Page 191 of Under Your Scars

I huff to myself. Damn, that’s a mouthful. This time last year, it was just me and Edwin. I never thought I would be able to say this, but I’m so fucking glad I didn’t kill myself the night I met Elena. Sometimes when I think about how close I had been, I get phantom guilt, because I worry about what her life would be like if I died like I intended to.

I wonder if she thinks about that night as much as I do.

As I’m fastening my mask to my face, I see fast movement on one of my monitors. I don’t normally have the internal cameras on in the mansion, mostly because I’ve never had a need to. Perimeter security and external cameras were more than enough.

But since Elena was kidnapped, I can’t be too careful. There aren’t many. Just a handful in the common areas. The foyer, the dining room, the study, the kitchen.

That’s where the movement is coming from. The kitchen. The movement flashes out of frame, so I use the mouse to select the circuit with the kitchen cameras and scroll until I see what’s going on.

“Fuck!”

I race upstairs, full Silencer gear, and sprint to the kitchen. I tackle the motherfucker just as he’s getting to his feet, looking down at Bethany’s still body.

The plummet to the ground is brutal on my torso, and I instantly feel the warm, sticky blood seeping from my gunshot. I reel my fist back and nail this imposter in the face, holding him up by his shirt.

He goes limp, and I crawl to Bethany.

Shit, shit, shit. Please, please, please be alive.

I take off my glove and put two fingers at her neck and wait for a pulse. A pulse that never comes. My first thought isn’t sadness. It isn’t guilt. It isn’t even anger.

It’s fear, because what the hell am I going to tell Elena?

I hear movement behind me and turn just in time to feel a bullet graze my right arm. I fall to my left side and groan.

And then the fucker shoots me again, this time in the leg. And then again in the other leg. And then again and again and again into my chest. Thank fuck for my body armor.

The man twitches unnervingly, like he’s shocked I’m still alive. And then he does what all other people have always failed to do—he points the gun at my head.

I let out a heavy breath. My chest feels like it’s on fire. My vision is going black from the pain. I can hardly breathe.

Is this really how I’m going to die? Killed by my own shadow, in my own home.

Oh, the fucking irony.

Well if this is how I’m dying, I’m not going down without a fight. My fingers twitch towards one of the guns strapped to my legs, but soft, delicate hands beat me to it.

I wish I could say I’m proud of Elena for being so strong, but I’m not, because she’s put herself between me and a loaded gun, and I’m in no position to do anything about it.

“Take it off,” she demands, nearly shouting at the top of her lungs as she points the gun at him. “The mask, take it off!”

“Move,” the man demands, “Let me finish this, Elena.”

There’s sweat dripping down his temples, and blood is seeping out through his shirt and dripping onto the floor. His hands are shaking. I can see it in his posture that he’s not going to shoot Elena.

But she will happily shoot him, and after glancing down at her mother’s body, that’s exactly what she does. She shoots him in the same spot he shot me. He falls flat on his back on the floor, and when he does, the cheap locking mechanism of his mask breaks, and it pops off his face before landing with a plastic clatter on the floor.

Elena gasps and her arm falls to her side. “Dad?”

She collapses to her knees and completely drops the gun, crawling over to Elliot. Her hands shake as she feels over his torso where she shot him.

“Dad…I—wait. Dad, no, I’m so sorry.” Her sharp cries begin to fill the stale air and I manage to sit up, propping my back against the kitchen island.

Elliot reaches up a hand to stroke Elena’s cheek, and I watch as thick tears stream down her face that cover her cheeks in a million different conflicting emotions. Guilt, fear, confusion, anger, disbelief, regret.

He begins to sob, too. “Do you remember the first thing you said to me when I came to the hospital after you were raped?”

Blinking away the tears in her eyes, she shakes her head.