’ve got Archie Sawyer.”

I should be pleased, but I can’t do anything but search for ways to comfort Aria.

Barry’s voice comes over the radio. “Restrain him and knock him out. Kill the rest.”

The radio goes silent, and more shots are fired in the distance. The fight is outside now, and the lodge is filled with whimpers. Our men confirm that they’ve killed the driver and two are on foot, running through the forest. Heavily armed but thankfully wounded.

But Bernadette is gone. Which means Tobias is gone.

And Jason is… gone.

He sacrificed himself for me. I should be dead. I should be the one lying on the ground. But the angle that he ran in front of me means his head was low enough to take the fatal bullet instead of his body.

I clamp my teeth together and try to breathe through my nose as my eyes burn and my nostrils flare, my ribs tightening with every agonising second that passes.

Aria brushes her fingers through Jason’s blood-soaked hair and shouts on Ewan again. He’s upstairs with Kade. He’ll want to come, but there’s no one else left to keep Kade safe.

I lean forward and rest my hand on top of Aria’s as she strokes her thumb over the top of Jason’s fingers. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

Killing yourself isn’t going to make it all go away. If you jump, then it might be done for you, but everyone who cares for you will suffer. Do you know why? Because you are loved, Stacey.

Look at me. Please, Stacey. I lost everything, too.

I lost my fiancée, who’s probably already pregnant. I lost my brother. And I’ve most likely lost the rest of my family. If you jump, then you’re leaving me to do this on my own.