Page 159 of Sin Like the Devil

Shuffling away from the armed guards approaching, I’m split between watching them and Noah’s still-lifeless pile on the ground. Sweat drips from Elon’s face as he continues to administer CPR.

Desperately searching around, my gaze lands on the taser that was dropped in the hubbub. Kieran attempts to block my lunge, trying to retake his weapon, but I slide across the lawn to reach it first.

My hand grasps the black and yellow handle. Kieran stands over me, trying to snatch it from my hands. Teeth bared, I slam it into his cargo-clad thigh and deploy a shock.

“Shit!” he squalls.

Seeing him jerk and thrash before hitting the ground only spurs me on. The other guards react in shock, cursing and trying to reach their colleague. I’m about to hit him again when someone hoists me up from behind, prising the taser from my hands.

“Miss Bennet. Causing trouble yet again.”

The warden himself has appeared to grab hold of me, eyeing my dousing of mud with distaste. I struggle, attempting to lash out at him. He swiftly hands me off to his guards.

“Control her!”

I turn feral. Kicking, screaming, throwing out every insult under the sun. Noah still isn’t moving. Elon stops trying to resuscitate him to check his pulse again. Sweat dripping down his temples, he swears quietly and resumes compressions.

Kieran is still flopped across the ground, twitching all over as a fellow guard tries to help him sit up. He’s keeping a keen eye on Noah.

“Elon?” Davis asks.

He pauses briefly to recheck Noah’s pulse. “Nothing, sir.”

“Keep going. We have eyes on us.”

In the distance, I can hear Bancroft’s best imitation of a politician’s voice, trying to distract the journalist and her team. They’re trapped behind a wall of muscle holding them out of sight.

When the medical team arrives, Elon steps aside, Doctor Hall and his team quickly surrounding Noah to intervene. I get one last look before he vanishes behind them.

His mouth is hanging open, but it’s his bloodshot eyes that drag me into a living nightmare. Wide but empty. There’s no brimming sadness anymore.

Lifeless.

Gone.

Joining his men in a huddle, Elon looks contrite as Davis turns his hard stare on them all.

“How on earth did this happen?”

Elon wipes sweat from his brow. “Just… a little hiccup, sir.”

“A hiccup?” I howl like a banshee. “He’s fucking dead!”

“Shut it, Ripley.” Elon flashes me a grimace.

“Or what? Are you going to kill me too?”

“Don’t tempt me!”

Davis casts a disbelieving look around the scene we’ve created. “Clean this shit up. The cameras can’t see.”

His callous tone pushes me to my breaking point. I stomp down on the foot of the guard still holding me then elbow him sharply in the gut. There’s a satisfying grunt before the arms banded around me slacken.

I take advantage of the opening and lunge forward. Davis can’t duck in time to avoid me. I clutch him by his suit jacket, determined to inflict any amount of damage. But he looks more disgruntled by the mud I’m covering him in than anything else.

“He killed Noah!”

“Enough,” Davis replies tersely.

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